Benzion Miller Biography

Benzion Miller (, , 8 December 1947) was born in a displaced persons camp in Fernwald, Germany. He is a cantor of world renown, schochet and mohel, much like his father, the revered cantor, schochet and mohel, Reb Aaron Daniel Miller.

Benzion Miller's singing career began at the age of five. Miller studied Music Theory and Solfege under Cantor Samuel B. Taube of Montreal. He studied voice production at the Champagne School for Music in Montreal and with Dr. Puggell, cantor Avshalom Zfira, Allan Bowers. Acclaimed as one of the foremost interpreters of Liturgical Music, Benzion Miller is equally at home in Operatic Repertoire and Jewish and Chassidic Folk Music. He has appeared with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Rishon L'Tzion Symphony, the Haifa Symphony and members of the London Symphony. He has also recorded for the Milken Archive, in Barcelona, Spain with the Barcelona National Symphony Orchestra.

Miller was privileged to be among the first group of cantors to visit and sing in the Eastern European countries. He has appeared before capacity audiences in Romania, Russia, Poland and Hungary, where he sang with the Budapest State Opera Orchestra. Miller has to his credit many recordings of liturgical, Chassidic and Yiddish music.

Miller has held positions in Montral at Sheves Achim Synagogue on Cte-des-Neiges, then in Toronto at Shaarei Tefillah Synagogue on Bathurst Street, in Canada. Since 1981, he has been cantor of Temple Beth El of Borough Park in Brooklyn, a pulpit served by Mordechai Hershman, Berele Chagy and Moshe Koussevitzky. He continues to serve as cantor of the synagogue, now Congregation Young Israel Beth El after its merger with Young Israel of Boro Park.

Miller made an appearance in A Cantor's Tale, a documentary about Jackie Mendelson. Miller and Mendelson are shown greeting each other and briefly engaging in conversation.

Family

Benzion's father, cantor, schochet and mohel, Reb Aaron Daniel Miller (1911-2000) was born in the Jewish community of O?wi?cim (Oshpitsin) in Poland. Aaron, his father and grandfather was cantors at Bobov courts. Aaron's wife and children were killed in Nazi concentration camps. Aaron met Benzion's mother, who was from the Belz Hasidic dynasty, after the war in a displaced persons camp in Munich, Germany.

Benzion's son, cantor Shimmy Miller, is his choral director and they often performs duets with each other.

Discography

1. "Cantor Benzion Miller Sings Cantorial Concert Masterpieces" - The Milken Archive of Jewish Music, Naxos (May 18, 2004; International: January 2005)
2. "HASC - Jerusalem The Experience" (2004)
3. "High Holidays" (1997)
4. "Shabbat"(1995)
5. "I Believe" ()
6. "The Soul Is Yours"
7. "The Two In Harmony"

See also

• Hazzan
• Jewish Culture Festival in Krakw