Ben Steinberg Young Composers Award Winner Justin Callis
Shabbat, poetry by Rachel
Justin shares that Shabbat is a new choral setting of the poem by the Israeli poet, Rachel. “Inspired by my travels in Israel, I found the text within the new Israeli Reform siddur, T’filat Ha-Adam; it’s beautiful text instantly evoked the shore of the Kineret, and brought me back to my time touring the country with my cantorial school classmates. The music reflects the expansiveness of the land contrasted with the flowing rhythm of the sea; in writing I attempted to honor Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s words: “on the sabbath we try to become attuned to the holiness of time.””
Justin Callis is a fifth year student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music.
He received the Reuben Peretz Abelson Prize for dedication to Yiddish Song, the Temple Israel of Boston Cantorial Prize, and the Lee Gura Memorial Prize for Synagogue Choral Music.
Justin is the student cantor for Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York, NY. Previously, he served as the student cantor for East End Temple in New York, NY and Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington, DC.
A native of West Hartford, CT, he was an active participant in his home congregation of Congregation Beth Israel. Justin earned a Bachelor of Science in Theatre and English and a Certificate in Music Theatre from Northwestern University in 2011, and was an active participant in the religious music scene in Chicago. He also worked as a teaching artist, music director, and composer in Chicago, working extensively with youth of all ages and backgrounds.
Throughout his career, Justin has studied under Cantor Scott Simon, Cantor David Berger, Cantor Pamela Siskin, Natasha Ulyanovsky, and Laura Deutsch.
