< Previous page

In 1981, the two unearthed what is thought to be the oldest ark, or container for the Torah scrolls, from a site near the Lebanon border. More recently the couple worked in Sephorris, an ancient Jewish town near Nazareth, where they discovered a Greek-inspired floor mosaic in the banquet hall of a villa.

But throughout his academic career, Meyers has found time for singing. He took voice lessons for more than 30 years with the late John Kennedy Hanks, a professor of voice at Duke, whom he likened to his "shrink." Whatever issues he had with crabby colleagues or endless committee meetings would disappear once he started practicing his scales.

"Within five minutes I was zoned out and into my music sphere," Meyers said. "It was very transformative."

Music in motion

This summer, Meyers traveled to Brazil as part of a choral tour directed by Rodney Wynkoop, the conductor of the Duke Chapel Choir. He's a regular at classical music recitals and concerts and enjoys some of the more contemporary avant garde classical ventures such as the Kronos Quartet, which performed at Duke last week.

These past few days, he has been practicing for the marathon Yom Kippur service. The High Holiday services always make cantors nervous, Meyers said, and none more so than the Yom Kippur service in which the entire congregation, including the cantor, fasts from all food and drink.

Meyers said he hopes it will be a cool day with low ragweed counts so his allergies won't be triggered. He has had his share of physical emergencies during the High Holidays. Once, he had to have a root canal in the middle of the day but returned in time to sing the concluding service. Another time he had a temperature of 102 degrees.

Like the pros, he knows how to sing through emergencies.

And always, he says, it's a blessing.

< Previous page