Regina Yantian

Organist and choir director, Jewish Community of Berlin (Synagogues Pestalozzistrasse and Sukkat Schalom)
Artistic director of the Louis Lewandowski Festival

Regina Yantian began her training as an organist and choir director at the age of ten. As a student of Jewish Studies and Comparative Musicology in Berlin, Heidelberg and Jerusalem, she specialized in various expressions of Jewish music, graduating with an M.A. on Israeli popular music.

Since 1998 she has worked as organist and choir director at Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue, conducting the synagogue’s professional choir, which accompanies all services on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

In the course of her more than 25-year-career at the synagogue, she accompanied the legendary cantor Estrongo Nachama from Saloniki, the Hungarian cantor Lazlo Pasztor as well as the Israeli cantor Isaac Sheffer and the cantors Jochen Fahlenkamp, Simon Zkorenblut, Gabriel Loewenheim und Isidoro Abramowicz.
She continues the musical tradition established by Louis Lewandowski for the Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue in Berlin, reviving his compositions for cantor, choir and organ.
Regina Yantian is also working as organist with Cantor Esther Hirsch at Sukkat Schalom synagogue.

In 2002 Regina Yantian founded the professional Berlin Synagogue Ensemble, with which she frequently performs in Germany and abroad at different venues in Eastern and Western Europe, Israel and South Africa.

She is also an experienced director of amateur choirs such as “Schalomchor Berlin”, founded by Estrongo Nachama (2003-2010), the “Re’utchor Berlin” (2010-2021) and the youth choir “Young SEB” (2013-2021). For her work with her current amateur choir Refugiochor Berlin she was granted an award by the Berlin Academy of Arts.

Throughout her career, Regina Yantian has worked with a wide range of cantors such as Isaac Sheffer/Berlin, Nikola David/Munich, Yoed Sorek/Hanover, Gabriel Loewenheim/Berlin, and Joseph Malovany/New York.

As an organist she has worked with various orchestras, accompanying for example the Organ Symphony by Saens-Sans at the Philharmonic, Frankfurt/Oder. In addition, she has accompanied cantors performing as soloists and conducted various symphony orchestras (including the Jewish Orchestra Belgrade, the Neue Rheinische Orchestra Cologne, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, and the Louis Lewandowski String Ensemble).

The Louis-Lewandowski-Festival in Berlin, whose artistic director she has been since 2011, invites choirs from all over the world every year to perform choral music focusing on various Jewish liturgical themes from different cultural backgrounds. The festival is a major event in the musical landscape of the city and resonates beyond its limits.