Orthodox Music Masterclass 2021

The history of Orthodox music publishing and the development of music education

resources in North America has been sporadic and haphazard, proceeding largely in ad

hoc fashion and without a clear and well-delineated plan.

While just a few decades ago there was a distinct lack of musical and textual resources

for the Orthodox church musician, the growth of the Internet and music typesetting

platforms has resulted in a veritable “forest” of websites offering a dizzying array of

music, both in English and in Old World liturgical languages. The problem church

musicians face today is not so much discovering these resources as discerning what is

useful and relevant for building and sustaining a vibrant and effective liturgical music

ministry.

This presentation will endeavor to identify and examine some of the major categories

of liturgical music resources that church musicians have to navigate — largely in

cyberspace — as well as suggest some criteria by which one may sift through the

various available offerings and discern what is indeed relevant for the building up of

the Body of Christ in North America.

Dr. Morosan is one of the leading experts in the West in the field of Orthodox liturgical music. A graduate of Occidental College and the University of Illinois with specializations in choral conducting and musicology, he went on to do post-graduate research at the Moscow State Conservatory (under the guidance of Klavdy Ptitsa) and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. His book, Choral Performance in Pre-Revolutionary Russia (UMI Research Press, 1986) remains the definitive study on that subject. With the assistance of grants from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation and the William J. Fulbright Foundation, he traveled throughout Russia and Europe, amassing one of the largest collections of Russian Orthodox sacred musical scores in the world—material that he subsequently catalogued under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. As Founder and Director of the Orthodox Sacred Music Reference Library Project, he is making this material available online under the auspices of the non-profit Russian Choral Heritage Foundation. In 1987 he established Musica Russica, a publishing company specializing in the publication and dissemination of Orthodox choral music throughout the Western world. As Founder and Artistic Director of Archangel Voices, a professional choral ensemble, he has recorded six CDs of Orthodox liturgical music in English; he is also the composer and editor of numerous choral arrangements. He has assembled programs for and coached many prestigious professional choirs, including three Grammy-Award winners and nominees, in their performances of Russian Orthodox music. He serves as Project Lead for online instruction in the Department of Liturgical Music of the Orthodox Church in America. A tonsured reader in the Orthodox Church, he currently serves as Director of Liturgical Singing at St. Katherine Orthodox Mission in Carlsbad, California.

In this lecture I discuss a number of possible approaches I have either examined or made use of

in composition to the question of finding a way for the aesthetics of Orthodox approaches to art

to co-exist with the reality of the modern world. How might Orthodox spirituality speak through

contemporary means without becoming diminished or compromised? Without promising any

definitive answer, this is the central question I shall address.

Fr. Ivan studied music and theology at the Universities of London, Joensuu and York (where he took his doctorate). He studied composition with Brian Dennis, Sir John Tavener and William Brooks. His music has been performed and broadcast all over the world, and commissioned by world-renowned artists.

His largest works to date are Passion and Resurrection (1992), the Akathistos Hymn (1998) and Qohelet (2013). Other significant works from recent years include the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom No. 2 (Greek Liturgy), commissioned by the St Romanos Choir of Chicago, The Land that was Not, commissioned for the BBC Singers and ‘cellist Nicholas Altstaedt and premièred in London in October 2014, and the Dante Trilogy, for choir and ensemble (O Luce Etterna, Oltre la Spera, and Cielo della Luna, premièred in Portugal and the USA). In 2016 he completed Los Espejos de Velázquez for the pianist Artur Pizarro, Paris, 7 a.m. for soprano Suzie Leblanc, a Petrarch cycle, Le Vergine, for Stimmwerck, Lacrimae for the brass ensemble Septura, and the large-scale Vespers Sequence for New York Polyphony, premièred to great acclaim in New York in January 2017. In 2017 he completed Psalm Antiphon for the Lisbon University Chamber Choir, a companion work to Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, two works in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Singer Pur, commissioned by Singer Pur and the Regensburger Domspatz, and in 2018 Isangele, premièred by the English Chamber Choir at the Patmos Festival of Sacred Music, and a set of three motets for Trio Mediaeval. Works completed this year include Tanninim for tuba and piano, to be premièred in Alcobaça, Portugal, by the composer’s daughter Sofia in August.

