Jason and Heather
Jason ManLaPaz and Heather Klein bring a rare partnership to your community.
Jason and Heather both come from different backgrounds. Jason is a gay Filipino pianist, composer and music director and Heather an Ashkanormative Yiddish singer, composer, guitarist and prayer leader.
We want to be partners with you.
We met in Las Vegas almost a decade ago and changed the music dynamic at our synagogue in Las Vegas. Our choir grew from 7 to 25 singers before we left this past October. We helped grow a singing congregation with new music for special Shabbatot while embracing everyone at any level.
Between Jason and my experience we were able to hire musicians that became an ensemble where creation and genuine prayer became a reality. Kindness and compassion are the way to the most genuine prayer and communal moments where everyone feels included.
Jason Manlapaz (Music Director/Pianist) trained at the Frost School of Music (University of Miami) and Mountview Conservatory (London). He has served as music director and adjunct faculty at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts and UNLV's theater department. Jason directed music for the Opera program at the Venetian and the Las Vegas Men’s Chorus, and recently for Ride The Cyclone at Majestic Repertory Theatre. As a vocalist, he’s performed with Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, Bebe Rexha, and others. His vocal coaching students have appeared in major productions like Hamilton, Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, and Matilda. Follow him on social media @JMvoicecoach and @JasonManlapazMusic.
follows her passion for special projects, Yiddish song and bringing stories to life. She has most recently been seen singing in the film Burning off the Page (SF Jewish Film Festival) on PBS.com with the documentary Harbor from the Holocaust, working with the Folksbiene Theatre in New York City, and composing and acting for the Yiddish Theatre Ensemble in Berkeley. Heather has also worked with Sundance (MA), Music Theatre Group (NYC), YIVO (NYC), Ashkenaz festival (Toronto), Yiddish Book Center (MA) as well as in Hungary and Israel and extensively in the Bay Area and Canada. Klein has premiered many Yiddish roles and produced and recorded four albums. Her most recent albums were for her show Shanghai Angel, which Klein wrote, produced and composed about her grandmother’s journey from Nazi Europe to China and then to California, as well as Rooted Lullaby, an album with original trilingual lullabies. Klein will be recreating her show Shanghai Angel in 2024 at Angel Island, the former immigration station near San Francisco where her grandmother was detained in the 1940s. Klein works as a prayer leader .
