In the intimate Jewish music world, not everyone gets discovered by some big agent

Even the most popular artists and entertainers started somewhere, back when they were an unknown entity. But in the intimate Jewish music world, not everyone gets discovered by some big agent. It could be a request from a friend, a chance meeting at a wedding, or an audition in front of a shul committee.

Who discovered you?

Thanks for Getting Me Started

TALENT SCOUT: His voice had a smile that made you feel he was your friend

Artist: ELI MARCUS

First Gig: A Crown Heights wedding

Date: 2008

Hired by: Musician and performer CHONY MILECKI

HOW IT HAPPENED:
I had taken the mic during the dancing at a Friedman cousin’s wedding in Crown Heights on a Thursday night right before Shavuos, when a local musician, Chony Milecki, came in. Chony told me that he wasn’t working that night, and as there was a Friedman family wedding and he knew that someone in the family would be singing, he came in to scout out some new talent. I was a real amateur then, holding the mic for fun, but he walked over to me in the middle of the dancing and asked for my number, saying that he’d call me the next day. That Friday, he called.

“I have a job for you. How much do you want?”

HOW IT WENT DOWN:
I was so nervous. I hadn’t really sung in public before, and I didn’t have vocal training, so I was worried my voice would tire or become hoarse in the middle of the wedding.

WHAT WE WERE SINGING:
“Ben Bag Bag” and a lot of other Shwekey stuff.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
We worked together at weddings for around seven years, and I have a huge debt of gratitude to Chony. We did a lot of Chabad weddings in Crown Heights, and also traveled out of town to do shluchim weddings. Slowly I’d get called here and there. I remember after about a year, my cousin Benny Friedman called me and asked me to come to Terrace on the Park to add harmony to a chuppah where he’d be singing. Once my album came out, things took off and changed. These days I’m rarely in Crown Heights, for better or for worse. To be honest, I miss the uniqueness of a Chabad wedding and the chance to sing the Chabad niggunim.

THEN AND NOW:
In-ear monitors were not a thing back then. Neither was it a given that the musicians and singers were on a stage. If there was a stage back then, it was a really special event.

Chony Milecki Remembers

I was at a wedding of one of Eli’s cousins, when someone shoved him onto the stage and pushed a mic into his hand during the dancing. Eli sang a song or two, and within 30 seconds I knew this wasn’t just “a kid who sings.” He was a singer. I went straight over, got his number, and later called him for a wedding. He was extremely reluctant — I don’t think he imagined himself being a singer — but luckily for all of us, he was also young and didn’t know how to say no.

Eli was very different. He didn’t sound or act at all like your typical full-throated, powerhouse wedding singer. Instead, he had a special chein in his voice, a natural smile that made you feel like he’s your friend, and an instinctive and fun way of moving with the music.

For nearly a decade, Eli sang almost exclusively with me, and he was the only one I’d recommend. We probably crisscrossed over 30 states together performing. We could pick up on each other’s cues without even making eye contact. It felt almost telepathic, like a unified performance. Today, Eli works far and wide, but whenever we do get to share a stage, it feels like a reunion of that original magic.

In my opinion, he’s still the singer he was on that very first night, with the same voice, same smile, and same natural movement. The difference is confidence. Over the years he’s grown into himself, and that confidence amplifies everything else.

THE YOUNGEST CHAZZAN

I was so fresh then that I thought I had to take everyone’s advice

Artist: SIMCHA LEINER

First Gig: Congregation Ohr Torah, West Orange, NJ

Date: 2006

Hired by: RABBI MARC SPIVAK

HOW IT HAPPENED:
I was 17 years old, and learning in the first year of beis medrash in a Lakewood yeshivah when I got a call from Yeshiva University’s chazzan placement center. I had learned there at the Belz School of Jewish Music as a kid, but I really didn’t feel ready to lead davening just yet, and I told them so.

“But you have six weeks until Yom Kippur, that’s plenty of time,” they said.

The shul that was looking for a chazzan was Ohr Torah in West Orange. Yussie Sonnenblick had led the Yamim Noraim davening there in the past, but he was leaving. I went over there for a probeh [trial and interview], and although I didn’t know it, Rav Hershel Schachter, the rosh yeshivah of REITS at YU, was listening over the phone. Then and there, they asked me to daven Ne’ilah. I said, “I don’t know Ne’ilah, but I can prepare it and come back in a week.”

