At a very young age, Richard was picked out of his elementary school to participate in a special program for musically gifted children at the local college. Professors and teachers, with pen in hand, scribbled notes on what they saw... a very young man with natural musical abilities far beyond his years. With no musical or artistic abilities in his immediate family, Richard began forging his own musical path.
Supporting his musical interests, his parents bought Richard his first keyboard... an organ with instrumental sounds and drum beats. "The organ was a musical playscape for me...Gans said. " I was a one man band. I didn’t have to practice scales and play classical music like my friends who took piano lessons.
I went straight to playing songs I wanted to play... like “Aquarius from then "new" Broadway musical HAIR.
I opened the front door and gave concerts to the neighborhood."
Rejecting a more disciplined approach to music, Richard eventually transitioned to the piano, using the same musical sensibilities he had picked up on the organ. His next aquisition was a Fender Rhodes electric piano which enabled him join bands with his high school friends.
Intoduced by his good friend Kirk Taylor, Richard joined "The Mighty Chain Reaction." "I was the only white guy in the band. I felt honored to hang with these tallented and funky guys, although we played in some pretty rough neighborhoods." One night when Richard came home from a gig in a downtown bar with 10 dollars to show for it, his parents forbid him to stay in the band, and Richard was forced to quit.
His musical exposure to Jewish music began in his hometown synagogue, Rodeph Sholom in Bridgport Connecticut. Richard explains, "It had a majestic sanctuary and a Hammond B3 Organ with a powerful Leslie speaker that wailed through the choir loft shutters. Cantor Grama, a blessed memory, showed me how to turn the organ on. I would sneak into the choir loft during Hebrew school recess. and blast out my own version of Adon Olam to Santana’s Evil Ways. t felt a little sacrilegious.. but exciting to mess with “high church-like reverential liturgical tunes." Little did Richard know, the seeds of liturgical exploration were already planted.
But it would be many years before Richard could connect his spiritual awakenings to his music. Musical legends like Shlomo Carlebach encouraged his notion of open musical spirituality as well retreats to Eilat Chayyim, a Jewish Renewal Retreat Center, where new age Jews let their spirits and voices soar.
Perplexed by the state of prayer in synagogues… the boredom, disconnection, and passivity...Richard aligned with some community members in the New Haven area to form Shabbat Alive. Bnai Jeshurun in New York city was the musical model. as the group traveled from synogogue to synogogue spreading a musical message. Richard took no prisoners often stopping in mid-song until the whole congretation was on board... singing, clapping and dancing. " In conservative synogogues, instrumental music was the new kid on the block and sometimes very controversial" explains Gans.
As time went on, crowds began to subside. "Synogoues would advertise "Musical Shabbat" like the special of the month. It became a marketing tool, not a part of the synogogue culture" says Gans. " When hired as a musician for other congregrational Shabbat bands, I noticed that people were sitting back in their seats again. The music had become entertainment! I have come to understand that music was part of the answer, but not the whole answer."
"It wasn’t until one day in Yoga class that the answer became clear to Richard. "The Yoga instuctor was playing this kind of call and responce chanting music in a language I did not understand. The musical genre was called “kirtan” and the language was Indian Sanskrit. This music was so full of love.. the voices so joyful and connected... the melodies so beautiful yet simple. It was comforting and came from a deep place. Spiritual transportation had come to my doorstep. I loved it and wanted to learn more. It completely resonated with me. I drank it in. And if it could be done in Sanskrit...why not Hebrew?
"The singer on that CD was Krishna Das...a Jewish boy from Long Island who packs small and large venues with his deep resonating voice and soulful chants.
I bought his CD’s, attended his chants and workshops, and began playing his melodies, substituting Sansrit iwth Hebrew words and Hebrew phrases.
Around that time, Richard reconnected with Shefa Gold, the pioneer of Hebrew Chant. "I took workshops with her at Eilat Chayim. She opened me to
her practice of elevating jewels of Hebrew liturgy into spiritual encounters. She was a wonderful teacher... very giving. and asked me to accompany her at a few of her chants."
"I started my own morning practice of writing a chant a day after my morning davening. (prayer) I would highlight Hebrew phrases in my siddur (prayerbook) that reached out to me. These short litugical diamonds buried in the liturgy, seemed to jump off the page. Soon, I filled up an entire notebook with my rudamentary notatation. I took voice lessons . I began to orchestrate the chants on my digital workstation. I hak a world of instruments and at my fingertips. I could play the tabla and sitar or bansai flute.
Eventually, immitation gave way to originality. Gans began doing Rosh Chodesh Chants with his Yoga instuctor Bill Bannick at the Jewish Community Center. "He would do the Yoga poses to the music. It was very cool!" Richard also did a chant with Hebrew High School students at Makom Hebrew High School in Woodbridge. The kids were really into it.
But the biggest thrill for Richard was returning to Rodeph Sholom, his childhood synogogue where it all began. "I did a Chant in that awsome sanctuary on the same bimah where I was Bar Mitvahed. I projected the words and visuals on the domed ceiling and sang my heart out... Full circle!"
