Annual Bay Area cantorial concert Feb. 2

The Bay Area Cantorial Association (BACA) will present “L’Chayim: A Celebration Of Life!” with a special performance hosted by Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Tampa — featuring cantors, cantorial educators, and cantorial soloists currently serving the Tampa Bay and Sarasota regions, as well as a visiting cantor for this year’s concert.

The concert is Tuesday, Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for a suggested donation of $18 each; but BACA turns no one away. Proceeds benefit scholarships for cantorial students of both reform and conservative sacred music study.

The versatile concert — an annual undertaking now in its seventh year —includes folk and liturgical Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Chasidic, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi pieces celebrating Jewish life past and present. Solos, duets, and ensemble pieces will cover a range of Jewish writers, eras, styles, and cultures worldwide.

BACA holds its concert annually on or near the weekend of Shabbat Shira (Sabbath of Song), when it has become customary around the world to hold special music-and song-related services and events. The concert will be joined this year by guest Cantor Joel Reznick of Lakewood Ranch, who served Northwest Suburban Jewish Congregation in Niles, IL for 17 years. Reznick’s father, Hyman Reznick, started the Halevi Choral Society in Chicago in 1926. His daughter, BACA member Marci Vitkus, serves the Jewish Center of Venice and the two will present a special duet.

Participants include Cantor Riselle Bain (Congregation Schaarai Zedek, Tampa), Cantor Jennifer Duretz-Peled (Temple B’nai Israel, Clearwater), Cantor Moshe Friedler (Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Tampa) , Cantor Deborah Jacobson (Temple Ahavat Shalom, Palm Harbo), Cantorial Soloist Joy Katzen-Guthrie of Palm Harbor, Cantor Harold Orbach, guest Cantor Joel Reznick, Cantor Jodi Sered-Lever (Congregation Kol Ami, Tampa), Cantorial Soloist Marci Vitkus (Jewish Center of Venice,), with pianist Chana Olmstead of St. Petersburg.

Proceeds from the BACA performances go to support scholarships to the H. L. Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Judaism (Conservative), and the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform) both in New York.

For more information, contact the host congregation, Rodeph Sholom, located at 2713 Bayshore Blvd., by calling (813) 837- 1911, or any BACA member.