Community

"I lost my whole family," Cantor Vieder says. "I was
the only soul left. I built up a new family. That is my
reward. I thank God for my beautiful family."
The office of the retired cantor appears as busy with
present-day tumult as with remnants of the past. The
photos are reminders that he taught Detroit Cantors
Ralph Goren from Shaarey Zedek, Earl Berris from
B'nai Moshe and Southfield cantor Barry Ulrich.
His walls are covered with diplomas and plaques.
Pictures of family and congregational friends hang near
a framed gift reading, "World's Greatest Cantor" and a
citation marking the establishment•of the Hazzan Larry
Vieder Scholarship Fund by the Cantors Assembly in
1996:blending the most significant areas of his life.
Photos of bar mitzvah students smiling, reading
Torah, posing with their cantor, are not just reminders
from the past. Friday is still Cantor Vieder's day to visit
Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit, where he
teaches the newest candidates.
Delighting in his work with youth, the cantor says
others call him to ask, "'How do you get kids to
learn?'" His secret is, "Be nice. Encourage them to do
as much as they can. You can't force children." He
advises parents, "Leave it up to me. When he goes up
there (on the bima) you'll be proud of him — or her.
Women read Torah here, and they count in the
minyan," he adds.
Marc Kay, associate director, education and youth
for the synagogue says, "Even from the beginning, he
had a strong sense that the future was in the involve-
ment of youth, teaching them to pray and lead services.
It shows in his own children and grandchildren in their

torial Concert" honoring
e Cantor Larry Vieder, will
ewish Chamber Choir of
.ts under the direction of Cantor

.

*.t>i

performance by Cantor Vieder,
the country will perform.
Henrique Ozur Bass of
om, Md.; Cantor Barry
ury Jewish Center, Woodbury N.Y.;
sa Pomerantz-Boro of Tifereth Israel
e, San Diego, Calif.
More participants are Cantor Lori Corrsin of
**pie Israel, West Bloomfield; Cantor Raphael
Frieder of Temple Israel, Great Neck, N.Y.; Cantor
Howard Glantz of Adat Shalom Synagogue,
Farmington Hills; and Y'Shaya. Grama of
Congregation Rodeph Shalom, Bridgeport, Conn.
Also on the program are Cantor Jacob Ben Zion
Mendelson ofTernple Israel Center, White Plains,
N.Y; Cantor Harold Orbach of Temple Israel, West
Bloomfield; Cantor Morton Shames of Temple Beth
El, Spriqfield, Mass.; Cantor Faith Steinsnyder of
Temple Beth El, Spring Valley, N.Y.; and Cantor
SteVen Stoehr of Congregation Beth Shalom,
Northbrook, Ill.
Concert chairmen are Cantors Glantz and
oehr, and Joel Gershenson" and Gerrie Sollish.
Tickets are available at no charge. For informa-
on, call (248) 851-5100.

Spirituality

United Synagogue Youth leadership involvement."
Referring to Cantor Vieder as the respected and
revered grandfather of the synagogue, Kay describes a
recent Passover service. As the congregation read quiet-
ly, he says, "From way, way in the back of the sanctuary
a couple of first or second graders sang the words out
loud." Cantor Vieder, from the bima, "heard them and
joined in, singing with them. He is always responsive
to what kids are doing, making them feel good about
Judaism."
The shomer Shabbat (Shabbat observant) cantor and
his wife now live across the street from the synagogue,
close enough to walk to services. Yet the four-bedroom
house where the couple raised their family can be seen
through his office windows, with a path running from
the synagogue parking lot to the home, where many
Shabbat guests were welcomed through the years.
In retirement since 1993, Cantor Vieder says his .
workweek has been reduced to four or five days instead
of seven. Recalling the previous week, he tells of offici-
ating at an unveiling, a baby naming, a funeral and a
wedding, all on the same Sunday — "This is retire-
ment?" asks the man, who also organized and runs a
minyan of Detroiters who hold Friday-night services
during their winter vacations in Florida.
The cantor soon will begin preparations for High
Holiday services, a duty now shared with Cantor
Glantz.
"He is probably busier and more called upon and
more beloved than a great deal of non-retired, non-
emeritus charznim [cantors]," says Cantor Glantz.
Honored to co-chair the event for Cantor Vieder, he
says, "The fact that it is for Larry makes it a pleasure. I
don't know what I would do without him as a col-
league, or as a friend. He knows the ins and outs of the
cantorate."
From his birth name of Meyer ben Tzion to
Ladislav, a more mainstream name taken in earlier
adulthood, to his very American name today of Larry,
the cantor says his life has been all about faith. "What
would I gain if I did not keep faith?" he asks. "They
closed our schools but I never forgot what I learned."
His rise to success included performing with the
likes of Hugarian Cantors Heller of Siget and Yehoshua
Wieder of Misholz, and watching former students
become Torah readers and rabbis.
Cantor Vieder still says the tribute bestowed upon
him is a surprise. And he steadfastly maintains, "I don't
need an honor."

