Music is a central part of liturgical worship and congregational life at Chicago Sinai. We are committed to preserving and strengthening the beautiful tradition of Jewish choral music, while at the same time adding new and exciting pieces to our ever-broadening repertoire. At any given service, one may hear the music of 17th-century composer Salomone Rossi, 19th-century composers Salomon Sulzer and Louis Lewandowski, and 20th-century/contemporary composers including Edward Stark, Ernest Bloch, Isadore Freed, Max Helfman, Max Janowski, Bonia Shur, Naomi Shemer, Ben Steinberg, Michael Isaacson, and Andrea Jill Higgins, to name but a few. Members of our professional vocal quartet accompany every worship service, and on important occasions throughout the year, they join forces with the lively and dedicated members of our Volunteer Choir, who enhance our worship experience during the High Holy Days, Chanukah, Purim, and the Annual Spring Choral Program.
Our music is led by Scott Kumer, Director of Music, who joined the Senior Staff of Chicago Sinai Congregation in 1999. Scott received his B.Mus. summa cum laude from Wittenberg University in 1992, and his M.Mus. with highest honors from the University of Michigan in 1994. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he pursued further graduate studies in music history and music theory at the University of Chicago, where he served as accompanist to the Rockefeller Chapel Choir, Motet Choir, and University Chorus. For a number of years he was Assistant Organist at the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Chicago, and has performed with the William Ferris Chorale on several occasions. In 1996, Scott Kumer and Thomas Weisflog began a two-year project of transcribing great orchestral works for organ four-hands-four-feet. The Symphonic Organ, a compact disc featuring their transcriptions of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, J. Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, and Ravel, was released on the London-based Meridian Records label in 1998, and has since enjoyed critical acclaim. Scott has had the privilege of assisting in the project to rebuild the historic 1928 E.M. Skinner Organ (Opus 634) at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, and is a contributing author to A Primer for the Visiting Organist (edited by Fred Moleck, G.I.A. Publications, Inc., 2007).