Temple Emanuel of Andover’s Cantor Caitlin McLaughlin said she is both excited and daunted to lead the congregation in prayer and song for the first time during the High Holidays.

“You know, this time of year is really intense,” said McLaughlin, who came to the congregation in January, at first as a long-term substitute cantor. “It’s like the fullest expression of everything you get to bring as a musician,” she said.

The month of Elul, she said, is not only a time of spiritual preparation for Jews, but also a time of musical preparation for cantors and musicians. She joked she was in “marathon training” trying to sing a couple of hours each day to prepare.

“It’s a long time singing, the music itself is more demanding, but I love it. I’m just embracing it. It’s a real privilege to get to do this each year,” she said.

“She’s great,” said Rabbi David Wilfond. “She’s got wonderful energy, great musical knowledge and a great commitment to the Jewish people,” he said. McLaughlin understands the role of music and its ability to lift people up spiritually, he said.

McLaughlin said her Scottish Irish name comes from her father, who grew up in Glasgow and came to the United States in 1959 to attend Boston University where he met her mother, a Shapiro from Boston.

“And so, I went through my life as a Jew with the name Caitlin McLaughlin,” she said.

Her husband, Tim Watkins, was not Jewish when they married, but later converted after many years of marriage, she said.

After her parents divorced, her mother and stepfather raised her family in the suburbs of Philadelphia. They attended Congregation Adath Jeshurun, a large Conservative synagogue in Elkins Park.

The congregation had a rich musical environment. She sang in both the youth and adult choirs. The cantor at the time, Charles Stuart Davidson, was a prominent composer, and a wonderful cantor and teacher, she said.

McLaughlin had always wanted to become a cantor but felt as if she could not overcome barriers to becoming one.

She studied music and psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia.

She went to graduate school to study psychology and human development at University of California, Irvine. However, she did not see herself becoming an academic and went on to earn a second master’s in choral conducting.

“Singing in a choir has been a huge part of my development in Jewish music and in music in general,” she said.

She taught music after graduate school when she and her husband were living in New Hampshire while he was doing post-doctoral work at Dartmouth College.

Then, the couple moved again and started a family.

Their two adult children are now in their 20s. One of her children, Lydia Watkins, 24, is a new cantorial soloist at Temple Beth David in Canton, preparing for their first High Holidays on the pulpit. Her son, Ben Watkins, works as an engineer.

When she went back to work, she wound up in the nonprofit sector using her data skills from her research training.

The couple moved to Minnesota for five years and then to Silver Spring, Maryland, outside of Washington. There, McLaughlin worked in policy and program evaluation and early childhood policy in the nonprofit sector and consulting.

She kept up with her music as a lay leader at a Reform congregation in Kensington, Maryland. She substituted for the cantor and played in the Ruach band and sang in the National Philharmonic Chorale.

“My heart was calling me to cantorial work, but I was earning a living and raising a family,” she said.

With her kids off to college, she felt it was time to make a midlife career switch and strike out and become a cantor.

“I really felt if I was ever going to do this, this is the time,” she said.

In 2021, she became a freelance cantorial soloist. She attended the Aleph Ordination Program’s cantorial school, a renewal, cross-denominational virtual training seminary, the same program attended by Cantor Sarah Freudenberger of Swampscott’s Congregation Shirat Hayam.

For four years while in the cantorial school, McLaughlin worked part-time at a Reconstructionist congregation called Oseh Shalom in Laurel, Maryland.

Her family moved to the Boston area when her husband got a job at Mass Audubon. Around this time, McLaughlin met her predecessor at Temple Emanuel, Cantor Rachel Reef-Simpson, at a songwriting conference.

They kept in touch. With Reef-Simpson facing health issues and in need of a long-term substitute, McLaughlin started cantorial work at Temple Emanuel from January to June. As her situation developed, McLaughlin said Reef-Simpson decided it was best for her to step back.

“And so, the congregation and I seemed like we had a good match and so we decided for me to stay on long-term,” McLaughlin said.

Freudenberger said in an email the first year is the hardest when it comes to getting a repertoire together.

“My first year here, I used a lot of what we did in our cantorial nusach classes and I also did a lot of research into what melodies the synagogue was already using in previous years with a ton of help from Rabbi Michael [Ragozin] here, and I did a mindful combination, with singable melodies, traditional nusach weaving through the services,” she said. That attention to detail in her first year yielded such successful services she makes only minor changes from year to year, “but I never forget all the extra hours I put in five years ago now!” Θ