Temple Beth-El, 67 US Highway 206, Hillsborough, is preparing for an evening of celebration in honor of its new cantor, Emily Wigod Pincus. Cantor Pincus, who began serving as Beth-El’s full-time cantor last summer, will be formally installed at the temple’s Friday evening Shabbat service on April 27, 2012 beginning at 8:00 p.m. What promises to be a very special and joyous occasion will include an installation address to be given by Cantor Regina Hayut of Temple Beth Or, Washington Township, NJ, and performances by Temple Beth-El’s adult and children’s choirs, as well as a Klezmer ensemble.
A native New Yorker, Cantor Pincus studied voice at the Manhattan School of Music and at La Escuela Superior de Canto in Madrid, and received a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Brown University. A former opera singer, she has performed with the Tulsa Opera, the El Paso Opera, and the Sarasota Opera, and has also participated in the Opera Festival of New Jersey.
Cantor Pincus was invested as Cantor in 2008 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s School of Sacred Music in New York City. While still a cantorial student, she garnered numerous awards and prizes in the performance of both traditional and contemporary Jewish music, including the Women of Reform Judaism Award, the Cantor Alumni Association Prize, the Guild of Temple Musicians Prize, and the Reuben Peretz Abelson Prize. Upon investiture, the cantor served at Har Sinai Temple, Pennington, NJ, from 2008-2011.
At Temple Beth-El, Cantor Pincus leads Shabbat and Festival worship, participates at life cycle events and performs important pastoral work for temple members, co-teaches religious school music, teaches adult education classes, conducts the adult and youth choirs and, in general, uses music in innumerable ways to enrich the spiritual and cultural life at Temple Beth-El.
The cantor lives in Metuchen, NJ, with her husband, Drew, and their three children; Alexie, Bennet, and Nathaniel.
Temple Beth-El is a Reform Jewish congregation. A member of the Union for Reform Judaism, the temple was founded in 1953 by 15 families. Today, the congregation numbers more than 400 households and offers a variety of cultural, educational, social and spiritual opportunities to its members and to the greater New Jersey Jewish community. For more information about temple life and programs, please visit online at www.bethel.urj.net or call 908-722-0674.
