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Perryne Anker is an The American soprano and cantor. Neither of her parents was a musician. Her dad was a salesman, her mom a homemaker. But, they always had music in rheir house. She grew up listening to all kinds of music. Nor was her family particularly religious. They attended synagogue on major holidays, but at the age of 14, she started singing at their conservative, Cleveland synagogue, Temple on the Heights B’nai Jeshurun. It didn’t take long for the temple’s legendary cantor, Saul Meisels, to recognize the young singer’s potential. Soon, she was performing with the adult choir during Friday night services and singing solos. When Anker was 15, Meisels encouraged her to attend a summer music program at Indian Hill Music Workshop in Stockbridge, Mass. She attended two summers in a row. Meisels then arranged for her to audition for the Juilliard School of Music in New York, arguably the country’s most esteemed music conservatory, and the result was a full scholarship. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Voice and Opera from Juilliard (1956-1961).
Perryne Anker had planned to pursue a master’s degree following her graduation from Juilliard, and from all appearances, she was on her way to a successful music career in New York, already cast as the lead in an upcoming opera premiere. But she had also planned a trip to visit her parents, who had moved to Los Angeles. And there, instead, she ended up falling in love, getting married and settling down. Shortly after Anker and her then-husband had their first child, she heard about a new temple being formed, to be named for Stephen S. Wise. So she went to meet with the rabbi, Isaiah Zeldin. That was the beginning of her real Jewish singing career. Although her intentions were modest - she just wanted to sing in the temple’s choir - slowly but surely she ended up doing quite a bit more: teaching in the Sunday school and singing duets during Friday night services with Cantor Richard Silverman, who even began writing music for her.
It was at this point, Perryne Anker decided she needed to up her game. She was wanting to be authentic, to really study the music and start to study Hebrew. She began attending cantorial workshops with William Sharlin, Leo Baeck Temple’s cantor, but not yet with the intention of becoming a cantor. She was the only woman in the class at first. Then one day, Rabbi Zeldin and Cantor Silverman sat down with her. “[They] said, ‘You have been doing this a long time. This has become your life, and you should pursue it. You should know more, and we want to give you the opportunity to learn more.’ ” Anker started conducting services on her own at Stephen S. Wise.
In 1980, Perryne Anker became the sole cantor at Beth Sholom Temple, now Beth Shir Shalom, in Santa Monica, and, by then separated from her first husband, it is also where she met her current husband, now-retired Judge Robert Schnider. She remained in this position until 1992. She never received a formal cantorial degree, in part because there were no cantorial schools on the West Coast at the time; AJR-CA has the first. By now, she has gone on to mentor many more women in the field, helping to make it as diverse as the rabbinate. In December 2014, she received her honorary master’s degree
Perryne Anker helped pave the way for women in the cantorate, having served for three decades at Stephen S. Wise Temple in Bel Air, Beth Sholom of Santa Monica and Temple Shalom for the Arts in Beverly Hills. She has been Associate Dean of Cantorial Students at the Academy for Jewish Religion-California in Los Angeles since 2002. A leading voice teacher and coach, she gives master-classes and performs throughout the country. She was a close personal friend and colleague of Aloni and was responsible for many of his commissioned works. She is a member of the American Conference of Cantors. She currently lives in in Sherman Oaks, California. |
