TURIA DIANE STARK
My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul. ~ Psalm 108:2
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I’ ve been a musician since I first held a violin at the age of six. When I started singing, though, I found my true instrument. To me, nothing was quite as fulfilling as communicating through music and language simultaneously. These passions led me to double-major in Music and Hispanic Studies at Wheaton College Massachusetts, become a Spanish and ESL teacher, and earn a Master’ s in Voice Performance from Boston Conservatory.
I spent two decades as a classical singer— a featured soloist for choirs, chamber ensembles, and opera troupes throughout New England, New York, the Southeast, and in Spain.
But something was missing.
Having grown up in a secular home on Cape Cod— the daughter of Ashkenazi parents and granddaughter of Holocaust refugees— I never had the opportunity to experience Judaism, its practices, languages, music, or the depths of its spirituality.
When life’ s circumstances brought me to Alabama in 2010, I suddenly( and serendipitously) found my Judaism in the“ Bible Belt.”
At Temple Beth Or in Montgomery, I met Rabbi Elliot Stevens z” l. He took me under his wing with a blend of scholarship, patience, and wit, and transformed my life. He invited me to sing with the temple choir and as cantorial soloist on the bimah, then to co-lead services with him. He introduced me to the breadth of Jewish music— traditional melodies, Classical Reform, Ladino and Yiddish gems, contemporary congregational favorites— and I was enamored of it all.
Like Rabbi Akiva, at 40 years old I voraciously studied Hebrew, Torah, and cantillation. I even sat in on my children’ s religious school, and we cheerfully learned Hebrew together. And the congregation embraced me like long-lost family. I had found my Jewish Home.
My friendship with Miriam Wyman introduced me to Jewish folk music, a journey that led to songwriting and recording an album together as Dahlia Road.
When Rabbi Stevens passed away, I learned the true meaning of L’ dor vador. The following year, I applied to AJR. The past six years have been transformational, and I am eternally grateful. I thank all my mentors and dear friends, my children for their patience, my siblings for their loving support, and my hevruta-for-life, Carl.
Last summer, I was thrilled to begin serving as cantorial soloist at Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester and join another amazing Temple family. I feel so fortunate to work with this talented clergy team, and to serve such a thriving Jewish community.
As I strive to carry on the boundless gifts of Judaism, it is not lost on me that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first American woman ordained as a cantor. I both humbly and proudly take my place in this shalshelet( chain).
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