Hazzan of Chicago's historic Anshe Emet Synagogue for the past 30 years, Alberto Mizrahi is one of the leading exponents of the Ashkenazi cantorial tradition. He is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Cantors Institute (now the H. L. Miller Cantorial School), where he studied with Hazzan David Kusevitsky as well as with numerous other leading figures in Jewish music. After firmly establishing an international reputation, he became a protégé of the legendary cantor Moshe Ganchoff.
In addition to his long-standing service at Anshe Emet, Hazzan Mizrahi has appeared as guest cantor throughout the United States, Europe, and Israel—in synagogue services as well as in cantorial programs. His extensive list of appearances includes a concert at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington; Auschwitz liberation commemorations in Hanover and Hamburg; and festivals in Kraków and Vilnius. In 1990, in London, he made his Royal Festival Hall debut in Voice of Jewish Russia; and at the 2002 Spitalfields Festival in London’s Christ Church, Spitalfields, he appeared with the BBC Singers in a program of Jewish music spanning several centuries. He made his Chicago Symphony debut in Penderecki’s Seven Gates of Jerusalem, sang with the New York Philharmonic in Paul Schoenfield’s Klezmer Rondos, and sang the tenor solo in the world premiere of Samuel Adler’s The Challenge of the Muse, with the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall in 2003. Most recently, he collaborated with conductor Ricardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on a performance and recording of Arnold Schoenberg's Kol nidre.
