Cantor Mark Morris
cantormarkmorris@cantormarkmorris.com
917-903-8719
Chav' a Lisn
Cantor Mark Morris is available to officiate at all Life-Cycle Events, B'nai Mitzvah tutoring and Adult Education.
Call: 917-903-8719 or email: cantormarkmorris@cantormarkmorris.com
If you are unable to hear the audio clips a sampler CD is available.
As a teacher, the next generation particularly captures Cantor Morris’ enthusiasm. One of his major goals is keeping children involved in the synagogue beyond their Bar/Bat Mizvah. He feels that music is one avenue to successfully meet this challenge. With his musical and theatrical training, he is able to devise programs specifically suited to meet each age group’s needs and interests in order to keep them engaged in the Jewish community.
He has performed in Jewish music concerts at a variety of synagogues including Hollis Hills Jewish Center, where he sang in concert with his teacher and friend, the world renowned Cantor Sol Zim. An accomplished vocal artist, he has the ability to interpret classical Chazzanus, contemporary Jewish Music and perform Broadway and Opera selections.
Cantor Morris is a proud member of the Jewish Ministers Cantor's Association, the oldest and most established Cantorial association in the world. He is currently writing a new Friday night family service called "Shabbat Shaynim."
Cantor Mark Morris received his investiture from The American Seminary for Contemporary Judaism in New York and has been a Chazzan in the New York area since 2004. He has served a number of Long Island synagogues and led High Holy Day services in New York, Pennsylvania and Atlanta, GA. He presently serves as Cantor at Congregation Beth David in Lynbrook, Long Island.
Cantor Morris has led services varying in scope from small gatherings on Shabbat to over 2000 assembled congregants on the High Holidays with a choir of over 30 voices. He has taught music and T'filah to children and adults in formal and informal settings, composed original melodies, lent his voice to life-cycle events such as weddings, funerals and unveilings and is a licensed officiant with the City of New York.
He studied music and theatre at the Boston Conservatory of Music, The American Musical Dramatic Academy in NYC and NYU/Circle in the Square. He received his B.A. in Music from the State University of New York and his M.A in Sacred Music from the American Seminary for Contemporary Judaism..
His first singing experience on the stage was at the age of 7 when he was asked to perform with a professional Gilbert & Sullivan company. He continued to sing and act in local productions and in his teens started singing in such nightclubs as the Fountainbleu, Eden Roc and Desert Inn in his hometown of Miami Beach.
After performing in over 100 productions in New York, national tours, stock companies and regional theatres as well as appearances on “Miami Vice,” “Law and Order,” soap operas and as a commercial voiceover artist, Cantor Morris decided to follow the advice he received as a Bar Mitzvah from his childhood Cantor and pursue his true calling in the Cantorate. He devoted his voice and his love of Judaism to the study of the Cantorial Arts and by his second year in the Seminary he was a working Cantor in the New York area.
Cantor Morris’ approach to prayer is to maintain traditional nusach while making it accessible and meaningful for today’s congregations. His davening includes many congregational melodies, both traditional and contemporary, as well as Chazzanut, and he strives to make services inspiring and enjoyable for everyone through his musical choices and presentation.
