Moshe Cotel
Encyclopedia
Moshe Cotel was a pianist and composer whose music was strongly influenced by his Jewish roots. Cotel moved from his Jewish roots to focus on music for most of his life, and received his rabbinic ordination and synagogue pulpit in the years before his death.
Morris Cotel was born February 20, 1943 in Baltimore
, and was raised in an Orthodox Jewish
family. As a youth, Cotel was simultaneously enrolled in the Talmudic Academy of Baltimore and the Peabody Conservatory
of the Johns Hopkins University
where he studied music and took college-preparatory classes, having enrolled at the age of 9. He wrote a 200-page symphony as a 13-year-old, to the astonishment of his piano teacher at Peabody who did not believe him until he pulled the completed score out of his bag.
He earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the Juilliard School
in New York City
, in 1964 and 1965 respectively. Cotel won the American Academy in Rome
Prize for music composition at age 23, and studied art in Italy for two years. Cotel had been a professor of music composition at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore from 1972, until he retired in 2000. After moving to New York City
in 1977, he retained his position at Peabody, commuting to Baltimore on a weekly basis.
A review in The New York Times
of a 1977 performance at what is now the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
, opened with the statement "That Morris Cotel is a composer-pianist of unusual capabilities seems beyond question."
His opera Deronda was based on the title character in George Eliot
's novel Daniel Deronda
, a Victorian era
English Jew who combines proto-Zionism with Kabbalistic ideas. The Fire and the Mountains is a cantata
he wrote that memorializes the Holocaust. The choral piece Trope for Orchestra integrated cantillation
used in public readings of the Torah
in synagogue. His 1985 two-act opera Dreyfus was based on the trial and conviction of the unjustly accused French officer Alfred Dreyfus
and the anti-Semitism it aroused in France.
In anticipation of a trip to Germany
and Austria
for performances of his opera Dreyfus, Cotel engaged the assistance of a Holocaust survivor from Washington Heights, Manhattan
to help improve his German language
skills. Cotel later met the same woman, who told him that hearing his efforts to spread the story of Alfred Dreyfus
had convinced her to return to Judaism. This encounter convinced Cotel to become a rabbi. As Cotel described the encounter, "Without knowing it, I had changed this woman’s life, and she had no idea that she had just changed mine". He enrolled part time at the Academy for Jewish Religion
in Riverdale
shortly after his encounter in Washington Heights. He retired from the Peabody Conservatory from his position as chairman of the composition department in 2003 to devote his full time efforts to his rabbinical studies and received his rabbinic ordination three years later. "My religion changed from Judaism to classical music, and in adulthood it changed back again" were the words Cotel used to describe his transformations.
While playing piano in 1996, his 3-year-old cat, Ketzel, jumped on the keyboard. Cotel transcribed the descending paw pattern and entered the score in the Paris New Music Review's One-Minute Competition for pieces under 60 seconds, with Cotel (and Ketzel) winning honorable mention.
Rabbi Cotel spent his last five years before his death as spiritual leader of Temple Beth El of Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn
. Cotel died of natural causes on October 24, 2008 at age 65 in his apartment on the Upper West Side
of Manhattan
home. His wife found him on the floor wearing his tallit
and tefillin
for the morning prayer service, and had assumed he was meditating, knowing that he preferred to pray alone each morning for two hours, before realizing that he had died peacefully.
Morris Cotel was born February 20, 1943 in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, and was raised in an Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
family. As a youth, Cotel was simultaneously enrolled in the Talmudic Academy of Baltimore and the Peabody Conservatory
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
of the Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
where he studied music and took college-preparatory classes, having enrolled at the age of 9. He wrote a 200-page symphony as a 13-year-old, to the astonishment of his piano teacher at Peabody who did not believe him until he pulled the completed score out of his bag.
He earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, in 1964 and 1965 respectively. Cotel won the American Academy in Rome
American Academy in Rome
The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome.- History :In 1893, a group of American architects, painters and sculptors met regularly while planning the fine arts section of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...
Prize for music composition at age 23, and studied art in Italy for two years. Cotel had been a professor of music composition at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore from 1972, until he retired in 2000. After moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1977, he retained his position at Peabody, commuting to Baltimore on a weekly basis.
A review in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
of a 1977 performance at what is now the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, opened with the statement "That Morris Cotel is a composer-pianist of unusual capabilities seems beyond question."
His opera Deronda was based on the title character in George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
's novel Daniel Deronda
Daniel Deronda
Daniel Deronda is a novel by George Eliot, first published in 1876. It was the last novel she completed and the only one set in the contemporary Victorian society of her day...
, a Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
English Jew who combines proto-Zionism with Kabbalistic ideas. The Fire and the Mountains is a cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
he wrote that memorializes the Holocaust. The choral piece Trope for Orchestra integrated cantillation
Cantillation
Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points...
used in public readings of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
in synagogue. His 1985 two-act opera Dreyfus was based on the trial and conviction of the unjustly accused French officer Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
and the anti-Semitism it aroused in France.
In anticipation of a trip to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
for performances of his opera Dreyfus, Cotel engaged the assistance of a Holocaust survivor from Washington Heights, Manhattan
Washington Heights, Manhattan
Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
to help improve his German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
skills. Cotel later met the same woman, who told him that hearing his efforts to spread the story of Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
had convinced her to return to Judaism. This encounter convinced Cotel to become a rabbi. As Cotel described the encounter, "Without knowing it, I had changed this woman’s life, and she had no idea that she had just changed mine". He enrolled part time at the Academy for Jewish Religion
Academy for Jewish Religion (New York)
Since its founding in 1956 as a rabbinical school, The Academy for Jewish Religion has been at the forefront of pluralistic rabbinic and cantorial training...
in Riverdale
Riverdale, Bronx
Riverdale is an affluent residential neighborhood in the northwest portion of the Bronx in New York City. Riverdale contains the northernmost point in New York City.-History:...
shortly after his encounter in Washington Heights. He retired from the Peabody Conservatory from his position as chairman of the composition department in 2003 to devote his full time efforts to his rabbinical studies and received his rabbinic ordination three years later. "My religion changed from Judaism to classical music, and in adulthood it changed back again" were the words Cotel used to describe his transformations.
While playing piano in 1996, his 3-year-old cat, Ketzel, jumped on the keyboard. Cotel transcribed the descending paw pattern and entered the score in the Paris New Music Review's One-Minute Competition for pieces under 60 seconds, with Cotel (and Ketzel) winning honorable mention.
Rabbi Cotel spent his last five years before his death as spiritual leader of Temple Beth El of Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn
Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn
Manhattan Beach is a residential neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, by Sheepshead Bay on the north, and Brighton Beach to the west. Traditionally known as an Italian and Ashkenazi Jewish neighborhood, it is also home to...
. Cotel died of natural causes on October 24, 2008 at age 65 in his apartment on the Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
home. His wife found him on the floor wearing his tallit
Tallit
A tallit pl. tallitot is a Jewish prayer shawl. The tallit is worn over the outer clothes during the morning prayers on weekdays, Shabbat and holidays...
and tefillin
Tefillin
Tefillin also called phylacteries are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, which are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers. Although "tefillin" is technically the plural form , it is loosely used as a singular as...
for the morning prayer service, and had assumed he was meditating, knowing that he preferred to pray alone each morning for two hours, before realizing that he had died peacefully.