Levi Yitzchak Schlossberg

Isaac (Levi Yitzchak) Schlossberg was a famous composer and conductor of the Yiddish theater in Poland between the two World Wars.
He was born circa 1875. His grandfather, Nathan Schlossberg was a mohel in Ilukste (Courland province in Russian empire), and his father, Arie Leib Schlossberg (also known as Leibke Ilukster) was a cantor.
Isaac studied music and the basics of khazanut in Vilna under the guidance of cantor Kogan and choirmaster Moshe Dorguzhansky, in whose choir he was a singer. His fellow practitioners were Y. Rumshinsky, as well as Lokeshker and Edelman. At the age of 16, Schlossberg became an assistant to Dorguzhansky and for the first time conducted the Choir of the Vilna Taharat Hakodesh Synagogue. In 1899, together with Leo Liov, he wrote music for a play based on Joseph Lateiner's play "Khurban Yerushalayim" ("The Destruction of Jerusalem") by the troupe of the Jewish theater Avrum-Olter Fishzon. Later, for several years, Schlossberg toured Russia but eventually settled in Warsaw, where he worked as a composer and conductor of the leading Jewish theaters: "The Rock", "Novosti", and the Kaminski troupe. In total, he composed music for 80 operettas and musical performances: "Hanka" (1914) by the Kaminski troupe; "Malvinke wil azoy" ("So Malvinka Wants") (1916) by the Pantheon Theater in Lublin; "Di Shane Bertha" ("Belle Bertha") (1916) at the Bolshoi Theater in Lodz; "Tsvey kets in ein zak" ("Two cats in one bag") (1922); "Der Call" (1923) of the Central Theater, and more.
The greatest praise went to his cantoral composition "R'tse" from the Sabbath prayers. This creation made famous by the internationally known cantor Gershon Sirota.
In 1919, after Leo Liov left for the USA, he was for a short time choir director of the Great Warsaw Synagogue.
Isaac Schlossberg died on November 5, 1930, in Warsaw.