Atheist Cantor

This is from a NY Times Magazine interview with Carl Icahn:

What did your dad do for a living?

He was a lawyer, but he didn't practice. He only cared about music. He liked to sing. He never got into the Metropolitan Opera, but he became a cantor at a conservative synagogue not far from our home in Queens.

You describe him as an underachiever, but I would imagine that being a cantor is very rewarding work.

You don't understand. He wasn't religious. He was an atheist. It was strange.

Truly bizarre. The only cantor I know from a Conservative synagogue sent his sons to an Orthodox all-boys yeshiva.

(Thanks to Douglas Aronin, who brought this to my attention)