Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto

2011 – Kyra Folk-Farber

We welcome Kyra Folk-Farber, this year’s outstanding winner of the Ben Steinberg Musical Legacy Award.

Kyra has already performed as soloist in numerous operas under the batons of well-known conductors in Montreal, Tel Aviv, San Francisco, Boston, and England. She has also performed with success on the concert stage in Canada, the U.S., and Europe, singing music by Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, and Handel, as well as by modern Canadian composers like Claude Vivier, John Rea and Christopher Hossfeld.

A Vancouver native, Kyra has participated in Vancouver’s ‘In the House Performing Arts Festival’, in which she premiered original arrangements of Yiddish folksongs with guitarist Itamar Erez; at Voxfest Worldbeat at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre; and in recital with violinist Zena Schiff at the ‘Chutzpah! Festival’. In fact, our winner confesses to a passion for Jewish music, having performed in Klezmer concerts and sung as a cantorial soloist in Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto. She also led High Holy Day services in Montreal and at Am Shalom Congregation in Barrie. She speaks Hebrew and sings in Yiddish and will include both those languages in this evening’s recital.

Kyra received her Bachelor of Music from Boston’s New England Conservatory, and in 2009, her Doctorate of Music from the Université de Montréal.