Role Reversal

As television executive Gary Levine entered Ohr HaTorah Congregation’s sanctuary in West Los Angeles on a foggy Saturday morning, he adjusted the white prayer shawl wrapped loosely around his shoulders and placed his yarmulke on his head.

Facing the assembled worshipers, the Tarzana resident opened his music folder, and his rich bass-baritone suddenly enveloped the auditorium. The 300 adults and children began swaying as they joined him in celebrating the Sabbath with songs and prayer.

For the next few hours, Levine forgot about scripts, development deals, pitch meetings and network strategies that consume him in his job as executive vice president of creative affairs at Warner Bros. in Burbank.

“When I’m in temple, I can let go of what I do during the week and can have a meaningful spiritual experience,” the 44-year-old opera-trained singer said. “When all the voices of the congregation pour into me, it opens me up even deeper. It’s a spiritual duet that’s both exhilarating and exhausting.”

Representatives of professional cantors associations estimate fewer than 20 soloists who are not professionally trained cantors serve Los Angeles area congregations regularly, like Levine. They said many others may serve as lay cantors from time to time.

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During the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana, which begins at sundown tonight, and Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown Sept. 29, temporary lay cantors are hired at the larger synagogues to accommodate the increased number of congregants attending services, they said.

Levine, a volunteer cantor, has scant time to prepare for services because of the demands of his job. Two days after singing at the Sabbath services, he interrupted a string of meetings to sit in on a rehearsal for a new sitcom, “The Brian Benben Show,” one of 21 productions he oversees.

Because of a schedule that begins at dawn and often brings him home to his wife, Maxine, a psychotherapist, and two daughters, Sylvie, 15, and Deena, 12, at 10 p.m., Levine originally turned down his temple’s request three years ago that he serve as one of three lay cantors.

Meirav Finley, Ohr HaTorah’s music coordinator and executive director, said among the reasons she and her husband, Rabbi Mordecai Finley, decided to seek talent from the congregation was that the fledgling temple couldn’t afford to keep its professional cantor.

“I heard this tremendous voice and knew he had to do it,” Meirav Finley said. “Gary has talent, but more importantly, he has soul.”

Three days after Levine agreed to serve as a cantor, Meirav Finley announced Levine would be chanting at the Yom Kippur service. He had five months to learn the long and difficult liturgy that was only remotely familiar to him.

“I studied the material before work, at lunch, between meetings and on weekends,” Levine said. “The first time I stood before the congregation was an incredible experience for me. It did not, as I had feared, take away from the feeling of introspection, but if anything, it enhanced it.”

In a town where actor-directors and writer-producers are de rigueur, the idea of a studio executive/cantorial soloist is not entirely unheard of. However, those whose professional and religious lives intertwine with Levine’s were initially surprised at his dual talents.

“I literally fell out of my chair the first time I heard him,” said Tony Jonas, president of Warner Bros. Television. “He has somehow put these two worlds--the creative and the spiritual--together. His level of compassion is rare.

“Most people in Hollywood walk around wondering if they’re doing something important,” Jonas said. “I believe Gary’s answered that question.”

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David Nevins, senior vice president of prime-time series at NBC and a member of Ohr HaTorah, said Levine’s singing is as good as any professional’s.

“My first reaction when I heard Gary was that he’s got a great set of pipes,” Nevins said.

Levine studied voice with one of the New York City Opera Company’s leading baritones, David Clatworthy, during his six years as a student at State University of New York at Binghamton.

Levine’s graduation with an MBA in arts management in 1976 coincided with his singing the title role in “The Marriage of Figaro” in a joint university/Tri-Cities Opera production in New York.

Because he didn’t want to stake his livelihood on his throat, Levine decided not to pursue an opera career. Instead, he produced live theater in New York before moving to Hollywood in 1985 to take an executive job in the entertainment industry.

Levine said each aspect of his life has helped make the others more fulfilling.

“No one is just one thing,” he said. “We all have jobs, family, hobbies and passions. They coexist and they make up a life. That’s what I hope I have done.”