Rav Hershel was satisfied with that. Apparently, the shul had been very nervous about hiring someone so young and untested, but since he saw I was ready to work on it and prepare, he thought that was good enough and that I was cut out for the job. (I still remind Rav Schachter about this every time I see him.)

HOW IT WENT DOWN: I went and learned the nusach for Ne’ilah, using the nusach used by Rav Shmuel Brazil as my baseline. I grew up with Rav Brazil’s davening, as my father was executive director in Shor Yoshuv. I’m careful to repeat the same musical motif for every pasuk, and that keeps everyone involved, because they can all predict it and hum along. Most people enjoyed it, although I did get all sorts of comments and feedback that first year, including from one man who complained that my shoelaces were tied like a yeshivah bochur. I’m still trying to figure that one out.

WHAT WE WERE SINGING:
Don’t remember. Maybe Shwekey’s “Mah Mah Mah.”

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
Once I had davened there, I was officially a chazzan, and I soon went on to daven in some Manhattan shuls. I developed a connection with the Ohr Torah people, and was hired to sing at their shul dinner and at chuppahs of shul members, and things took off from there. I continued to daven at the shul on Yamim Noraim for the next five years, until I got married.

THEN AND NOW:
I was so fresh then that I thought I had to take everyone’s advice and input. People often tell the chazzan that they just have to sing this or that. I remember one man asked me to do a piece of chazzanus that was sung in the shul he grew up in in Switzerland. I took this seriously and learned it, and okay, it was very nice, but actually he was the only person in the shul who this piece meant something to. By now I know that I don’t have to take everyone’s suggestions on board.

Rabbi Marc Spivak Remembers

We called the Belz School of Jewish Music at YU to get ourselves a chazzan for Yamim Noraim. Cantor Bernard Beer, the school’s director, said he would send me a bunch of names. One of them, he told me, was very young, but “he has one of the best voices I ever heard in my career.” Cantor Beer felt that although we probably would not hire him because of his age, it was worth inviting this bochur, Simcha Leiner, for a probeh because it would be a treat for us to hear him, and it would provide him with some valuable experience.

I went to my shul committee. Some people felt that there was no need to waste everyone’s time, but I decided we would invite this young Leiner as a favor to him, and maybe we’d enjoy it, too. Well, when he started singing, all doubts flew out the window. We’d wondered if the candidate for chazzan would have a strong enough voice to be clearly heard, but when Simcha sang, the people who were learning at a shiur in the next room stopped their shiur and came in to listen.

It wasn’t just the wonderful voice — we found he was a great guy, a mensch, and people liked him. We got used to each other. We worked on sharing with him some tunes that the congregation was used to singing, and Simcha introduced some tunes to us. The timing over Yamim Noraim is important, particularly at Ne’ilah, when you don’t want to finish too early or too late, and he picked that up on the job.

Simcha was with us for a few years, but when he came out with his “Kol Berama” single, I knew that his days davening in West Orange were numbered — he would become a big star.

ANYTHING FOR A CHASSAN

I never dreamed I was really a singer

Artist: SHEA BERKO

First Gig: A friend’s wedding in Milwaukee

Date: 2008

Hired by: MOSHE MENACHEM FRIEDMAN

HOW IT HAPPENED:
I used to sing here and there as a bochur, but my first wedding was the wedding of a good friend of mine, Moshe Menachem Friedman, who I’d learned with in yeshivah. He’d been a year ahead of me in Reb Shmelke Leifer’s yeshivah, Toras Chesed, and we were close. After learning at Reb Shmelke Leifer’s, I went on to learn in Eretz Yisrael. Then, when Moshe Menachem got engaged, he called me. “Shea, you have to come sing at my wedding.” I had just gotten married myself and I wasn’t too sure about it, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer, and in the end, I went. The wedding was in Milwaukee, and Yossi Rosenfeld was on the keyboard. It was a full-sized, full-fledged event, but I wasn’t too nervous, because I’d sung a bit here and there. Slow songs weren’t really my thing, so I guess I was a bit hesitant about those. But the leibedig songs, making a matzav, were what I loved. I knew music from home, and I knew all the up-and-coming material and a bit of the technical side, but I’d never dreamed that I was really a singer.

