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Review from Fan at Amazon.com


"Lisa Levine has been one of the most creative and dynamic forces in contemporary American Jewish music for more than three decades. In this tour de force, she shows her creativity and maturity by creating a powerhouse of a work, that brings together bands and choruses in an uplifting celebration of Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath).
Full Text
— Amazon Review
Yoga Shalom Shabbat Mishkan Torah Greenbelt MD
Cantor Lisa gave new insight to our synagogue's Shabbat service with Yoga Shalom. The experience connected prayer and yoga in a very meaningful and enjoyable way. I left the program with a renewed connection of mind, body, spirituality, and community.
~Darelynn Fung, Mishkan Torah Synagogue
Behold How Good Unites Community
Hey Lisa,
I taught your "Behold How Good" to the Martin
Luther King Community Choir for the MLK service we
had yesterday. They loved it!! One of the pastors from one of the local churches came up to me after the service to ask where he could get the music - he loved it that much.

It was a real kick to lead 100 voices in singing this song. Their faces, both black and white, Baptist, Unitarian, Jewish, and Catholic, were beautiful - they were so excited to sing it and did an incredible job.

Thanks again for writing such a wonderful piece!!
— Cantor Shira Nafshi
About a performance MLK
A great upbeat message and sound.
— Mike Sherman
KAMU College Station, TX
Reaching For Peace is very inspirational... a delight to my soul and my ears!
— Leslie Lutsky
Jewish Digest, Montreal, Canada
A great legacy.
— Joe Eglash
President, Oy Tunes
Your songwriting is fantastic and I know your music is going to resonate with so many people in the Jewish world.
— Rick Recht
Concert Artist
"I really enjoyed the production and instrumentation on the CD. From the first song, the CD really flowed, and was upbeat and powerful. Definitely one of the best collections I've heard in a while."
— Julie Silver
Singer/Songwriter
The opening "Behold How Good" is a tour de force of gospel pop, one which includes a rock-steady clapping interlude, bent bass note flourishes, a souring melody, and children singing in a round. "Ruach Elohim" ventures into Nineties Sting-esque adult rock ballad territory, while "Shelter of Your Peace" uses the various vocal parts in a call-and-answer structure to evoke congregational singing. "Spirits Rising" takes the pop holy Americana concept a step further, and borrows from Native American rhythm chants for a primordial feel that offsets the rest of the slick disc.
— Ben Jacobson
Jerusalem Post
"Once again, one of your songs has brought me to tears. Like before, when I heard one of your songs in Sinai last January, my ipod was on shuffle. This time, I was thinking about the war, the terrible threat on all sides of this little country....all of a sudden your voice was in my ears. 'We will sing, we will sing, though darkness surrounds us.' Needless to say, it knocked me out. I wanted you to know, it's still making me cry to write about it."
— Lela Gilbert, journalist living in Jerusalem
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Featured CD's and Books
Soulful Shabbat Ruach Band Book
Mis Canciones Para Los Judios De Cuba
$15.00
Buy from CDBaby
Lisa Levine - Mis Canciones Para los Judios de Cuba
Soulful Shabbat Songbook and CD
$39.95
Reaching For Peace
$15.00
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Buy from CDBaby
Lisa Levine - Reaching for Peace
Gems Of the High Holy Days
$15.00
Lisa Levine - Gems of the High Holy Days
Upcoming Events
Feb 5
2:30 P.M.
Columbia, MD
Yoga Shalom at Bet Aviv
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Yoga Shalom
Yoga Shalom is the spiritual and physical embodiment of daily prayer. The unique prayerbook/cd/dvd is due to be published by URJ Books and Music in November. Written by Lisa with Carol Krucoff, the entire one hour and fifteen minute worship practice is accompanied by specially composed and selected music recorded and compiled by Cantor Lisa. Participants move through the worship service experiencing the healing and renewing practice of yoga, narration, powerful music, breathing, chanting, meditation, relaxation and healing. Yoga Shalom is for everyone and can be done sitting in a chair. Whether it is your first experience with Yoga or you are a regular practitioner, you will leave Yoga Shalom revived, renewed and refreshed, ready to take on the day! Go to Yoga Shalom Wellness and Spirituality on Facebook or www.yogashalom.org to learn more.
Cantor Lisa Levine was born and raised in Bakersfield, California, where she began singing and playing the guitar at the age of 8. Influenced by Jewish songwriter Debbie Friedman at an early age, she was inspired to be a URJ camp song leader and active in the Reform Jewish youth movement. She earned her Bachelors Degree in Music from University California Irvine, where she studied under the baton of Joseph Huzsti and participated in two international tours with the UCI Concert Choir. Lisa spent her junior year in Israel and studied at the Reuben Conservatory and sang with the Israeli Opera Workshop and Israeli National Choir under the direction of Stanley Sperber. After graduating U.C.I. she went on to Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, where she completed her Masters Degree in Sacred Music. There she studied voice with Irene Gubrud of the Julliard School. She was invested Cantor in 1989 and began her career as Cantor / Music Director of Temple Shalom in Dallas, Texas.

