Early life She was born Mascha Benyakonsky or Beniakonskyte in
Virbalis,
Suwałki Governorate,
Russian Empire on October 15, 1908. She was born into a Jewish family; her father Arye Leyb was a merchant originally from
Vilnius with a passion for Jewish music and
Chazzans and opera in particular, and therefore Mascha grew up in a very musical family. Her mother was named Miriam and her siblings were David and Rachel. In that organization, she acted both as an opera performer and singer of Yiddish folksongs, as well as continuing to teach Hebrew to members who were considering emigrating to
Mandatory Palestine, such as Martha Weltsch (the wife of
Robert Weltsch). She became a naturalized US citizen in 1944. She returned to Israel on another tour in 1954. In the mid-1950s, she began to prepare to record an LP for
ABC Records with Harry Anik accompanying her on piano, to be produced by
Abe Lyman. However, both Anik and Lyman died before the album could be completed, and so it was never recorded, although rehearsal tapes for it were later released on
audiocassette. In 1953 she also went on a tour of the United States and Canada with Nishka, Rita Karpinovich and the pianist Polia Kadison, followed by a 1954 tour organized by the Workmen's Circle in celebration of 300 years of Jewish life in the United States, with Israel Welichansky. She also performed in a popular radio program alongside
Sidor Belarsky, created by the education department of the Workmen's Circle and
Joseph Mlotek; it was eventually released as an LP in 1957 called /Once Upon a Time. She had a regular Friday morning show
The Folk Singer on
WEVD, the station owned by the
Jewish Daily Forward, from 1958 until some time in the early 1960s. In 1960 she also released another LP arranged by Joseph Mlotek, called /Let's Sing A Yiddish Song! which she sang with a children's chorus. In September 1970 she visited relatives in
Vilnius,
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, and was dismayed to see the deplorable condition of the Jewish community there. In the 1980s and 1990s, Benya released another round of albums through Musique Internationale, a label founded by Barry Serota in 1969. It was through Serota's efforts that more of her music has been documented, including
Jewish Song Treasury Vol I and
Jewish Song Treasury Vol II (1984),
The Art of Mascha Benya, and
Mascha Benya: A Yiddish Song Recital Featuring the poetry of Itzik Manger (1997) She was a longtime member and later a governing board member of the American Society for Jewish Music, and often gave lectures on Jewish art song at their conferences. She also became a coach, teacher and consultant for many artists and productions, especially in the New York area, on matters of Yiddish singing style, diction, and Jewish opera and art song, and an instructor at the
Hebrew Arts School for Music and Dance. Other materials were donated to the
Leo Baeck Institute. She died in
Queens, New York City, on November 4, 2007. ==Selected recordings==