HOW IT WENT DOWN:
First of all, it was a beautiful wedding. A lot of our friends from yeshivah made the trip. Rav Michel Twerski of Milwaukee was there and stayed for the mitzvah tantz. As for the singing, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
I started off in kollel for a few years. I wasn’t going to sing. But then came the summers of 2009 and 2010, when I was a madrich in Tzehlemer boys’ camp, under the leadership of Reb Moshe Portugal. We had a very musical crowd there, because Naftali Schnitzler and Motti Ilowitz were also counselors, and we used to sing together in camp. We were young, fresh, energetic yungeleit, and Naftali had just opened his studio and produced his first album. Then some friends from camp asked me to sing at their weddings, and for Naftali to play. There was Ushi Zelig’s wedding, then Sruli Rosenbaum’s. I knew I wasn’t too bad a singer, and I knew that parnassah was a good thing, but I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted to be doing. My good friends pushed me, and my brother Avrumi pushed me, too, and so I took the opportunities that fell into my lap.

THEN AND NOW:
There were no smartphones. For those first weddings, I used a tuner, which I would blow into and write down for the musician the note to begin each song with on a piece of paper. Now, it’s all on our phones. And back then, slow songs were harder for me. But the more you sing, the more confident you become.

Moshe Menachem Friedman Remembers

I played the keyboard as a bochur, and I used to play with Shea in yeshivah. Almost 18 years ago, when I got engaged, my kallah was from Milwaukee, and I realized it would be expensive to bring a singer over there for our wedding. Then I thought of Shea, and I thought, “Why not get Shea to come and sing?”

Shea caught a lot of people’s eyes over there. He already knew then how to engage a crowd. I think he was one of the first singers to incorporate the chassan’s name into songs, so to me it felt like he was singing out my name every fifteen seconds. For example, in the song “Ashreinu, ashreinu, ashreinu, she’yeish lanu chassan kazeh…” he’d add in “Moshe Menachem Friedman.” That trend spread. Maybe Lipa was already doing that before, but none of the regular singers did.

There are no Jewish wedding halls in Milwaukee, so we got married in a hotel. Yossi Rosenfeld drove down to play, and he brought over his own speakers. The music was so loud that the manager ran over to my father and said that the music was the loudest they had ever had in the hotel ballroom. It wasn’t a problem, but the staff was definitely baffled. They had people sleeping upstairs, but when we told them we’d be finishing the dance music at 12 a.m., that was okay.

I don’t think Shea ever went back to sing in Milwaukee, though, so maybe his style was a little too energetic for the locals there. But my friends from yeshivah loved it and took him from then on.

A SIYUM AND A BEGINNING

Being on stage in front of 15,000 people was terribly scary and challenging

Artist: PINCHAS BICHLER (Malchus Choir)

First Gig: Siyum HaShas, Yerushalayim

Date: 2012

Hired by: THE PORUSH FAMILY

HOW IT HAPPENED:
I was a reporter for the frum Hebrew newspaper Hamevaser. As part of my job was writing about Jewish music, I wrote about music and melodies and composers. Then came the Siyum HaShas of 5772, 2012. Here in Yerushalayim, there was a big event organized at Givat Hatachmoshet, Ammunition Hill, and the Porush family, owners and publishers of Hamevaser, wanted a representative on the music stage there. They also wanted a large choir, forty people, who would come from all the different chassidish groups and create a very unified feel.

So alongside Mona Rosenblum who conducted the large orchestra, they invited me to organize, direct, and conduct this huge choir.

HOW IT WENT DOWN:
To give my first real performance on stage in front of 15,000 people was terribly scary and challenging. I wasn’t yet fully prepared professionally to hold such an event.

WHAT WE WERE SINGING:
We performed Mona’s “Yesh Torah,” which was composed at the time in honor of the Siyum HaShas, a set of Simchas Torah dances, a piece called “Avinu Av Harachaman” by Mona, and other songs.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
What was unforgettable was that I arrived home that evening after this major event in my life, and I realized that life had remained the same. I opened the refrigerator in my kitchen and everything was the same as before the Siyum.

