Returning to Our Beginnings: The Sounds of Cleveland's Saint Elias Melkite Church Choir
Returning to Our Beginnings: The Sounds of Cleveland’s Saint Elias Melkite Church Choir
As we noted in previous posts, Cleveland emerged as a musical hot spot in the context of mid-twentieth century Arab American recorded sound. Today, home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in the 1950s and 1960s, Cleveland was home to Laurice Peters and the Derbecki Ensemble. Lebanese and Syrian immigrant communities and churches preceded the presence of these musical groups by a half century. Out of these neighborhoods and community institutions sprang the cultural expression we highlight here.
Locals trace the birth of Cleveland’s Melkite Church to 1901 when Rev. Basil Marsha, from Zahle, Greater Syria, visited the city and administered the city’s first Melkite liturgy. Absent a physical structure of its own, Cleveland Melkites worshipped at the Chapel of Saint Joseph’s and Saint John’s Cathedral until the community purchased a building at 2231 East 9th Street. Thought to be the first Melkite church west of New York in 1906 (La Crosse Wisconsin’s Melkite community broke ground on a church the same year), the Saint George Society eventually became Saint Elias Melkite Catholic Church with a home on the 1200 block of Webster Avenue by 1908.
Cleveland boasted approximately 700 Syrian residents in 1908 and dozens of Syrian-owned businesses. As the influx of people leaving the Ottoman Empire and arriving in Cleveland grew, residents established Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in 1911, Saint Maron’s Maronite Church in 1915, and from Saint Nicholas emerged Saint George Syrian Orthodox Church in 1928. Meanwhile, 1924 immigration restrictions began to negatively impact Syrian and Lebanese communities across the United States. Surprisingly in 1937, out of the salvaged remains of the Great Depression, Saint Elias Melkite Church bought the former South Presbyterian Church building on 3166 Scranton Road and Prame. Saint Elias called this home under the leadership of Rev. Malatios Mufleh. It was Mufleh’s newly hired assistant that would shepherd in the era of the divine liturgy on wax.
Rev. Ignatius Ghattas entered the world on 25 December 1920 in Nazareth, Palestine. Born into an Antiochian Orthodox family, the Ghattas household and extended relatives converted to Melkites through the efforts of the Order of Saint Basil. In 1932, at the age of 12, Ignatius joined the Basilian Salvatorian Order at Saint Saveur Seminary in Saida, Lebanon. After fourteen years in seminary, Ignatius became an ordained Melkite priest in 1946, assigned to teach Greek, mathematics, Latin, French, English, and music at a monastery. His responsibilities beyond teaching included editorial work, manuscript translation, and Lebanese radio programming. These skills proved of great use to Rev. Ghattas in the years to come.
On the eve of his thirty-second birthday, in 1952, Rev. Ignatius Ghattas found himself in Cleveland, Ohio employed as an assistant pastor and choir director at Saint Elias Melkite Church under Rt. Rev. Malatios Mufleh. Within three years, Ghattas’s brother, sister-in-law, and his five nephews and nieces fled Palestine and settled in Cleveland as well.
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| Rev. Ignatius Ghattas. Cleveland Press 3 May 1978. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Saint Elias Melkite Church appointed Ghattas to the assistant pastorship in 1955. One of Ghattas’s first campaigns involved raising funds for Saint Saveur Seminary in Saida, Lebanon, attended by Ghattas in his youth but destroyed by an earthquake in March 1956. Combining his interest in music, language, and teaching, Ghattas provided Arabic and Greek lessons to church choir members to help preserve the divine liturgy according to the Melkite rite. Youth congregants, age twelve and older, and adults who joined the choir received instruction and soon Rev. Ghattas arranged for the choir to record its first LP in 1957. With Ghattas assuming pastoral responsibilities, he appointed Renee M. Jacobs as the choir’s new director. Rev. Ghattas also organized the first National Catholic Melkite Rite Convention in 1958 held at Saint Elias and the Hotel Cleveland. The gathering also coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of Saint Elias Melkite Church of Cleveland. Coincidently, the sixty-eighth National Catholic Melkite Rite Convention will be held at Saint Elias Melkite Church of Cleveland in July 2026.
