Meet Our TGIShabbat Musicians

Each Friday night at Society Hill Synagogue, our TGIShabbat ensemble helps us welcome Shabbat with music that is both spiritually grounded and artistically inspiring.
We have assembled a core of professional musicians who are not only stellar performers — trained in an array of styles, from Western classical, jazz, and klezmer to Indian classical and more — but who are also skilled in the unique art of supporting prayer through music. These two skills are not synonymous, and our TGIShabbat musicians excel in both. Every week, they combine their talents to create the sound that our community now associates with the joyful welcoming of Shabbat.

Jessie Reagen

Cello & Vocals

Chicago native Jessie Reagen arrived in Philadelphia via New York City and has been playing cello since she was two and a half years old. Jessie has performed around the country and the world with numerous revered artists — including Adele, Beyoncé, and Galeet Dardashti — in styles ranging from Western classical and Eastern classical to Middle Eastern, R&B, and modern pop.
Jessie is the cellist and a vocalist with the Jewish-Indian Om Shalom Trio and authored the cello book 60 Seconds to Excellence. In 2010, she received the Outstanding Musical Achievement Award from the Max Reger Foundation of America. Jessie has been part of our TGIShabbat ensemble since 2021.

Dr. Eve Friedman

Flute

Dr. Eve Friedman is a modern and historical flutist who received her Master of Music from Boston University and her Doctor of Music from Indiana University. Her performance credits include the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philly Pops, the Delaware Symphony, Opera Philadelphia, American Bach Soloists, and Tafelmusik.
Eve is the flutist and president of The Halcyon Consort, Inc., a chamber ensemble of flute, strings, and piano. She serves on the faculty at Rowan, Drexel, and Temple Universities and is the author of Tone Development on the Baroque Flute. A longtime member of Society Hill Synagogue, Eve has graced our Bimah many times, most regularly since 2017 with the TGIShabbat ensemble.

Loren Gildar

Keyboards, Guitar, Bass & Percussion

Loren Gildar is a multi-instrumentalist (keyboards, guitar, bass, percussion) who has performed and recorded jazz, classical, rock, funk, folk, Latin, and Jewish music. Loren also performs his own original music, which blends his many influences. He has toured the East Coast with various fusion rock bands and has shared the stage with notable performers such as George Clinton and John Popper.
Loren maintains an active studio of piano and guitar students and is a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC), currently working at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. He has played with the Society Hill Synagogue Purim and Simhat Torah ensembles since 2017 and has been part of our TGIShabbat ensemble since 2021.

Dr. Larry Goldfinger

Clarinet

By day, Dr. Larry Goldfinger is a biologist; by night, he is an avant-garde Balkan klezmer clarinetist. Larry began playing clarinet at age 9. After studying with Kurt Bjorling in the late 1990s, he performed with several klezmer bands.
Since 2008, Larry has been a member of the West Philadelphia Orchestra, a Balkan-inspired avant folk village brass band. He has worked for the past decade and a half with Not So Silent Cinema and co-wrote their recent score for The Golem. Larry has been a member of Society Hill Synagogue since 2008, has played with the Society Hill Synagogue Purim and Simhat Torah ensembles since 2017, and has been a fixture in our TGIShabbat ensemble since 2021.

Daniel Johnson

Tabla & Percussion

Daniel Johnson is a Princeton-based tabla player and percussionist. He works at Princeton University as a percussionist with the Modern Dance Department. Daniel has studied tabla with the great maestros Ustad Tari Khan, Ustad Shabbir Nisar, Pandit Prabhakar Betrabet Rao, and American maestro Lenny Seidman.
He has performed as a member of Philadelphia’s Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra, Badal Roy’s “Dharma Jazz,” Grammy winner Paul Winter Consort, kirtan artists Krishna Das, Nina Rao, Suzin Green, Girish, and many more. A constant schedule of performing, recording, and teaching continues to draw him deeper into the world of subtle rhythm and pulsation. Daniel has been part of our TGIShabbat ensemble since 2021.

Hazzan Jessi Roemer

Hazzan (Vocals), Guitar, Shruti, Percussion

Hazzan Jessi Roemer has been serving Society Hill Synagogue since 2010 – first leading children’s and family services, and presently as our Hazzan (Cantor) since 2017. A vocalist, instrumentalist, composer, and prayer leader, Hazzan Jessi has been performing, teaching, and leading communal musical experiences for three decades. Her original compositions have been featured by Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music and Adding Our Voices: The Jewish Feminist Songbook.
Raised near Washington, D.C., Hazzan Jessi’s music draws from Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino, and American folk traditions, as well as influences from the decade she spent living in Jerusalem. She received cantorial ordination from the ALEPH Cantorial Program (Renewal) in 2017, and directs the Philadelphia-based Jewish world-music ensemble EZUZ. Her recordings include two albums — “EZUZ” and “PRAISE” — and the EP “Nagilah,” recorded with the West Philadelphia Orchestra.
Click here to read Hazzan Jessi’s full bio.

Join Us – and Help Sustain the Music

 
Thanks to congregants like you who sponsor our Shabbat dinners, we are able to share a meal together every week after services. If you are able, please consider co-sponsoring a Friday night Oneg dinner or Saturday Kiddush lunch to help sustain this beautiful tradition of music, prayer, and community.