Matthew Turk

Matt Turk is a multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter who has performed both as a bandleader and an acoustic folk

troubadour for more than 30 years.

In 1990, Pete Seeger became Turk’s mentor and led him towards his  love of Jewish music. Shortly after, Turk began working at Rodeph

Sholom Day School alongside Rabbi Matthew D. Gewirtz leading tefilah. In 1999, Turk became one of the first musicians-in-residence at

Congregation B’nai Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where he enjoyed 15 years of service. Turk then became the Music Director at Tamid NYC in

2015. Since 2010 he has provided accompaniment at Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains, NY and helped assemble their band. Since 2007, Turk has worked with Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, NJ producing a CD recording for the The Rabbi Barry H. Greene Early Childhood Center, providing music and staffing support for trips to Israel and leading music for Shabbat Atid.

Turk is currently a faculty member of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music of HUC-JIR, where he teaches guitar performance to cantorial and rabbinic candidates.

Turk has recorded more than a dozen albums, including Mandolin Caravan’s Desert Soul,” which is a collection of beloved Jewish

classics and “Think Globally Sing Locally”, a live concert with Pete Seeger. He’s also opened for Judy Collins, the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart,

Fiona Apple and the Doobie Brothers. In 2011, Turk scored the full-length documentary “The Lion of Judah,” about a

heroic survivor of the Shoah, which won several independent film festival awards.

Turk grew up in Armonk, New York and attended New York University, graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in history and a minor in religious

studies. He currently lives with his wife Ilana Donna Arazie and son Leo in Hastings on Hudson, New York. For more about Matt Turk please

visit www.turktunes.com.