Article by Fr Bogdan Bucur
St Vladimir's Seminary is happy to share a group of new recordings of Byzantine chant performed by seminarians of the 2020-2023 "COVID cohort": a group of dedicated chanters, most of them in the Antiochian Archdiocese, joined by Samuel Loposky (ACROD; M.Div. ‘24) and Fr. John Black (OCA; M.Div. ‘23), led by the (now) Rev. Nicholas Fine (M.Div. ‘23). During their first semester at St Vladimir’s Seminary (Fall 2020), when the number of persons in a given worship space had to be capped, the seminary arranged for services to be held concomitantly in three locations. One of the groups met in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium for Vespers, Matins, and Divine Liturgy, following the Antiochian liturgical rubrics and using Byzantine chant. It was then and there, under the generous guidance of Nicholas Fine and John Capones (M.Div. ‘23; now a priest in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese), that the idea of such a recording first emerged. It took some three years and the professional assistance of Mr Serge Ossorguine, to whom we express our gratitude for his meticulous work of recording and editing, to arrive, finally, at this point.
The “Byzantine Cohort”--Antiochian seminarians and their families after the last Divine Liturgy in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium. April 2021.
This is the first entirely Byzantine recording from St Vladimir's Seminary, meant not only to showcase the spiritual depth and sober beauty of this musical tradition but also to emphasize the fact that it can be chanted well in English, by Americans, by “cradle Orthodox” and converts alike.
With this offering, we want to honor those who have contributed much to Byzantine chant in English at St Vladimir’s Seminary, especially Bishop Basil Essey (retired Bishop of Wichita and the Diocese of Mid-America, AOCANA) and the late Archimandrite Elias Bitar. It is our hope that these recordings serve as a teaching tool for our incoming seminarians as well as for aspiring chanters in English-speaking Orthodox parishes.
Byzantine chant at St Vladimir's Seminary, 2023 Commencement
This project would not have been possible without the help we received from the Rev. Dn Dr Gregory Abdalah, the Rev. John Salem, and the St Elijah Antiochian Orthodox Church in Oklahoma City, OK, and, especially, from a donor who requested to remain anonymous and whose more-than-generous donation covered the majority of the costs.
Voices (alphabetically): John Black, Bogdan Bucur, Jack Corbin, Nicholas Fine, Anthony Gilbert, Samuel Loposky, Andrew Salvia, Mark Sultani, John Vazquez.
Listen to SVOTS Seminarians Sing Byzantine Chant
