About Gedalia

Early Life

Originally from Queens NY, Gedalia grew up in a Modern Orthodox home full of Torah, tefillah and music. His experience with Jewish song leading goes as far as back as supporting his father, the rabbi of their shul, in harmony for kabbalat shabbat and even High Holiday services. His love for singing and harmony continued through high school and a gap year in Israel until he reached Yeshiva University (YU), where he joined Y-Studs A Cappella and his professional musical career began.

University

Singing and serving as the musical director for Y-Studs A Cappella opened up Gedalia’s world both literally and figuratively. Gedalia travelled the world with the Y-Studs and similar groups including The Maccabeats, Pella and Six13, sharing vocal music and inspiring Jewish community from children’s concerts in Berlin, Germany, to wedding singing in Cartagena, Colombia. Even when performing locally in and around NYC, his eyes were opened to the vast applications of music to Jewish life and celebration: accompanying a Teaneck minyan’s 3rd annual restaurant crawl celebrating their founding anniversary; singing at a seudat hoda’ah in Brooklyn for a husband donating a kidney to his wife; as well as the standard work of hopping from synagogue to youth center performing pre-shabbat music. During this time he was also introduced to the vast and beautiful gamut of Jewish practice and experience, singing at countless bnei mitzvah and other events in Orthodox, Conservative and Reform settings.

Gedalia finished YU with a Bachelor’s in Music and began teaching at Carmel Academy in Greenwich, CT. In his classroom, music was not as much Mozart and Beethoven as Sheet Music Twister (left foot, C sharp!); a Simchat Beit Hasho’evah relay race with “trumpet” noisemakers for the student “temple-accompanists”; and children getting up at the beginning of class each day to share what music they love and frequently hear in their homes, from Justin Bieber to Matisyahu to the Grateful Dead. Gedalia’s classroom motto is “music is everywhere and everyone’s”.

Rising Song and Beyond