AUSTRALIAN JEWISH NEWS
Friday May 7th 2004
Elwood cantor takes on the world
Staff writer
ELWOOD shul-goers would be familiar with Yumi Rosenbaum, whose Chassidic strains guide the congregation in prayer.
Now, the cantor's voice is about to attract an international audience thanks to a CD due to be launched this weekend simultaneously in Israel, the US, Europe and Melbourne.
Yumi-Torah Harbeh is an eclectic mix of rock, Middle Eastern and hora beats sung in Hebrew. But in keeping with Chassidic tradition, all the songs are in Hebrew and derive from Jewish texts.
Rosenbaum has even tried his hand at composition with the up-beat waltz, Mizmor L'Dovid.
Rosenbaum, 25, who works by day as a graphic artist, says that music is merely a hobby, but in his case its an all-consuming one. Melbourne born, Rosenbaum took time to record the album in New York -- the world capital of Chassidic music.
He also has a simcha band, Yumi Rosenbaum and Orchestra that plays at Orthodox functions.
"I enjoy the spirituality of music," Rosenbaum says. "I grew up listening to musical greats, MBD, Avraham Fried, Carlebach, Dedi and various chazanim and I learnt something from a lot of different singers."
Rosenbaum played music as a child, but it was not until his late teens that he took up singing.
"As a child I was very musical. I played the keyboard but I was not singing much in public. I didn't have one of those cute kid voices," he says.
Now a father of two, Rosenbaum's young son has clearly inherited his father's passion for song.
"He actually knows all the songs [on the album] off by heart, and walks around with a toy microphone."