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| Fr. Ghattas instructs three choir members in Arabic and Greek. Cleveland Plaindealer, April 20, 1957. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
When actor and musician Danny Thomas launched his campaign to build Saint Judes Children’s Hospital to Aid Leukemia Stricken American Children, Frs. Mufleh and Ghattas gathered Melkite, Maronite, and Orthodox priests to assist in raising funds. The same groups worked together again a few months later in a “Prayer for Peace” observance as religious and political tensions involving Lebanese President Camille Chamoun called for US military intervention reflecting the materialization of Cold War politics.
Perhaps one of the most ironic events involved naturalization. Ignatius Ghattas became a US citizen in 1958 and collaborator Renee M. Jacobs was naturalized in 1959, despite the fact Jacobs had been in the United States since 1948.
Drawing from his previous experience, Rev. Ghattas worked with Renee Jacobs to rehearse the choir and to prepare them for appearances on WGAR radio station’s “Great Religious Music” program. Cooperation with the Cleveland Institute of Music made the events a success. Growing recognition for the church and its choir, and growth of the congregation led to the need for physical expansion. In October 1964, Rev. Ghattas assumed the position of church pastor. A year later, Saint Elias built a new church home at 8023 Memphis Avenue in Brooklyn, Ohio, closing its Scranton Road building. It was around this time, the choir cut this album.
Impressed with Saint Elias under the leadership of Rev. Ghattas, the Melkite Church elevated the pastor to archmandrite in 1971. The equivalent to a monsignor, this meant Ghattas had new responsibilities to take on. Lectures, ecumenical study groups, and committee work related to Middle Eastern refugees added to an already busy schedule.
Ordination of Rev. Ghattas to Archbishop came during a Brooklyn, Ohio, ceremony in February 1990. Received by His Beatitude Patriarch Maximos V of Lebanon, Archbishop Ghattas now oversaw “41 Melkite Catholic churches, 35,000 congregants, and 67 priests in the United States.” Two cardinals, a couple dozen bishops, and a host of priests and deacons looked on as Ghattas was elevated to his new position according to the ancient Melkite rite. The civil war in Lebanon and conflict between Israel and Palestine stood out among the new archbishop's greatest concerns. Moving to Newton, Massachusetts, came with the new role. Just over two years later, Archbishop Ghattas fell ill, returned to Ohio for treatment at the Cleveland Clinic, and died 11 October 1992. Ghattas was, perhaps, the most widely known person associated with this LP but not the only singer or musician. Let’s take a look at some of the other people credited with recording this rare record.
Renee Mady Jacobs (22 September 1924 - 8 December 2008) was born in Deir al-Qamar, Mandate Lebanon on 22 September 1924 to Philip and Sylvia Mady. The Mady family immigrated to Windsor, Ontario Canada in 1926 and resided there until the 1940s. Windsor sits across the Detroit River and the US/Canadian border from Detroit, Michigan, the city that would decades later overtake Brooklyn, New York, and Boston to claim the largest population Arab Americans in the US. Nonetheless, Renee seems to have been the eldest of four children, three girls and one boy, born to her parents. She expressed early interest in music and was a member of sacred and secular choirs almost as soon as she could join them. Renee attended De La Salle High School in Windsor and worked part-time as a sales clerk until graduation.
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| A young Renee Mady Jacobs in 1947. Windsor Star. of Newspapers.com |
By the time she reached twenty-one, she served as associate director of the C. H. Smith Company Glee Club, known for their Windsor and Detroit concerts and performances. She wed Cleveland resident Ralph E. Jacobs in 1948 and married him at a ceremony at Saint Elias Melkite Church; she’d have connections to the congregation for the rest of her life. Renee helped organize the Saint Elias choir and soon took over direction of the joint adult and youth choir under Rev. Ignatius Ghattas. She was employed by and volunteered at Saint Elias.
