When I was eleven months old, my parents heard me singing along in the backseat of the car to Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” and I was humming and singing long before I could speak in full sentences. I was just five years old when I danced and sang as a “lost boy” in a local production of Peter Pan and I spent the majority of my childhood and adolescence singing from both the stage and bima. In my late teens and early adult years my calling to become a cantor became clear to me, but the anthems of musical theatre (most of which have been written by Jews) still include some of my favorite melodies from any era and can offer a different medium of connection to the Divine.
Listening to and singing music has kept me focused and hopeful throughout my entire life, this year more than ever. Amidst the discord of life during the pandemic, harmony and rhythm, creativity and repetition have been and continue to be an incomparable source of comfort and joy. Day after day, the healing pulses of my favorite melodies—musicals, contemporary, and Jewish melodies alike—gave me the energy to persist and filled me with the hope of not only one day being inside a crowded theatre hall like the Ahmanson, but to imagine my heart’s deepest yearning: to be back in the sanctuary singing live together again. Throughout this past year, singing to my daughter Ruby at home, officiating at our beautiful outdoor b’nai mitzvah with our inspiring young members, and more recently, joining back together for services outside on our campus, the music of our Jewish heritage—traditional and liturgical as well as theatrical and contemporary—continues to be a source of deep inspiration and great tranquility for me.
What were your melodies of inspiration this year? What lyrics and music of the past shape your best and most meaningful memories? What do you hope to hear more of in the months and years to come? I hope we will have many opportunities ahead to explore these motifs together.
This song, “Answer Me,” composed by Jewish-Syrian composer David Yazbek and performed by Jewish singer Adam Kantor from the 2018 Tony Award-winning Broadway Cast Recording of the Musical The Band’s Visit (based on the fantastic 2007 Israeli movie by the same name), was an anthem of mine this past year. A song of yearning and hopefulness, it’s a moving musical theatre piece with the ring of a prayer. I hope that it will bring insight and light to your day.
— Cantor Emma Lutz