Draft:Jenni Asher

Jenni Asher (born 1986 or 1987) is an American musician, composer, and cantorial student. Upon her ordination as a cantor, Asher will become the first ordained cantor who is both a woman and Black.

Early life and education
Asher grew up in Pasadena, California. She was introduced to music at a young age; her white mother took her to orchestral concerts and her Black father was a singer who enjoyed jazz. At age four, she decided she wanted to be a violinist. Asher was isolated as a child; raised in the evangelical Worldwide Church of God, she was homeschooled, and music events were her main exposure to the outside world.

Asher earned a bachelor's degree in violin performance from the Royal Academy of Music, and a master's degree in Music Leadership from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Music
Asher has released three albums: London (2014), Freedom (2017), and Yaladati (2021)

In addition to violin, Asher also plays cello, double bass, erhu, piano, and viola. Her 2021 album, Yaladati, was self-produced over the course of four years, with Asher singing and playing all the instruments on the album.

In the mid-2010s, Asher worked as a music teacher.

Musician Bodywork
Asher founded Musician Bodywork, a massage business focusing on serving musicians. The business was inspired by her own experiences with tendonitis throughout her teenage years. She earned her massage certification in 2009, and worked as a massage therapist at the Royal Academy of Music while attending the school as a student. She is a member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association. Asher has also taught classes on massage therapy for violinists.

Personal life
Asher lived in London for nine years while pursuing her higher education. While living in London, she began attending services at London's Central Synagogue, and decided to convert to Judaism. She converted through both the Conservative American Jewish University and through a Sephardic Orthodox congregation. She later became a cantorial student at Academy for Jewish Religion California. As of February 2024, Asher works as a cantorial soloist for a Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles.

Asher met her husband in a chat room in 1999, and the two married when she returned to the United States.

Asher and her husband have two children. The family attends a Mizrahi synagogue in Santa Monica.