Cantorial Service

Cantor Vieder is an ex-officio, executive board member
and past vice chairman of the tri-state region of the
Cantors Assembly, past president of the Detroit Cantors
Council and holds an honorary fellow degree of the
Cantor's Institute of the JTS.
Other honors include a Doctor of Music Honoris
Causa and a Citation of Honor from JTS and the \loyal
Award from the Cantors Assembly. Memberships
include the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit, Holocaust Memorial Center in West
Bloomfield, United States Holocaust Memorial Center,
B'nai B'rith Tikva Lodge, Israel Cancer Society, Friends
of Hillel Day School, American Jewish Congress,
National Foundation for Cancer Research and Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. He also was a char-
ter member of the Disabled American Veterans.

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5/19

2000

74

Veteran Talent

Music of Cantor Shalom Kalib will be
heard during cantors' convention.

dat Shalom Synagogue's Cantor Emeritus
Larry Vieder will bring special connections to
A
Detroit's Jewish musical community when he per-

forms at the "Shit Joy" concert, presented in his
honor on Wednesday, May 24.
His song selection, "Birchat Kohanim," is the
composition of Cantor Reuven Boyarsky, the father
of the late Esther Allan, who with her husband
Norman, was an integral part of Adat Shalom for
many years. Cantor Howard Glantz, the congrega-
tion's cantor, delights in the association, recalling
during difficult years in Mat Shalorn's history.
"Many said Norman [Allan] saved the synagogue
financially and Cantor Vieder saved it . spiritually."
In choosing his music, Cantor Vieder selected
an arrangement by a local colleague, Cantor
Shalom Kalib of Farmington Hills, who is cantor
of Congregation Beth Israel in Flint and profes-
sor emeritus of music at Eastern Michigan
University. He recently completed volume one of
a 20 - year project, documenting the synagogue
music of Eastern European Jews, from the 1880s
through the Holocaust era.
He is a walking encyclopedia of cantorial his-
tory and repertoire, says Cantor Glantz of
Cantor Kalib.
Performing the arrangement with Cantor
Vieder will be the Adat Shalom Men's Chorus,
directed and accompanied by Martin Liebman.
The choir includes Lawrence Allan, grandson of
Cantor Boyarsky; Cantor Larry Vieder's sons Mark
and Sanford Viecler, who grew up at Adat Shalom;
and Cantors Ralph Goren of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, Earl Berris of Congregation B'nai
Moshe and Barry Ulrich of Southfield.
Cantor Kalib was flattered to also be approached
by Zarnir Chorale of Metropolitan Detroit to pre-
sent a May 23 workshop on 50 years of the cantor's
music during the Cantors Assembly convention.
Benjamin Cohen directs the six-year-old Zamir
Chorale, a community-wide Jewish chorus. It will
be joined at the workshop by these featured soloists:
Cantors Moshe Taube of Pittsburgh, Louis Danto
of Toronto and David Lefkowitz of the Park
Avenue Synagogue in New York. Cantor Lefkowitz
will chair the workshop and provide commentary.
The chorale's president, Lawrence S. Katkowsky,
says, "Rarely, if ever, has world-class Jewish
music composed by a Detroit-area artist (been)
performed by a quality Detroit-area Jewish musi-
cal organization."
The workshop will be recorded in hopes of
being released as the Zamir Chorale's first CD.

— Shelli Liebman Dorfinan, staff writer

The free workshop will take place 1:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 23, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel
in Dearborn. For a guest pass, call Gerrie
Spalter at (248) 357 - 5544.

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