Nesanel Carmen

Cantor Nasanel Carmen comes from a long line of Chazzanim and Chassidic Rebbes. After
studying Chazzanut with his grandfather, Cantor Abraham Schachter of blessed memory, he went
on to study in Yeshivah in Jerusalem. Some time before the High Holidays, some one heard him
singing the Teffilot for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and offered him a position for the High
Holidays.
From Israel, Nasanel Carmen went on to study in Beth Medrash Govoah in Lakewood , New Jersey, where he continued to study Chazzonut with many great Cantors, among them were Cantor Moshe Korogodski of blessed memory, who was formally the Cantor in Kiev, Ukraine; Cantor Daniel Gildar from Philadelphia, PA; Cantor Noach Schall, from Queens, NY; and Cantor Shalom Kalib, from Farmington Hills, MI. He also studied vocal production from great singers David Montefiore and Cantor Abraham Weingarten.
Cantor Nasanel Carmen has officiated and concertized throughout the United States Canada, and Israel. In 1996, he was asked to Daven at the US Army base, in Fort Hood, TX for the High Holidays. He Davened and sang on three Cantorial Cruises. Cantor Carmen has a warm tenor voice and a unique Chassidic style, which he inherited from his great grandfather, who was both a Cantor and a Chassidic Rebbe in Romania.

Cantor Carmen speaks about the subject of Vocal Technique:

“I believe there needs to be a balance between the control we think we have over the voice, and a feeling of freedom. It’s important to free the body from all tensions in order to allow the voice to function optimally. I encourage my students to open the back and the neck in partcular. The tongue needs to drop as well the larynx. The posture, with the chest open and relaxed is also important to complete the areas of relaxation required for a free sound. Then, I work with getting the resonance bright, and work each vowel to ensure it is ringing. I encourage the natural release in a vocalise, like ha, ha, ha, and allow the natural function of the breath and vocal cords to work. Finally, one needs a child’s uninhibited sense of release.”