Menachem Kipnis

Menachem Kipnis was born in Uzhmir, Russian Empire (today Ushomyr, Ukraine); his father was a cantor. After graduating from the Warsaw Conservatory, Kipnis became the Warsaw oper’s first Jewish tenor, a position he held from 1902 to 1918. During this time, Kipnis wrote articles—occasionally under pseudonyms—on secular and religious music and theater for Yiddish papers, becoming a self-trained Yiddish ethnomusicologist. In Warsaw, Kipnis met Zimra Seligfeld, who became his musical partner as well as his wife. He died in the Warsaw ghetto shortly before Zimra Seligfeld was deported to Treblinka; their countless records were lost.