Barbara Unger-Wertico
Barb has been the accompanist at Beth Emet Synagogue since 2003 and has accompanied Cantor Erin Frankel, Cantor Arik Luck, Cantor Susan Lewis-Friedman, Cantor Richard Cohn, Cantor Kyle Cotler, and Cantor Natalie Young.
Drawing on her years of classical training at the University of Illinois, Barb performed live with The Buckinghams and later worked as a soloist prior to joining the band, R-Gang. In 1993, Barb toured with renowned jazz guitarist Pat Metheny throughout Europe, Israel, South America and the U.S., playing rhythm guitar, keyboards, percussion and vocals on Metheny’s “Secret Story” tour.
Her keyboard work can be heard on the song “Beyond Our Wildest Dreams” in Delirious, starring John Candy. She also played keyboards on jazz guitarist John Moulder’s CD, Awakening; on her husband’s (drummer Paul Wertico) CDs, The Yin And The Yout and StereoNucleosis. Barb has co-written music with bassist Bill Syniar and Jim Peterik (leader of the famed bands, The Ides of March and Survivor). Their initial effort, “Under the Spell,” appeared on The Doobie Brothers’ CD, Brotherhood.
She has written and co-written several pieces of music for Beth Emet for High Holidays, Shabbat services, and other occasions. Barb and Cantor Luck’s version of Mi Shebeirach was published in the 2015 Biennial Songbook.
Following the Tree of Life massacre in 2018, Barbara wrote the song, Love Can Conquer Hate, inspired by the words of Rabbi Peter Knobel at Beth Emet’s interfaith vigil.
