Tenor finds his calling as a cantor
''When I wasn't singing, I was pumping gas, driving school buses, delivering newspapers, and slicing bologna," said cantor Charles Osborne of Temple Emanuel in Newton. ''I struggled."
A graduate of the Hartt School of Music, Osborne would sing any chance he could. ''I'd work my day job, take an opera workshop, and accept whatever professional singing jobs that would come my way." But at 6 feet 5 inches tall, the tenacious tenor recognized that he just wasn't the right fit for many opera productions.
Instead, Osborne has found his calling as a cantor. He has been at Temple Emanuel for 18 years, where he's gained national recognition not just for his voice but also his composing. He has written more than 100 choral settings of liturgy and sacred texts; four oratorios; a symphony; and concertos for the flute, guitar, and viola. His work has been performed at New York's Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
Now 56, Osborne began playing piano at 5 and singing at 8. He had his first professional gig, in his hometown of Suffern, N.Y., when he turned 12.
''Someone needed a few kids to sing in a church choir on Christmas Eve," said Osborne, who was familiar with the music, having grown up Protestant. His late father came from a long line of Scottish-Irish Orangemen, and his late mother was a native of Puerto Rico. The couple met when Osborne's father was in the military in San Juan. Osborne's maternal grandmother was a Jew whose family fled the Spanish Inquisition.
As a young child, he spoke Spanish. He became a bit too accustomed to the language, at least as far as school officials were concerned. ''They gave me speech therapy because I spoke English with a Spanish accent," he said.
Not that Osborne has any problem with languages. He may not be able to speak them all, but he can now sing in 10 of them. In addition to English and Spanish, he can perform in Italian, German, French, Czech, Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino (the Spanish equivalent of Yiddish).
Just as his musical life has taken its twists and turns, so has his spiritual life.
At one point, Osborne thought about becoming an Episcopalian priest. He recalled saying to himself, ''If you're going to do something that drastic with your life, you'd better be very sure about what it is that you believe." After some very intense soul-searching, he realized that he had a strong faith in God, but ''didn't believe in a lot of the creeds and beliefs in Christianity."
Through singing jobs at synagogues, he had gotten to know a few rabbis and cantors. He began to think about converting to Judaism.
''When I had this discussion with my wife, who was born Episcopalian, she said she had been thinking along the same line but didn't have the nerve to discuss it with me," he said. The couple, who had been married for 10 years, converted together. Osborne's wife, Kathryn, is one of the temple's B'nai Mitzvah tutors.
Osborne attended the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York from 1983 to 1987, before being hired by Temple Emanuel. He is the founder and director of Kol Rinah, the Jewish Youth chorus of Greater Boston; teaches the cantorial program at Hebrew College; and supervises and arranges music for two Klezmer bands.
''Some people eat peanuts; some people do crossword puzzles; I write music," said Osborne, who added that his best ideas come just as he's falling asleep at night and waking up in the morning. ''I'll hear some music, pop up and say, 'I've never heard that before,' get up, and write it down."
On Dec. 24, the temple's 16th annual Hanukkah Happens will feature two new works by Osborne, including a viola concerto performed by the Boston Symphony's Michael Zaretsky. Osborne will join New York-based soprano Meredith Greenberg in a work by Israeli-American composer Robert Starer. The Zamir Chorale of Boston and the Emanuel Festival Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Joshua Jacobson, are also on the program.
The sanctuary, which holds 850 people, is expected to be full. Osborne added that a handful of neighborhood regulars -- who are not Jewish-- come to the concert annually, then make it to church by 11.
''I'm never bored," Osborne said. ''I always have something interesting to do; some of it is work-related; a lot of it is self-generated. It's a wonderful way to be."
For information on Hanukkah Happens, contact Ann Chalmer at 617-630-5729 or e- mail chalmer@comcast.net. Tickets are $25; $20 for children under 13. Proceeds benefit the ARMDI/American Friends of David Adom, providers of medical supplies to Israel.
PRESERVING HISTORY IN HUDSON: If Hudson had a Mr. History, Victor Rimkus would be it.
A 1949 graduate of Hudson High School, he taught history there for 35 years. He no doubt will be remembered for years to come thanks to regular showings of his documentaries, ''Sports in Hudson" and ''Hudson Remembers WWll Veterans."
The 80-minute World War II movie spotlights 27 veterans, including Lieutenant Allan Johnson, who spent a month in a Russian hospital after his Army Air Force plane was hit over Poland and crashed in Hungary; Seamen Felix Caponi and Camillo ''Kelly" DiEorio, whose ship was torpedoed; and Arthur Fieldsend, a ''bazooka man" who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and lost his arm to a German tank.
''Some of the interviews took place at the VFW hall and many others, right on the street," said Rimkus, who served in the Marines during the '50s. Since the film debuted a decade ago, nearly half of the veterans have died, he said.
Rimkus cowrote 1998's ''Sports in Hudson" with Herb Busch, who coached football with Rimkus at the high school. The pair tracked down such memorabilia as parts of the Concord High School goalposts from 1952 when Hudson broke Concord's 59-game winning streak, a Hudson hockey jersey from the 1930s, and film of a 1950s Hudson High team playing in the Worcester Arena.
Rimkus, who retired in 1993, took pride in hearing his students say he not only taught history, he made it fun. ''I did all sorts of things to get their attention," he said.
He loved playing the straight man, staying expressionless during lessons and slipping in jokes to see if the class was paying attention. Once he informed students that the Declaration of Independence was actually signed on July 2 so that the Founding Fathers could get away for the holiday weekend.
Had the fates taken a different turn, Rimkus could have been the star of a Hudson sports documentary. After attending Holy Cross on a football scholarship, he tried out for the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. He didn't make it to the pros, but he can claim a place in the Holy Cross Athletics Hall of Fame.
Still an avid athlete at 74, Rimkus is a member of the Rusty Blades hockey club, which has earned gold, bronze, and silver medals at the National Senior Olympics.
Last June, he added another gold medal to his collection, winning in doubles tennis with fellow Hudson resident Bobby Rochleau.
''I'd always wanted to join the town's historical society, but the meetings fell on the same night as practice for the Rusty Blades," Rimkus said. He finally did in 1994, while convalescing from hip surgery.
Earlier this year, Rimkus was asked to do a program on the Temperance Movement for the historical society. His answer: ''I'll do it, but I'm not for it."
After two months of research, much of it online, Rimkus presented ''The Temperance Movement in Words and Music." He was accompanied by his son, Matthew, one of eight children.
''My son is an outstanding singer and musician, so I knew I'd have talent for the presentation. It just took a while to convince him." Among the songs he performed was ''I Never Knew I Had a Wonderful Wife Until the Town Went Dry."
Rimkus and his wife of 50 years, Rosemary, live in a Victorian house built in 1872. Parked outside is their travel-trailer, which itself has seen a fair amount of history. The couple has visited museums and resting sites of presidents Garfield, Eisenhower, Truman, Andrew Johnson, Wilson, and FDR.
''My daughter, Martha, a registered nurse at Marlborough Hospital, likes to joke and say, 'Did you go and visit another dead president?' "
The next project Rimkus would like to tackle: The Korean War.
For information on the Hudson Historical Society, call 978-562-2130
AROUND THE TOWNS: The Rev. Howard M. Haywood of the Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton was presented with the 21st annual Newton Human Rights Award. . . . Elaine M. Lapomardo of Shrewsbury has been named dean of enrollment at Anna Maria College in Paxton. . . . Wesley Gardenswartz of Newton was installed as Senior Rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Newton.
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