Bio

MARY FEINSINGER has been conductor/arranger for the Broadway Chorus at the 92nd Street Y in New York, and has music directed at Stagedoor Manor, the 45th Street Theatre, The Irish Repertory Theatre, Theatreworks U.S.A and at the Adirondacks’ Depot Theatre.  She frequently appears as music director/pianist at cabarets in New York such as Don’t Tell Mama’s.

A composer/lyricist in the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop, her musical Understood Betsy (written with Stacey Luftig), winner of the 12th Annual National Children’s Theatre Festival, was presented in spring, 2007, at the Actors’ Playhouse in Coral Gables, Florida, and will be the inaugural preproduction at the Mack Performing Arts Center in Arlington, Vermont, in the fall.

As co-founder, vocalist, and keyboard artist of the West End Klezmorim, she performed at Carnegie Hall, The White House, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, and St. Peter's Jazz Church. Garrison Keillor on the Prairie Home Companion praised her "unique talent", The New York Times called her "the world's greatest Yiddish scat singer.” She co-wrote (music and lyrics) and performed in the off-Broadway revue Hot Klezmer, and composed the score for the feature film The Apology.

  She is well known as a composer/arranger of Jewish music. For Transcontinental Music Company, she produced, arranged, and music directed Kol Dodi—the definitive collection of music for the Jewish wedding ceremony, arranged and produced the recording Songs from a Passover Haggadah, and was an editor and music director for Shirei T'shuvah - Songs of Repentance.

She has won many awards for her compositions—including the first Out-of-the-Bachs competition for choral music held in Fort Worth, the Diana Barnhart American Song Competition (twice), and the Shalshelet Competition in Washington, D.C. She received a 2006 Composition Grant from The Children’s Aid Society Chorus, and a 2008 ASCAP Plus Award.

  Born in New York City, she is a graduate of Barnard College, and has a Master’s Degree in voice from The Juilliard School. A member of the Extension Division voice faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York, she was for many years on the piano-accompanying staff at Juilliard.

On the board of directors of the American Society for Jewish Music, she serves as cantor for the Rossmoor Jewish Congregation near Princeton.

A member of NATS and NYSTA, she maintains an active private studio in New York for vocal instruction, vocal coaching, and piano.