ANCIS, SOLOMON  BIOGRAPHY

Solomon Ancis was a cantor, choral director, educator, and composer whose most lasting contribution is his substantial body of liturgical settings for male-voice chorus. Born in Luba, Volhynia, in the Ukraine, he sang in cantorial choirs in that region and then in Odessa, where he worked with many great hazzanim. He immigrated to America in the early 1920s and settled in Los Angeles, where he was an active member and officer of the Jewish Ministers Cantors Association of California (the Hazzanim Farband). He conducted its chorus for a time, and wrote and arranged music for its concerts. Many of his settings became standard repertoire for orthodox cantors and synagogues in particular, although most of his music remains in manuscript.