Are you ready to reinvigorate your sacred Jewish community?
Worship Leader. Consultant. Performer.
Cantor Rosalie Will is an amazing guest. We had an extraordinary weekend with her, at a time when our congregation was working through a significant change in our worship music. Rosalie helped our volunteer musicians, our lay leadership, my professional colleague, and me to think through these changes and how best to utilize the incoming student cantor in our particular situation.
Rosalie’s hard skills are of course amazing. She is a great teacher, and the services she led with our volunteer musicians and me were exquisite. She taught a wide variety of age and interest groups, all in one weekend, adults and teens, teachers and singers, as well as Shabbat morning regulars.
Her soft skills are even better. She worked with us diligently in preparation to make the weekend a success, making sure she really understood us, and she was eager to sing, teach, lead worship, and interact socially in important ways, every waking moment of her visit.
I highly recommend that you bring her to your congregation, particularly if you’re eager to think through worship transformation and/or inclusion, another area of her vast expertise.
Rabbi Barry Block, Congregation B’nai Israel, Little Rock, AR
I am blessed because Cantor Will is a seminary classmate (and friend!) from way back when *and* my teacher and madrichah/guide today. Even when we were students, Cantor Will helped me to delve into the “why” of worship – – what are we trying to create through the liturgy, music, and communal experience?
My collaborative worship team and I seek to create relevant and meaningful worship for our diverse congregation. Cantor Will has been indispensable in helping our professionals and lay leaders to understand not just the why, but the how, who and what of our communal worship. She has helped us create a common language and articulate common goals. I am so excited to continue to grow together in our love of Jewish worship!
Rabbi Ruth Zlotnik, Temple Beth Am, Seattle, WA
A weekend with Cantor Rosalie Will is a weekend of beautiful singing, powerful conversations and meaningful reflection.
In just a few short days, Cantor Will inspired us to think deeply about our passion for Jewish worship and music. She presented new musical settings to us in accessible ways and breathed new life into the old standby’s.
A weekend with Cantor Will is a true blessing for any community.
Rabbi Ben Zeidman
Temple Mount Sinai
El Paso, TX
Our congregation engaged Cantor Will to help guide us through a year-long process to determine what skill and abilities we were looking for in our first full time ordained cantor. Cantor Will was an exceptional resource and mentor as she guided our Klay Kodesh and our lay leadership through an intentional and thorough process she designed in consultation with our team. The result was not only the hiring of our first full time ordained cantor but also the complete buy-in from our community to the process.
Dan Moskovitz
Senior Rabbi
Temple Sholom
Are you looking to reinvigorate or reimagine worship in your community as we move into a dynamic and innovative future?
Offering a strong background in congregational worship participation, transformative and creative tefilot experiences, as well as extensive work with both professional and lay teams, Rosalie's approach is to support and strengthen existing goals, as well as invite new questions and reflection to better position your community to deepen engagement in worship and relationship building. Her gift is to create opportunities for deep learning and sustainable growth that will have an impact well beyond her visit.
Rosalie is well-known as someone who brings innovative ideas to worship while honoring the minhagim--traditions of the place. She will work collaboratively to discover where your musical and worship traditions can be a gateway to exploring how to deepen prayer experiences.
Residency Weekend
Rosalie travels regularly into communities for weekend residencies, building programming that supports the goals and vision of the professional and lay leadership. Either as a stand alone weekend full of song, teaching, coaching and performing, or as the culmination of distance consulting or coaching support, Rosalie's diverse skills can provide learning and joyful singing for everyone. Options for weekends include:
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Leading Friday night worship, sharing some new repertoire blended with the familiar, and offering teachings to open the congregation to the diversity and Jewish prayer and melodic experiences
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Preparing with a choir or musicians for co-leadership
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Teaching a Shabbat morning or lunch adult study on Jewish Music, Trends in Worship, Changes to our Prayerbook and Jewish Music, Inclusion (accessibility, special needs, diversity) in Worship and Congregational life, or other topics that can be developed collaboratively
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On-site coaching or masterclasses with clergy, soloists, lay worship leaders
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Campfire/Story-Song programs
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Family concerts in religious school
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Congregational or wider regional songleader training and pipeline support
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Worship team or Board of Trustees sessions to think about congregational prayer and sacred time in new ways
Worship Consultant
As a consultant, Rosalie leads sessions on line or on site with lay and clergy teams: worship committees, boards of trustees, lay leaders about worship and music, navigating change and transition, thinking about accessibility issues and inclusion, accessibility and diverstiy. Asking new questions, creating lasting systems and processes for communities to continue to grow and evolve, Rosalie’s consultancies can be a few months or a full year of development and support.
Coach
As a clergy coach, Rosalie has worked with soloists and cantors, as well as partnered clergy teams to both work on individual prayer leading skills, repertoire and program planning, graceful leading of congregational song from teh bimah, working toward set goals, or helping sacred partners create a worship vision together, develop shared language of respect, and find new ways to approach thinking about deepening the spiritual life of the community
Songleading
Rosalie is also an expert teacher of songleading for teens, young adults, and adults in the areas of religious school, worship, and communal events. She is the author of Songleading: A Work of Art, a trade book and resource for all stages of songleader experience.
Testimonials from clergy, lay people, and Jewish organization professionals are available upon request.
