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About Our Music Director: Dr. Allan Friedman

Allan Friedman is the Music Director at Judea Reform Congregation. Allan helps to shape and lead Erev Shabbat Services and assists the cantor corps and other lay musicians in preparing for Shabbat services as well as special services throughout the year. He also helps to lead Sunday morning T’filah and teaches music programs with the Religious School. Allan is also the Artistic Director of Women’s Voices Chorus, the founding director of Sonam, and a music educator of people of various ages in Durham and Chapel Hill.

Originally from Duluth, Minnesota, Allan earned his BA in music in 1999 at Duke University. In the fall of 1997, he studied choral music at the University of Natal, Durban in South Africa. In 2001, he graduated with a Masters Degree in Musicology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he wrote his thesis on South African choral competitions. In the spring of 2005 Allan earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University, having written his dissertation on Russian Jewish Choral Music from St. Petersburg circa 1905-1925. While in Boston, he also found time to be the Mary Wolfman Epstein Conducting Fellow with The Zamir Chorale of Boston. From 2004-2012 he served as Associate Conductor and Administrator of Duke Chapel Music.

In addition to conducting and teaching, Dr. Friedman is an active composer, having written several pieces of Jewish choral music, including several psalm settings and a Holocaust cantata entitled “With Perfect Faith”, which was premiered at Judea Reform Congregation in 2001 and “Erev Shabbat and Torah Service,” which was premiered at JRC earlier this year.

For more information about Allan, visit his website.

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784