Renee became a naturalized United States citizen in 1959 by which time she and Ralph had three children - Joyce, Michaele, and Ralph, Jr.. She was active in local theater, worked at a senior center caring for the elderly, and helped manage Ralph’s band, the Highlighters. Her involvement as secretary of the hafla committee arranging the entertainment for the annual Melkite Convention put her in contact with Lila Stephen, Joe Budway, Mary Attaya, and Ed Khoury. Renee’s commitment to theater and music means her daughter Michaele “Shellie” Jacob came by her love for sacred and secular music honestly. Her’s emerged as the most notable musical career of those connected to the Saint Elias Melkite Choir’s album project.
Michaele “Shellie” Jacobs (August 1952-) is one of Cleveland’s best known singers. The middle child of Ralph and Renee Jacobs, Shellie attended and graduated from Midpark High School in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.
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| Shellie Jacobs. 1970 Midpark High School Yearbook. p. 57. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
In her early twenties, Shellie had already become a fixture in Cleveland and put together the Gatsby Band with Frank Demar on sax, Chuck Zaranec on percussion, Larry Chalinski on bass, John Kacsor on guitar, Heinz Franz on trumpet, and pianist Nancy Gantose also on vocals. By this time, Shellie Jacobs had appeared with groups like Self Portrait, Opus O, and had won the National Music League Award in 1968. Additional scholarships in theater arts and music allowed her to study music at Cuyahoga Community College under professor Joe Howard. She studied communications, theater, and speech at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, two hours southwest of Cleveland.
In 1972, Shellie appeared as a featured vocalist fronting Jim Saleem and Company at the Escadrille Lounge in Strongville, Ohio. The Pirate’s Cove in the Flats, the Cabaret Room at the Blue Grass, Grogshop, and the Mark X reflect the local clubs that featured Jacobs and the Gatsby Band and their range expanded as they played the Carrousel Inn in Columbus and the Tangier in Akron. In Spring 1978, Saint Elias booked the group for its hafla and banquet. Most hafla and mahrajan began securing Arabic-language and English-language acts as their attendees shifted from primarily Arabic speaking to English speaking. From 1974 to 1988, Shellie Jacobs enjoyed a solid career and released several records.
Between 1978 and 1980, Renalph Records pressed the four-song album simply titled “Shellie.” The albums label featured a striking glamour photo of Jacobs also used as a general promotion picture in several news outlets. Venture Records produced four additional singles on 45 rpm in 1979 and 1980 including “I Get High on Your Memory” and “You Bring Out the Best of the Woman in Me.”
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| After a career singing popular soul music, Shellie returned to her Christian music routes. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux |
Melane E. Frances, the daughter of Syrian-born immigrant Michael Frances and Ohio-born Rose Karam, was born 30 October 1939 in Cleveland. She attended Saint Francis Catholic School where she was a member of the school choir and she notably performed a solo in the diocese variety show program in 1956. After high school graduation, Melane worked for Ohio Bell Telephone Company and by 1971, she and Renee Jacobs were inaugural members of the Mandalas Club’s choral group. The Mandalas Club operated as a women’s fine arts organization that sponsored music recitals, theater production parties, nature tours, museum visits, and sports events. While still employed at Ohio Bell, Melane supported herself through college and earned a bachelor’s degree from Baldwin Wallace University and master’s at John Carroll University. In 1977, Melane left Cleveland for Akron, Ohio and worked as a teacher at Saint Sebastian Catholic School for the next thirty-five years. In 1988, the Cleveland Diocese Southern Regional Board of Catholic Education awarded Melane one of its sixteen outstanding teachers honors. She retired from classroom teaching but worked at Dellosa Publishing Company conducting teacher’s workshops and recording instructional material for blind and visually impaired people. Malane returned to the classroom as a tutor for Judith A. Resnik Elementary School in Akron before her passing on 13 January 2022.
Organist Nancy Louise Voigt was one of the only musicians credited on the album not of Lebanese, Syrian, or Palestinian descent. Of Austrian-Hungarian ancestry. Voigt was born in Cleveland on 25 September 1936 to Anna Forgatch and Alfred Voigt. A student at Saint Charles Junior High School, Nancy played bass clarinet, piano, and organ. By the time she reached Lourdes Academy, Nancy played only piano and organ. The Cleveland Institute of Music admitted Voigt who developed as a composer and a noteworthy pianist by the time she received her bachelor’s degree in 1958. The Institute then hired Nancy onto its faculty to instruct and supervise up and coming students of the piano, organ, and harpsichord. Voigt remained at the Institute from 1959 until 1965 when Hiram College hired her to teach piano. An international contemporary music competition against fifty-three other musicians, in Utracht, Holland, yielded second place honors and even more recognition for Voigt in 1968. A local and regional concert circuit awaited Voigt upon her return and she soloed and accompanied other artists for a series of recitals and gigs.
