Touro Synagogue names Margolius as new cantor

Photo courtesy Touro Synagogue

Kevin Margolius has been named the new cantor of Touro Synagogue in New Orleans.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Margolius graduated with a degree in quantitative economics from Tufts University, then attended Hebrew College, where he received a Master’s in Jewish Studies in 2012 and was ordained as a cantor in 2013.

While at Tufts, he was active with Hillel and recorded three award-winning albums with the Jewish a cappella group Shir Appeal. His arrangement of “Le’an Shelo Telchi” was selected for “The Best of Jewish A Cappella, vol. 2.”

While at Hebrew College, he was awarded the Myer and Anna Wolf Prize for Judaic and Hebraic Studies, the Cantor Rick Boyer Prize for Hazzanut, and an honorary diploma from the Prozdor High School for leadership in creating new curricula.

He is a member of the Reform movement’s American Conference of Cantors and the Guild of Temple Musicians, and the Conservative movement’s Cantors Assembly.

As a student cantor, he was music director and cantorial intern at Temple Beth Shalom in Peabody, Mass. Since ordination, he has been cantor and religious school director at Temple Beth Tikvah in Madison, Conn.

Margolius also completed a unit of chaplaincy training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and served as the conducting fellow of the Zamir Chorale of Boston.

He and his husband, Jason Gaines, will move to New Orleans this summer, and his first Shabbat at Touro will be on July 6 at 6 p.m., as Touro hosts the New Orleans area joint summer Reform Shabbat services throughout July.