Pierre Pinchik

Jewish-American singer and composer of cantorial music (born probably March 16, 1893 in Zhivotov, Tarashcha District, Kiev Province, Russian Empire [now Novozhyvotiv, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine] – died January 7, 1971 in New York, NY, U.S.A.). Pinchik started out as a Hassidic yeshiva student, but then pursued his talent for the piano at the Kiev conservatory. During the Russian Revolution, he was drafted into an artist’s brigade of the new Red Army and ordered to write communist and anti-religious revolutionary songs in Yiddish, which he ironically based on traditional synagogue prayer modes and tunes. In the 1920s, he became a popular Yiddish folk singer touring all over the USSR under the newly adopted name of Pierre Pinchik, eventually becoming the chief cantor at the Leningrad Choral Synagogue. In 1925, Pinchik was able to leave Russia for a tour first of Europe and then, in 1926, of the United States. Remaining in the U.S., Pinchik began recording for Victor, which offered him an exclusive recording contract in 1928. Between 1927 and 1931, he recorded more than three dozen titles. His most famous piece was "Rozo Deshabos" (The Mystery Of Sabbath), on a mystical Aramaic text from the Sephardi Sabbath liturgy. In November 1937, Pinchik became a naturalized U.S. citizen.