Cantor Beth Cohen

Beth Cohen is a well-known vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and music educator in New Mexico. 

Since 1995, Ms. Cohen has served as the music director and Cantor at Congregation Nahalat Shalom, sharing her joy and love for Jewish music. During this time, she has studied and taught Ashkenazic, Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish liturgy, nusach, trope and tefillah.

At Nahalat Shalom, Cantor Beth teaches, directs and arranges music for The Nahalat Shalom Community Klezmer Band and Alavados Holy Days Ensemble.  She also teaches tefillah, Jewish folk music and dance in the Simcha Religious School and tutors the pre-b'mitzvah students in tefillah and Torah cantillation. Beth leads services and Jewish events including High Holiday services and the popular Der Freylekher Shabes -a joyous danceable klezmer Shabbat service that she created and developed.  Beth coordinates and co-produces KlezmerQuerque, the internationally recognized annual klezmer music, dance and Yiddishkayt festival which, since 2003, has taken place at Nahalat Shalom.

Beth earned her Bachelor of Music degree in voice (performance track) from the University of New Mexico in 1991 and studied classical violin and violin pedagogy with New Mexico’s violin master and teacher Kathy Jarrett for several years. She also began studies in maqam (the Arabic-Sephardic modal/ scale system) on the violin and voice with masters oudist Haig Manoukian (z"l), violinist Beth Bahia Cohen, oudist/ kanunist Mimi Spencer (z"l), and clarinetist Sonia Tamar Seeman. Beth eventually expanded her studies in maqam to add Mizrahi and Sephardi pizmonim, prayers and Torah cantillation to her repertoire. 

Beth has been teaching individual voice, guitar, violin, viola, mandolin and piano to students of all ages in her Albuquerque music studio since she moved here from her hometown of Boston in 1983.  A much sought-after music educator and ensemble director in New Mexico, Beth taught string orchestra at the Public Academy for Performing Arts (PAPA), band, jazz and chamber ensembles at The Bosque School, and individual piano, voice and violin lessons at Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences. Beth also directed the choir at Congregation B'nai Israel, and she co-taught the Pop Choir at La Mesa Elementary School with Leila Flores.

Beth is also skilled on the tenor banjo, Macedonian tambura, Russian balalaika and penny whistle. She especially enjoys researching, performing and teaching international folk music -and particularly the music of Eastern Europe. Her extended family spoke Yiddish at home and at family events, and her mother & uncle sang Russian and Yiddish folk songs. Beth is featured in the book and recording "Roots and Branches, A Legacy of Multicultural Music for Children" (Campbell, McCullough-Brabson & Cook Tucker, 1994, World Music Press). She has enjoyed teaching and playing music throughout her life and has received extensive training on a variety of instruments in folk and classical styles. She began studying classical guitar and accompanying her own singing when she was seven years old, and later added studies in piano, theory, performance and arranging from ages nine through sixteen.

Beth performs throughout the southwest as a soloist and also with High Dezert Klezmer and Judaic Band (f.k.a. ‘The Rebbe’s Orkestra’ since 1996) and Goddess of Arno-Balkan band (since 1994). She also performed and recorded with Gamelan Encantada from 2006-2014, Svirka women's Balkan chorus from 1984-2004 and Earth Angels vocal trio from 1991-2004.  Throughout her life, Beth has enjoyed performing and teaching all genres of music including Celtic, classical, Americana, Old-timey, rock, reggae, Middle Eastern, Medieval, Renaissance, cowboy-western, blues and world folk/ traditional. 

Beth lives with her husband and band partner Randy in their funky Victorian-era house in Albuquerque's South Broadway/ EDO neighborhood where they raised their beloved daughter and "nakhes-machine" Jamie.  In her spare time, Beth enjoys birding, nature walks and wildlife-viewing in the mountains, deserts, and the lush Rio Grande Bosque. She also loves snorkeling and traditional Hawaiian farming in Maui. In 2022, she earned her certification as a Master Naturalist from Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area in Belen, N.M. Beth also volunteers for Central New Mexico Bird Alliance, and Valle de Oro’s Backyard Refuge program. She is an active member of the N.M. chapter of Sierra Club, N.M. Wilderness Alliance, Wild Earth Guardians & Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Beth is an environmental activist and prays for the healing and protection of our sacred earth home and our animal, insect and plant family members.