Marcel Lang
Marcel Lang (born June 13, 1956 in Basel ; died June 27, 2009 there ) was a Swiss chasan (cantor) and singer with a tenor voice .
Life
Marcel Lang grew up in a family in Basel in which the Eastern Jewish chasanut (cantor art) was cultivated. After initial commercial training, he studied singing with Kurt Widmer and Hans Riediker at the Music Academy of the City of Basel and the associated opera studio. A teaching diploma in singing was followed by studies at the Zurich Institute for Applied Psychology. As a qualified psychologist, Marcel Lang has advised companies and accompanied clients. He was a psychological advisor at the Basel Music Academy and taught psychological education at the Basel University of Music.
From the late 1970s, Lang worked as cantor in the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich (ICZ) and in various small synagogues. From 1982 to 1991 he was Chief Cantor of the Basel Israelite Community (IGB) . He then worked as a permanent guest cantor in the Jewish community in Düsseldorf until he returned to the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zurich in 2004. In addition, Lang devoted himself to concerts and teaching. He performed both as a solo interpreter of synagogue music and Yiddish songs and as a singer of classical songs, operas and oratorios. His concerts have taken him to all parts of Europe as well as North America, Australia and Israel. He produced various CDs with recordings of Yiddish songs and synagogal music accompanied by choir, piano, chamber ensembles and klezmer bands . As a teacher, he prepared students for their bar mitzvah for over 30 years . As a profound expert on Jewish singing, prayer and the liturgy, he has taught, advised and accompanied groups and individuals. Among other things, he worked as a lecturer for Chasanut at the University for Jewish Studies in Heidelberg and, from 1999, introduced members of the Jewish-pluralistic Basel association "Ofek" to the liturgical design of prayer. He conveyed his specialist knowledge of Ashkenazi singing culture and Yiddish songs on numerous lecture tours.
Through his knowledge and his love for both Orthodox and liberal Judaism, Marcel Lang felt at home in the various Jewish currents throughout his life. He showed this as a cantor in the unified congregations IGB and ICZ, which are confronted with a heterogeneous spectrum of members, or in the Jewish community in Düsseldorf, to which many Jews from the former Soviet Union immigrated who had no Jewish upbringing. Marcel Lang is also involved in interreligious dialogue. As part of the preparation for confirmation, he introduced many young people to Judaism and presented Jewish religious practice in Basel synagogue tours and in lectures throughout German-speaking Switzerland.
His grave is in the cemetery of the Israelite community in Basel .
CD productions
- Ki wi jirbu jamecha - chants of the synagogue (with choir)
- Kol demamah dakah (synagogal and Hasidic duets; together with Michael Goldberger )
- Majn Schtejtele Bels (Shabbat chants and Yiddish songs)
- Songs by Jewish avant-gardists of the twenties
- Lechajim (together with the klezmer band Bait Jaffe)
- Sing! - Do you remember? (together with the Klezmer band Bait Jaffe)
- Sch'ma Kolenu (synagogue chants with the Synagogue Choir Zurich)
- Semirot Michal (table chants for Shabbat)
Web links
- kolang.org
- Works by and about Marcel Lang in the catalog of the German National Library
- Vita and CDs
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lang, Marcel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss cantor and singer (tenor) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 13, 1956 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Basel |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 27, 2009 |
| Place of death | Basel |