Dr. Tina Frühauf is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Music at Columbia University and serves at the Graduate Center, CUNY, in New York. She is the author of »The Organ and Its Music in German-Jewish Culture«, »Salomon Sulzer: Reformer, Cantor, Icon« and of »Werner Sander: ›To Finally Fortify Peace‹: A Vital Exponent of Jewish Music in the GDR«, all of which have been published in English and German. »Dislocated Memories: Jews, Music, and Postwar German Culture« won the Ruth A. Solie Award in 2015 and the Jewish Studies and Music Award of the American Musicological Society. Dr. Frühauf has published several editions of Jewish musical works. Her latest book »Experiencing Jewish Music in America« was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2018. A monograph on the music in Jewish communities in Germany after 1945, »Transcending Dystopia« was published by Oxford University Press this year. Website

Isidoro Abramowicz was born in Buenos Aires and grew up with Jewish music in the tradition of Louis Lewandowski. He studied music at the National University of Buenos Aires where he specialised in piano. At the same time he undertook choral conducting and vocal studies. These led him to Germany where he studied and performed before starting his cantor education and Master’s degree at the Abraham-Geiger-Kolleg and at the University of Potsdam. He started his work as a cantor at the Great Synagogue of Stockholm in Sweden. In 2017 Isidoro Abramowicz became the successor of the retired musicologist Prof. Eliyahu Schleifer as Director of the cantorial education at the Abraham-Geiger-Kolleg. In 2019 the Jewish Community of Berlin appointed cantor Abramowicz as the main cantor of the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue, to continue and preserve the musical legacy of Louis Lewandowski.

Jürgen Geiger was born in 1976 and grew up in the Bavarian area of Pfaffenwinkel, as part of a musical family. He studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich where he completed his concert examination with the piano as part of Michael Schäfer’s class. He also obtained concert diplomas in organ and organ improvisation. Since 2001 he has been working as a church musician in Munich and Weilheim and performs as a pianist and organist on international stages, as he has done in the philharmonic orchestras of Berlin, Cologne and Munich, in the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg and in the Auditorio de Tenerife, as well as on organs and in chamber music associations in England, Spain, Italy and France. »Geiger masters the piano and organ with great skill; there are hardly any limits to his virtuosity, which has matured through the years. He does not only show an incredible familiarity with the technical side of things but also demonstrates great empathy and sensitivity.«

Das Ensemble Zekher wurde von Prof. Dr. Tina Frühauf und Jürgen Geiger mit dem Ziel gegründet, einem breiten Publikum vergessene Werke jüdischer Musik nahe zu bringen. Der Schwerpunkt liegtauf Kammermusik in kleinen Besetzungen (mit Gastinterpreten nach Bedarf) sowie Solowerken, insbesondere für Orgel und Klavier. Das Ensemble Zekher verfolgt außerdem einen pädagogischen Anspruch, die Werke, insbesondere mit liturgischem Bezug, erklärend vorzustellen und neu zugänglich zu machen.