Uruguayan born Ḥazzan Rabbi Luis U. Cattan’s passion for Jewish music, Jewish culture, Jewish spirituality, and Israel transpires in every moment of his career. Ever since he arrived in the United States, he has been involved with the Cantors Assembly, which is the organization that, to him, represents the embodiment of his passion for Jewish music, Jewish spirituality, and Jewish education.
Ḥazzan Rabbi Cattan is currently serving at Sutton Place Synagogue in New York City. In 2020 he received his Rabbinical ordination and Master of Arts in Jewish Studies from the Academy for Jewish Religion. He is the Immediate Past President of the Cantors Assembly.
His music is the result of a blend between the Sephardic and Ashkenazic worlds. His paternal grandparents emigrated from Turkey to Uruguay in 1919. Ladino was their mother tongue. His maternal grandparents emigrated ten years later from Eastern Europe. They spoke Yiddish.
Growing up in Uruguay, he became involved in music at a very early age. He began participating in the synagogue choir at age of 11 and has been singing ever since. As a native Uruguayan he attended the Catholic University of Montevideo receiving his BA in Social Communication Sciences with a major in Advertising. He sought private instruction under the tutelage of renowned local teachers. Upon returning from Israel, where he spent a year studying, he started his Ḥazzanut training with different mentors in Uruguay and in Argentina as well. He became the Head Ḥazzan at the NCI (the largest Conservative Synagogue in Uruguay). He also served as International Vice President of Mercaz Olami (Zionist Conservative Movement) as one of the founders of the Uruguayan Branch.
In 2003 Ḥazzan Rabbi Cattan moved to the United States with his family. He served for five years in Miami Beach, Florida, at the Cuban Hebrew Congregation, where he also created a series of concerts named “Tapas, Wine and Jewish Jazz”. In 2008 he became the cantor at Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus in North Miami Beach, where he also served as education director. During that time, he released a CD named “On the Wings of Prayer” that features the eclectic style of his renditions that blend tradition with contemporary sounds of Sephardic and Ashkenazic origins. Some of the songs from that CD were also part of the last three CD’s of the Spirit Series, a joint project between the Cantors Assembly and USCJ.