THEN AND NOW:
It was just over a decade ago, but the professional conditions and concepts were very far from today’s norms. For example, today every choir member wears headphones to hear themselves. In the worst case, there is an open monitor on the stage where every two or three people can hear themselves. Back then, there were four monitors for 40 people. It just doesn’t make sense, but that’s how it worked back then....

Rabbi Nuchi Porush Remembers

When Pinchas Bichler wrote the music column in Hamevaser, it generated a huge amount of interest from readers. It was clear that he had a deep understanding of music, and when the Siyum HaShas was in its planning stages, it seemed he would be the perfect person to produce a choir.

It’s true that the musicians raised their eyebrows when they heard that an unknown avreich would be taking on this role, but Reb Pinchas soon proved that he had what it takes.

Since the Siyum HaShas is a massive and unifying event, it was vital that the choir represent that. He approached members of all the chassidish courts and asked each one to recommend two or three musical people who could represent their chassidus. The final choir had forty members.

The music was beautiful — Torah-themed songs composed by Mona Rosenblum — and everyone there was inspired. On the dais, elderly tzaddikim, including Rav Shmuel Halevi Wosner and Rav Aharon Leib Steinman, were even moved to stand up and dance in place, and then the entire crowd rose to their feet, too.

The choir that Reb Pinchas produced and conducted that night in 2012 ushered in a new era of chassidish adult choirs in Eretz Yisrael. There is now a choir at every event, and he’s  right there on the frontline of this music trend.

WINGING IT

We had a blast, and it was a great learning experience for how to prepare and perform at events like that

Artist: 8th DAY — BENTZI AND SHMUELI MARCUS

First Gig: Universal Citywalk Chanukah concert

Date: 2005

Hired by: CHABAD OF THE VALLEY

HOW IT HAPPENED:
After a year or so of doing local community events for free at our parents’ Chabad in California, we were used to making music for a crowd of maybe a hundred or two hundred people, on a tiny stage if there was any at all. Then we got a call from Rabbi Mayer Greene, inviting us to perform at the Universal Citywalk Chanukah concert. It was headlined by Avraham Fried, our uncle, and there was a huge crowd of thousands. We were very nervous, to say the least. We only had about an hour to rehearse with the band on stage, although we had been rehearsing by ourselves beforehand.

HOW IT WENT DOWN:
We had a blast, and it was a great learning experience for how to prepare and perform at events like that. One challenge that we had to overcome immediately was communicating with professional musicians and producers. We had no experience and were basically winging it at that point. We didn’t realize you have to be able to explain to an entire orchestra and conductor how the music is meant to be played. It was our first time performing with a professional band and full professional sound and lighting team (Universal Studios production team), plus we got to sing with Avraham Fried. Not bad! The producers and band leader were very encouraging and complimentary, which certainly gave us chizuk going forward.

WHAT WE WERE SINGING:
“Tracht Gut,” “Rain,” and other early songs we had written.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT:
We were starting to develop a small fan base outside of our local homegrown fans (meaning our parents, siblings, and a few kindly neighbors). Baruch Hashem, we continued to do shows and soon were blessed to perform in New York and Miami. Another big early step was the opportunity to go on Nachum Segal’s morning radio show for an interview, which also helped put us on the map. At this point, we’ve probably performed everywhere except Antarctica.

Rabbi Mayer Greene Remembers

In addition to bringing top-tier entertainers to the stage at Citywalk, we prided ourselves in inviting up-and-coming stars to give them an opportunity to rise to the next level and have real exposure. Back then Bentzi and Shmueli were a young up-and-coming group with whom we were familiar. Avraham Fried was our headliner, and we also featured a young 17-year-old named Benny Friedman (another cousin!). We invited 8th Day to join, and seeing as Chaim and Eli Marcus were then part of the band too, we took the opportunity to put them all on stage together. It was incredible.
Besides performing their own original songs, Bentzi and Shmueli did a rendition of “Learning with the Torah” by Moshe Yess. The energy they brought to that song was off the charts.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1081)