Mood Mix with Yechiel Giniger  

A son of singer, songwriter, music teacher, and play director Malky Giniger, YECHIEL GINIGER is a yeshivah bochur learning full-time in beis medrash, who grew up in the world of Jewish song and has been involved in music since he was a young child, first performing at the age of three alongside his mother. Today, he’s released several popular singles and is making his own way as a vocalist and composer.

MY FAVORITE TYPE OF GIG

I’m most in my element when singing at chuppahs. I think that’s because I sang at my first chuppah when I was six years old, for my first piano teacher when she got married. After that, I sang at multiple chuppahs with two of my brothers — Zevy and Yosef, who were eight and ten — as the Giniger Trio, and that’s where it all started. I love the atmosphere at chuppahs, and I appreciate that the playlist is always defined and prepared in advance.

I was the child soloist for “Aneini” on Baruch Levine’s Peduscha album. I also went along to a Yad Eliezer dinner to sing it there. That performance was especially powerful, as we sang it after a very moving film about almanos and yesomim.

ONE SPECIAL COLLABORATION

I was in yeshivah with a really talented musician, producer and good friend Shloimi Shinfeld. We’d always wanted to work together, and when I composed “Nachamu Ami,” I wanted him to produce it. It was released last summer, and now Shloimi has put together his own band and is doing some really big productions.

MY FAVORITE NIGGUN FOR LECHA DODI

There’s a classic niggun as sung by Baruch Levine (accompanied by a dramatic story in English about a young man who grew up in an Arab village until his mother disclosed his true lineage) on his 2009 Touched by a Niggun album.