From 1996 until July 2000, Lisa served as the Cantor / Music Director of Temple B'nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, Iowa. She was a co-founder and guest conductor of the "Des Moines Diversity Chorus," an interfaith community choir dedicated to promoting diversity and understanding. Her solo CD "Gems of the High Holy Days" was recorded live for Iowa Public Radio at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Des Moines. While in Iowa Lisa studied voice with Janet Alcorn. From 2000 to 2003 Lisa served as Cantor of Temple B'nai Jehudah in Kansas City. She also succeeded Cantor Melvin Luterman as Cantor of Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, Maryland which brought Lisa back to the East Coast.

Lisa has recorded two CD's of original music entitled "Keep The Spirit" and "In The Light" with duo group "Lisa & Lynn." In 2004 she published her self titled songbook which contains 22 original songs for healing, prayer and unity. Her original musical compositions are part of the Transcontinental Music Publications Choral Series and appear in "The Complete Shireinu", "The Complete Chanukah Songbook," Synagogue 2000's "Songs of Healing" the CCAR's "Open Door Haggadah," "American Conference of Cantors Lifecycle Manual," Soundwrites' "Sounds of Torah" as well as "Complete Jewish Songbook II", "Shabbat Anthology II", "Shabbat Anthology IV", "Manginot II", "Torah Alive!" and "K'lei Zemer". Lisa's songs were featured and performed at the URJ Biennial in Boston, Minneapolis, Houston and San Diego. Several of her poems were published in the new WRJ's Women's Torah Commentary.

Lisa's solo album of original songs entitled "Reaching For Peace" was released in 2005. Her Friday Evening Service and CD combo "Soulful Shabbat," written for interfaith and outreach was published in summer 2006. The collection is unique because of it's range of accessible musical styles written for youth, teen and adult choirs and band.

In 2006 Lisa released "Mis Canciones Para Los Judios De Cuba": My Songs for the Jews of Cuba. It features favorite Ladino, Yiddish, Hebrew and Cantorial gems that Lisa performed in her two concerts in Havana in 2006 and 2007. All of the proceeds from the CD go directly to the B'nai Brith Cuban Jewish Relief Fund. Her most recent project is "Soulful Shabbat Ruach" an original Friday Evening Shabbat Service featuring members of the Temple Shalom choirs and bands. It was released this past May and all proceeds benefit the Temple Shalom Music Fund.

Lisa's concert of original music entitled "The Jewish Gospel Experience" has received rave reviews at CAJE, in performance with the Heartland Choral and Des Moines Diversity Chorus as well as part of her scholar-in-residence weekends in congregations around the country. The program brings people of all ages, abilities, faiths and backgrounds together through music and fellowship. Her other solos concerts "My Songs for the Jews of Cuba" and "Broadway Bound" continue to be favorites among audiences around the country.

Lisa studies and teaches yoga and is the creator and co-author of "Yoga Shalom" a unique Jewish embodiment-of-prayer worship experience. It has been well received at CAJE, ACC/GTM and URJ Biennials as well as the URJ MAC and WRJ Regional Conferences, the Washington Jewish Arts Festival Lisa shares "Yoga Shalom" with enthusiastic yoga practitioners around the country. Yoga Shalom will be published by the URJ Press in September 2011.

Lisa is the Cantor of Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase Maryland. She shares her life with husband Andy and their two teenage children, Emily & Louis and a very feisty West Highland Terrier named Duncan.