Max Wohlberg was born in Humene (today in Ukraine). He immigrated to the U.S. in 1923, where he sang in the choir of the Metropolitan Opera and held several positions as cantor. From 1952 he was professor of liturgy at the Cantors' School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York (now the H. L. Miller Cantorial School). As a composer, Wholberg mainly wrote modern melodies to liturgical texts.
Wohlberg assembled an impressive collection of more than 2,000 manuscripts, books and song sheets, that were donated to JTS in 1977. A detailed inventory of this collection prepared by Elliot Kahn can be found at the JTS website. This webpage includes an important bibliographical note by one of Wohlberg’s foremost important students, the composer Charles Davidson, who also wrote his dissertation on Wohlberg.
Other sources:
Zimmerman, Akiva, and Raymond Goldstein. 'Wohlberg, Moshe.' Encyclopaedia Judaica. Eds. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. Vol. 21. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 131-132. 22 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 14 May. 2009
Aronson, Penny. Chazzan Max Wohlberg: Scholar, Teacher, Composer. Master’s thesis, Gratz College, 1981.
Davidson, Charles S. The Living Legacy of an American Hazzan: Max Wohlberg, His Life and Works. Doctoral dissertation, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Seminary College of Jewish Music, 1988.
Price, Joseph. “Max Wohlberg: A Biographical Sketch.” Journal of Synagogue Music 7 (June 1977): 21-27.
Wohlberg, Max. “Pirkei hazzanut.” Journal of Synagogue Music 1 (January 1968) : 49-52.