As a conductor, Ivan Moody has directed and collaborated with many choirs and vocal groups, notably Voces Angelicae and the Kastalsky Chamber Choir in Britain (both of which he founded) and Capilla Peña Florida in Spain. In 1992 he was invited by Radio Nacional de España to direct the inaugural concert in celebration of Columbus Day, broadcast live to more than 30 countries. He is a founder member of Ensemble Alpha, specializing in eastern and western mediaeval music, and which has given hugely successful concerts in various European countries and the USA, and of the Pravoslava chamber choir. He is in frequent demand as a guest conductor, and has given courses with a number of groups, such as Capilla Peña Florida (Spain), Vértice and the choir of the Semanas Internacionais de Música (Portugal), the Early Music Ensemble of the UFF (Brazil), Cappella Romana (USA), the Winterthur Vocal Ensemble (Switzerland) the Orthodox Choir of the University of Joensuu (Finland), the choir of St George’s Cathedral, Novi Sad (Serbia), Sforzinda (Spain), the Odyssea Choir (Portugal), the Chamber Choir of the Academy of Arts, Novi Sad, (Serbia) and Vox Laci (Portugal). He is a co-founder, together with Peter Phillips, Pedro Teixeira and Jordi Abelló, of the choral course Victoria 400, held in Barcelona.

As a musicologist, Ivan Moody has published extensively on the music of the Balkans, Russia and the Mediterranean, with a particular emphasis on contemporary and sacred music. His book Modernism and Orthodox Spirituality in Contemporary Music was published in 2014. He is a researcher at CESEM – Universidade Nova, Lisbon, having previously been Professor of church music at the University of Eastern Finland, and is founder and president of the International Society for Orthodox Church Music, founder member of the music panel of the European Academy of Religion and Coordinator of the Music Panel of the International Orthodox Theological Association. He is a protopresbyter of the Orthodox Church (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople) and rector of the parish of St John the Russian in Estoril, Portugal.

Church music leaders play a unique and critical role in the Orthodox Christian worship experience. Photini Downie Robinson, Lambadarios at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Portland and recent recipient of the Certificate in Byzantine Music from Hellenic College Holy Cross, will offer some reflections about the practical challenges – and opportunities – we encounter as liturgical musicians and how to lead the way forward with empathy and grace.

Passionate about the musical traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, soprano Photini Downie Robinson is on the forefront of today’s Orthodox music scene as a leader, teacher, and practitioner. She runs a private voice studio, Yphos Music, which is dedicated to the instruction of healthy vocal technique within the context of Byzantine Chant and other types of liturgical music. Equally at home in the choir loft or as a soloist, Photini has decades of experience as a church musician, professional ensemble artist, and secular performer of a wide variety of genres and styles.

Photini is the Lambadarios (second cantor) at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Portland, Oregon where she leads the left analogion and assists with the parish choir. She is a touring artist with the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble Cappella Romana and also serves on their Board of Directors. She is on the faculty of the Artefact Institute and is a regular singer on the roster of the Grammy-nominated Saint Tikhon Choir, led by Benedict Sheehan. Photini is one of the leading advocates for integrating women into the classical tradition of the Psaltic Art and is deeply committed to the education, training, and support of all singers who desire to participate more fully in the liturgical life of their parishes.

Photini earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the DePauw University School of Music in Indiana. She also holds a Certificate of Byzantine Music from the Hellenic College Holy Cross School of Theology where she received an Excellent score, the highest possible distinction. She is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Portland Seminary with a specialization in ecumenical chaplaincy and pastoral ministry.