Inspired by his childhood cantor and mentor, Cantor Marshall Kapell is passing the music and Jewish learning on to the next generation.
The Arlington resident is Congregation B’nai Tzedek’s first full-time cantor, a role he’s served in since 2002.
Kapell is responsible for directing the Potomac synagogue’s b’nai mitzvah program and leading Shabbat services, holiday programming, a weekly Shabbat Sing with the nursery school, lifecycle events and the children’s choir. He also teaches in the religious school.
“I love to sing and perform, but I also love to teach,” said Kapell, who teaches congregants how to read Torah and lead services.
He follows in the footsteps of his own cantor once upon a time.
Growing up in Houston, Kapell was “very involved” in his Conservative synagogue, Congregation Beth Yeshurun. His cantor, George Wagner, was a trained classical singer.
“After my bar mitzvah, he took me under his wing and taught me the ins and outs of leading a service,” Kapell said of Wagner. “That’s where I kind of got the idea [that] maybe I could be a cantor, and maybe I could do this for a living.”
Wagner also gave young Kapell opportunities to sing in choir concerts with him, mentored him in Hebrew, liturgical music and classical music, and helped him successfully audition for the High School for Performing and Visual Arts.
“It was all around a wonderful musical education he gave me,” Kapell said.
Kapell went on to earn a music education degree from the University of North Texas, pursuing a lifelong passion. After college, he worked as an elementary school music teacher in Plano, Texas, before enrolling in cantorial school at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
“I knew I wanted to teach, and I knew I wanted to perform,” he said. “And the life of a performer is not an easy one.”
Performers, according to Kapell, must be good actors, talented dancers and skilled singers: “I never had those acting skills.”
So, Kapell pursued the cantorate to combine multiple of his interests and talents.
“[I wanted to] be able to touch people and be able to effect change in teaching someone so they begin to grow, and in return, I grow as well as being a performer, as well as singing and being up on the bimah,” Kapell said.
He utilized Houston’s vast Jewish community and spoke with cantors across the different denominations of Judaism, “just to get their take on what it was like being a cantor.”
After his 2002 ordination, Kapell received a master’s degree in sacred music. Now, the cantor is busy preparing B’nai Tzedek’s children’s choir for the annual Purim musical — this year’s is based on the 2025 animated hit “KPop Demon Hunters.”
Kapell strives to promote community engagement at the synagogue.
“My goal when leading a service is not really it being a performance or even perfection, but it’s about participation,” Kapell said. “When the room or the congregation sings, and I hear that energy and that sound coming back to me, that really makes it real for me, because I’m not just giving a concert every Friday night or Saturday morning.”
Kapell is well-liked, voted “best cantor in the Greater Washington region” for two consecutive years by readers of Washington Jewish Week. That appreciation goes both ways.
“What’s amazing about this congregation is they have become my true extended family,” Kapell said of the B’nai Tzedek community. “I’ve had the privilege of walking with my congregants through these many decades of their lives together.”
He added that he’s been present for the community’s joyful events — weddings and baby namings — and difficult ones.
“Now it’s coming full circle, because students I once tutored are having children of their own or are getting married and having children of their own,” Kapell reflected. “And that generational continuity is what makes a community feel sacred.
“It always makes me smile when I’ve done [someone’s] bar or bat mitzvah, and I’ve done their wedding, and now I’m able to do a baby naming for them,” he said. “It just brings me in; it shows me the impact that I’ve had on them and the impact that they’ve had on me.”
Seeing his students’ talent in the spotlight brings him “more joy than anything,” especially during holidays, he said.
“To see them sing and to see the reaction when they sing, I think that’s what my parents felt when I was on the bimah singing with my cantor,” Kapell said. “I never thought about it that way, what my parents felt, but I know they felt pride and joy when they would see me leading services. I see that in the same way with these kids, with these kids’ parents and the congregants surrounding them, [who] are just in awe of some of the voices.”
He said it’s been “a true joy” to be able to share the children and teens’ musical prowess with the congregation. “I’ve been doing that forever, probably as long as I’ve been at B’nai Tzedek,” Kapell said.
“I measure time in those sacred moments — that’s what really brings me joy in this job,” Kapell said.
