MW Region Installation – Sunday, May 17th

Cantor Pavel Roytman — who has served as BHCBE’s cantor since 2010 — is a native of Nikolaev, Ukraine. At the age of seven, he was accepted as a piano student to a specialized music school for gifted children. He continued his studies in piano and conducting at the Kaliningrad Music College (Russia) and later at Petrozavodsk State Conservatory.

While in Petrozavodsk, Pavel joined the Klezmer Shpil Orchestra as a soloist. Between 1991 and 1994, Pavel and the Klezmer Orchestra performed extensively throughout Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. In 1993, the orchestra made its first recording–“Yiddish Songs” by Klezmer Shpil.

In 1994, Cantor Roytman immigrated to the United States where he obtained his Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from DePaul University and Master of Music in Musicology from Northwestern University. Throughout this time he also studied chazzanut with such well-known masters of cantorial art as Hazzan Shlomo Shuster, Hazzan Henry Rosenblum, Hazzan Cory Winter, and Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi. In 2006 Cantor Roytman was certified as a cantor through Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion.

In Chicago, Cantor Roytman has performed as a conductor and a soloist with Kol Zimrah Jewish Community Singers and Queen of All Saints Basilica Choir. He has served as a conductor for Milwaukee Jewish Community Chorale and as an executive director and conductor for Zemer Am, the Chicago’s Annual Festival of Jewish Choral Music. In 2004, Cantor Roytman received a 1st prize in the category of Voice/Cantorial Singing in the 2nd Annual Golden Hanukkiah Competition of Jewry Arts, sponsored by the World Congress of Russian Jewry held in Berlin.