Biography of Rabbi Cantor Roslyn Barak

 

Roslyn Barak served Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco from 1987-2015, moving to California one year after her graduation and investiture from Hebrew Union College in New York City. Before entering the cantorate, she was a concert recitalist and opera singer, performing in the United States and in Israel, where she lived and concertized for three years.

 

She received her Bachelors Degree at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, and was the recipient of several prestigious vocal awards and honors. Cantor Roslyn Barak has appeared regularly in concerts around the country and in Europe and Israel. She has toured Germany in recent years in conjunction with the release of her CD “The Jewish Soul”. She is also sought after as a lecturer and scholar-in-residence, teaching and coaching master classes at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, the North American Jewish Choral Festival, and Boston Hebrew College. She is a visiting professor and vocal coach at the Abraham Geiger College in Berlin, Germany.

 

Cantor Barak received her M.A. in Clinical Psychology in 1996. She was honored to receive a Doctor of Music, honoris causa, from the Hebrew Union College, in 2011, for her years of service as a full-time cantor. She now enjoys Emerita status as retired clergy of Congregation Emanu-El.  She pursued studies at the Mesivta Adas Wolkowitz rabbinic seminary and received her ordination in June of 2024.

 

She is a former Board member of the American Conference of Cantors, serving as chairperson of its Publications Committee, and she was an ACC representative to the Commission on Synagogue Music of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. She has also served on the Executive Council of the Cantorial Assembly, the professional organization of cantors of the Conservative movement. More recently she served on the board of Shalom Bayit, which aids families dealing with domestic violence issues.

 

Cantor Barak’s latest album release is “My Spirit Sings”, which is available on ITunes, Amazon, CD Baby and Spotify.