Cantor Estherleon Schwartz
Cantor Estherleon Schwartz (Esther Schwartz) is a Los
Angeles based cantor and community leader; promoting an agenda which includes unity,
peace, and anti-hunger through music and the spoken word.
Education
Schwartz’s first teacher was her father, Leon Maurice Schwartz,
who taught her to sing the Sabbath prayer and encouraged her relationship with
God. Although Schwartz longed to sing as
a child and felt a deep connection to God, her mother, Rose Schwartz,
discouraged her from both singing and spirituality. It wasn’t until decades later as an adult
that Schwartz formally studied under Cantor Mendelsohn, whom became her mentor
and guiding force in her development as a cantor.
Professional Accomplishments
In 2004, The Vatican invited Schwartz to sing for Pope John
Paul. She sang at the Hollywood
Bowl for the 88th Annual Ecumenical Easter Sunrise Service on April 12,
2009. Schwartz founded three
non-denominational spiritual reading rooms under the non-profit, “Beth Shirah,”
(Hebrew for: “House of Song”). Her storefront spiritual reading rooms were
supported by contributions from Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. She later opened a music/meditation
room in 2008 at Dr. Perry’s International Sport Science Institute in Los
Angeles and another in 2013 at the Lark Gallery in West Hollywood.
In 2009, Schwartz released her first book of memoirs in a
poetic style: Tears of Stone And my deal
with God – A true story. Originally
written as a letter to her children, the memories emerged as a coming-of-age
story of a spiritual and creative woman, dealt a life of adversity and
miracles, and centered around a complex mother/daughter relationship.
Ensuring that history never forgets its past, Schwartz
was an associate producer of NO TIME TO WEEP, a musical adaptation of Holocaust
survivor, Lucy Deutsch.
Schwartz has presided over many cycles of life events and
delivered countless invocations and speaking engagements at such places at the
Buddhist Hsi Lai Temple, Baha'i Faith Centers, the Braille Institute, and so forth.
Style
Schwartz’s Cantorial style is heavily influenced by European
opera as well as traditional Hebrew Folk compositions. Schwartz is also known
for her interpretations of various works from Puccini to musicians of modern
Pop.
Philanthropy
In 1989, Schwartz was elected to the Board of the United
Nations Association’s Los Angeles Pacific Chapter as an Ambassador for Peace. Concurrently, she founded the California 501
(C ) 3 non-profit, Beth Shirah, (House of Song). Ten years later, in 1999, Schwartz
provided one of the first, inter-faith, Yom Kippur services in Los Angeles. Schwartz continues to provide inter-faith
services to her community during High Holy days.
Along with her support for peace and food, Schwartz
supports women, having donated her time to the Woman’s Club of Hollywood from
2003 – 2013. Often in philanthropic
cahoots with female friends and colleagues, Schwartz gives the invocations to
help them with their endeavors, such as Carmelita Pittman, founder of The Rose
Breast Cancer Society’s Annual Rose Variety Art Show, Ruth Klein’s 4G Branding
workshop, Lark Larisa Pilinsky’s International Women’s Day event, and so on.
In 2011, the Los Angeles based food bank, SOVA,
designated Schwartz as an Ambassador for Food.
Schwartz has also partnered with L.A. Food Bank to help replenish
depleted, local food banks. Together
with her singing partner, Ivor Pyres, (stage name: Theo Chakra), Schwartz
avails herself to charity events. Their
Voices of Hope concerts help to raise efforts to supply local food banks with
cans of food.
Reaching out to her local community to provide inner
peace and serenity during changing economic times, Schwartz provided a Sunday
arts and serenity retreat at The Grove/Farmer’s Market from 2010 – 2013.
In recognition of her efforts to dispel religious and
cultural discrimination to help achieve unification and peace, the MENSCH
International Foundation (MIF) asked Schwartz to be a non advisory Board member. On the heels of recognition from founder,
Steve Geiger of MIF, Schwartz’s humanitarian outreach was also given kudos by Sir
Michael Douglas Carlin of the Knights of Malta order, who formally knighted Schwartz.
Shwartz’s outreach includes recognizing and assisting the
homeless and the ill. Over the years,
she has worked with the elderly at Dan Mar nursing home. She also assists Angelinos through her work as a volunteer,
Para-Chaplain at Cedars Sinai Hospital. In her spare time, Schwartz devotes
herself to her two children and to her grand children.
Personal
Schwartz’s father was a Polish businessman and her mother
was a Viennese beauty queen. Schwartz
was born in Marseilles, France,
when it was under Nazi occupation during World War II. Schwartz and her family escaped Nazi
persecution at the age of 3 when her parents found refuge in Switzerland. Her parents moved her and her brother to the
United States when Schwartz was age 7, settling them in Los Angeles. Schwartz grew up in the Fairfax District; attending
Fairfax High School. She married her
high school sweetheart immediately upon graduation and had two children. The couple divorced in 1966 and Schwartz
retained custody of the children. Although
she earned vocational degrees as a medical assistant and a counselor in early
childhood development, with no formal education, Schwartz lived on the brink of
poverty. Her strength came from her
father and brother. Then in 1973,
Schwartz’s father died of cancer, delivering a heavy emotional blow to
Schwartz. In a unique twist of fate,
four years later, Schwartz partnered with her brother, Sam, and opened their
first, House of Cashmere, store in Beverly Hills. Overnight, Schwartz went from rags to riches expanding
the stores into thirteen locations over seven years. It was during her sixth year in business that
Schwartz’s brother, Sam, committed suicide leaving Schwartz feeling alone and
lost. Six years later during an auspicious
Friday at temple, Schwartz’s destiny would be changed forever. So impassioned was Schwartz by the service
that night, the cantor’s prayers and the music, that her heart called her to
the pulpit. The next day she began her metamorphosis
to become one of Los Angele’s first female cantors.
