It was clear to Hazzan Kim Komrad that she was “going to be singing always.” She is now a cantor at Kehilat Shalom Congregation in Gaithersburg, where she is one of the first female hazzanim to hold a pulpit in a Conservative synagogue in Baltimore-Washington history.
Komrad is an award-winning cantor and certified end-of-life specialist. She received a humanitarian award from the Cantors Assembly for her philanthropic work in 2018. She was vocally trained in classical voice and opera at the University of Miami, where she earned her bachelor’s in English literature and creative writing.
Komrad worked as an English teacher before pursuing the cantorate. She lives with her husband in Baltimore; their 26-year-old son has moved out.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I was born and raised in Miami, I’m one of four kids. My family was active in a Reform congregation. I always sang in the choir and I led children’s services on the side – I was always involved in music in some way, shape or form. I was always in the choir in junior high and high school, and I became the vocalist of the stage band in high school.
My Jewish upbringing was really Reform. The long story short is that I started singing part-time in Reform synagogues, on the side of whatever else I was doing, for Shabbat and holidays. But then I wanted to learn the amazing art and tradition of the Conservative, the more traditional music from Eastern Europe that’s been passed down for generations from the great cantorial masters. I had never heard that kind of traditional music until the ‘80s.
When I heard it for the first time, I was blown away, like, ‘Oh my gosh, that is my music.’ It spoke to me in a way that more modern-style Jewish music, which I like, didn’t. When I heard that, I said, ‘Wow, sign me up.’ I wanted to learn that. I decided to apply to the cantorial program at the Jewish Theological Seminary and was completely immersed in that.
You’ve released two albums. What was that like?
This was a really long time ago. My son was probably still in nursery school when I released my first album, which is a cantorial album. At the time, a lot of my colleagues were releasing albums, so I thought, ‘I really should have one too, to represent myself.’ I released a cantor album — it has a variety of styles of music on it that all fall into the category of Jewish music, some of which are cantorial, some are more like folk and some are more modern settings of Jewish text, poems and so on. That one has been out since the ‘90s.
The second one, a very good friend of mine is retired now, but he was a hazzan in Baltimore, and we decided to make a completely secular album together. It’s a whole album of love songs from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. That was really fun to make.
What is it like to be one of the first female cantors to hold a pulpit in a Conservative synagogue in Baltimore-Washington history?
It was definitely very exciting and humbling to be the first one. As a matter of fact, my first position after graduating from JTS was at Beth Israel [Congregation] in Owings Mills. They were between rabbis and in a brand new location, so when I came there, I was the sole full-time clergy — they would bring in a rabbi for the bar and bat mitzvah, but the rest of the time, it was just me there. It was a lot for a person fresh out of cantorial school to handle. But I learned a lot; it was great on-the-job training.
Did you experience challenges related to being a woman in the field?
When I first applied for that position, there was a small faction that was very much against the idea of having a female cantor because a lot of those people’s backgrounds were Orthodox, and they didn’t believe that a woman should be doing this particular position for a variety of reasons, including they didn’t want to hear a woman’s voice. They didn’t think a woman’s voice was conducive to this type of cantorial music and leading the prayers. But I’m very proud to say that I won those people over and some of them became some of my most ardent supporters.
What do you want other women and girls to know about breaking the proverbial “glass ceiling”?
A woman’s voice can really bring something very unique and special to this type of music, chanting that we do in synagogue. There are all kinds of voices. My feeling is it’s not really about the sex of the cantor or the singer, it’s about the voice and how you feel when you hear it. I’ve always felt that it all depends on the individual voice you hear and what it does for you as you hear it.
This article has been edited to clarify that Kim Komrad is one of the first female cantors to hold a pulpit in a Conservative synagogue, not the first.
