AZI SCHWARTZ

Azi Schwartz is the Cantor and Music Director of the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City. He frequently performs in concerts around the world with prestigious orchestras and choirs. In addition, Azi is a faculty member of the Cantorial Department at the Hebrew Union College. Cantor Schwartz has dedicated himself to the preservation, research, creation, development, dissemination, and promotion of Jewish music.

Azi has earned a master's degree in music (M.Mus) from the Mannes School of Music in New York City, where he majored in voice and conducting. He is a graduate of the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute and has also studied classical music at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance. Among his most influential teachers are Cantors Naftali Herstik, Chaim Feifel and Moshe Stern, Composer Raymond Goldstein, Dr. Mordechai Sobol, Maestro Eli Jaffe and such world renowned figures as Professor Carl Schachter, Professor Tzvi Avni and Maestro Mark Shapiro.
Prior to embarking on his professional musical career, Azi graduated from the Har Etzion Hesder Yeshiva and completed his military service as a soloist in the IDF Rabbinical Troupe.

Azi Schwartz served as the Cantor of the Palm Beach Synagogue in Florida, Cantor and Choir Conductor of the Park East Synagogue in New York City, Cantor of Heichal Meir Synagogue in Tel Aviv and Assistant Cantor of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue.
Many congregations worldwide have been inspired by his lyric tenor voice and cantorial prowess. Azi was the first cantor in the history of the State of Israel to perform in a Knesset proceeding, when that legislative body commemorated sixty years since the liberation of Auschwitz.

His conducting and singing repertoire is vast and includes classical music - symphonies, operas, oratorios, art songs, Israeli music, ancient and contemporary Jewish music, Yiddish songs, Ashkenazi cantorial music and original works.

Cantor Schwartz has thus far released three solo albums in addition to participating in several other recordings. His musical arrangements and cantorial transcriptions are performed by many famous cantors, choirs and ensembles.

Azi has been invited to perform with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in its "Yuval" cantorial concert series every year since 2005. In the annual gala concert of the series, that took place on March 24th, 2009, at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Azi premiered his original composition "Tzur Yisrael - Rock Of Istael" for solo, choir and orchestra.