Eric Painter
Messianic Jewish Ministry
Eric Painter has served on staff at Beth Israel Messianic Synagogue in Jacksonville, Florida in various capacities since August, 2001. His roles over the years include office administrator, bookkeeper, worship leader, college and new careers small group leader, and technical ministries coordinator.
After a 5-year stint implementing process improvements as a Microsoft SharePoint developer and VBA programmer at ING, Eric returned to a full-time role at Beth Israel to join and support Rabbi David Levine as Assistant to the Rabbi, while continuing in his ongoing role as Director of Music and Media Ministries. Eric is currently contributing most of his time and effort to the buildout of Beth Israel's new sanctuary and ministry campus, while supporting and guiding ministry leaders through the project's transitions.
Eric earned a specialized degree of his own design at Spring Arbor University in Michigan, combining Music (with an emphasis in Theory and Composition), Philosophy of Religion, Biblical Studies, and a semester-long cross-cultural study in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia to culminate in a Bachelor of Arts in Russian Jewish Music Ministry in 2000. From 1996 to 2000, his collegiate learning was complemented further by real-life applications in various outreach, administrative, and congregational development roles with Hear O Israel Ministries' Festivals of Music and Dance in several countries of the former Soviet Union, including Moldova, Ukraine, Latvia, and Russia.
While in Kishinyev, Moldova, Eric met Anya Khozyainova, from St. Petersburg, Russia, who accepted his proposal of marriage over the phone, Russia to Michigan, in May 1999. They married on September 12, 1999, and Eric and Anya now have two baby girls, Safiya and Naya.
Music Leadership and Performance
Eric has an expansive history of music performance starting at the age of 9 with lessons on piano, and violin. He soon took up the trombone, switched from violin to viola, and also learned bass guitar. Trombone became his focal instrument in high school, with performance highlights in New York Area All-State Band and Orchestra, and 12 performances in pit-orchestras for school and community musicals.
In college, Eric continued his focus on trombone, culminating in a role as a substitute for professional trombonists in the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. He also played trombone in various campus groups, such as concert band, jazz band, and jazz combo. Eric also continued his instrumental and vocal lessons, playing piano, viola, and bass in various performance and worship groups. For an entire summer, he traveled throughout Michigan to children and youth summer-camps as bass-player in the group, "Wellspring."
Eric took on the role of worship leader at Beth Israel in 2001, and has been leading worship ever since. Since that time, he has mentored six worship leaders at different levels, and he has recruited and mentored more than 40 individuals in his worship teams. Eric and the Beth Israel music team was invited by MJAA leadership of the Southeast Region to lead worship at the 2008 MJAA Southeast Regional Conference in Orlando, Florida, and they have participated each year since. Of all his performance experiences, Eric holds these opportunities as the most prestigious and privileged of his music performance and worship leading career.
Music Composition
While enjoying all the various performance experiences in his collegiate career, Eric discovered a love for composition, leading him to shift his musical emphasis from performance to theory and composition. He completed the first in a three-part piece for string orchestra, "Olam Hazzeh" ("This World"), for his final composition project, which received a near-perfect grade, and was considered for performance by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra--due to scheduling obstacles a live performance couldn't be arranged, and the piece still awaits a live performance.
Since graduating, Eric has continued to write songs and compose works for dance performance and synagogue worship. His works include more than 25 songs for praise and worship, 4 instrumental arrangements of "Kol Nidre" for trombone groups and string groups, and a 45-minute ballet, "Ruth - A Ballet", commissioned and performed by First Coast Ballet in Jacksonville, Florida, in June 2011. (You can listen to, download and purchase "Ruth - A Ballet" at studio8.ascentmusic.com.)
The Ruth ballet album was preceded by two others, which Eric compiled and released in partnership with James White, of Minikon. "New Beginnings", a piano album with orchestral accompaniment and electronic textures, was released in December of 2009. "Eternity in the Hearts of Men", a more musically eclectic album thematically focused on eternity, was released in December of 2010.
Eric also composed accompaniments for the 10 Hebrew prayers of the Messianic Jewish Torah Service, sung during Saturday morning services as the Torah scroll is brought out of the ark, paraded, and read aloud to the congregation (along with the Haftarah and Brit haChadasha weekly readings), and returned to the Ark. These accompaniments have been used every week at Beth Israel since being introduced in 2008.
You can read more about "The Hebrew Prayer Project: Aytz Chayim He" at http://www.ascentmusic.com/pages/hebrew-prayer-project. and you can listen to and purchase recordings at studio8.ascentmusic.com. A complete kit for service integration can be obtained at http://www.ascentmusic.com/pages/sheetmusic.
Founder of Ascent Music Productions
Eric incorporated Ascent Music Productions, LLC, ("AMP") in 2009, initially to facilitate the production and sales of his music albums and materials. It's ultimate purpose and long-term goal is to establish AMP as a vehicle of music exchange and inspiration, as well as a source of materials to equip and encourage worship leaders, musicians and composers in synagogues across the Messianic Jewish movement, and to produce the new music they create. The vision of AMP is represented in it's slogan, "Music. For Life."