Cuyahoga Community College next hired Nancy Voigt to serve on its music faculty. There were faculty recitals and concerts, students to teach, advise and support, and lectures, articles, and book reviews to write. After several years at Cuyahoga College, the music department at Cleveland State University offered Voigt a faculty position. She remained in this post for the rest of her teaching career.
Nancy presented the Cleveland Museum of Art lecture on “The Goudeamus Competition” in September 1977. She performed "Sonata for Piano" on the occasion of Hungarian-born composer Marcel Dick for his 80th birthday celebration held at the Cleveland Institute of Music in August 1978. She also played for the Great Lakes Chamber Ensemble on 12 July 1981.
At the age of forty-seven, on 23 September 1983, Nancy married Clement A. Miller in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Clement was about twenty years Nancy’s senior and a recent widower when he met Nancy. Neither had any living child, nor did the two have children together. They were married for twenty-two years before Clement’s passing in 2005.
In her later years, it seems Nancy lived between Florida and Ohio. She moved into an assisted living facility and died Sunday, March 6, 2022, at age 85. She lived nearly two moths longer than her former collaborator Melane Francis.
Nancy Gantose (July 1952-) was born to James Gantose and Angela Tortelli Gantose. Nancy began playing the piano at eight years old. At Brooklyn High School in Ohio, she played piano, French Horn, and became a member of the Spanish Club, the English Honorary, and Mu Alpha Theta Math honorary society. Nancy was one of several students to take an ad out in local papers for people or groups looking to hire a piano accompanist. In 1970 Gantose appeared in the Brooklyn Summer Theater production of “The Miser” and a 1971 musical production of “Little Mary Sunshine.” After high school graduation, she joined the Gatsby Band fronted by friend and fellow Saint Elias member Shellie Jacobs. Ghatose remained with the group until the late 1970s or early 1980s. Nancy also attended Indiana University in Bloomington but transferred and complete her bachelor's degree at Baldwin Wallace University.
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| Nancy Gantose at Brooklyn High School in 1970. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
After collaborations with Shellie Jacobs, Nancy Gantose dueted with Daniel Maier and his quartet; this transformed into a lifelong relationship. Cleveland State University’s Sundown Jazz fest brought pianist Daniel Maier, Ron Smith, Mitch Cutlip, and Ron Godale to the stage in November 1978. Nancy Gantose joined the quartet as a featured artist as both pianists experienced a growth in popularity during this period. Publicly, Gantose became a regular performer on the hotel lounge scene. There was the Inn at Fowler’s Mill, the Tiffany Room Restaurant, and the Harley Hotel in the Cleveland metropolitan area. Privately, Nancy married Daniel Mairer, first on 25 September 1982 in Ohio, and then a second time in New York City in 1985. The couple remained in Brooklyn, New York, where Nancy picked uo gigs as a waitress, audition accompanist musician, voice instructor, and musical theater associate conductor.
Although New York overflowed with music, theater, and a plethora of cultural venues, events, and opportunities, Nancy and Dan returned to Cleveland in 1989. She eventually earned a master’s degree and began a career as a theater music director in and around the Greater Cleveland region. Her alma mater, Baldwin Wallace Music Conservatory, offered her work as a vocal coach and music director from 1996 to 2012; she continue to direct and, on occasion, perform theater across the Cleveland metropolitan region. In addition to working as director of the Music Theater Project, she and Dan supervise and run co-director their church's music ministry.
Taken together or separately, the musicians, singers, and choir that contributed to this project make up and essential part of Cleveland, Ohio's musical history. There is no documentation related to how many pressings Saint Elias ordered of this album but suspicions are that this is a rare gem.
Special thank you to Shellie Jacobs.
Richard M. Breaux
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