(MDiv / MA / ThM; no classes, all students on campus)

(No classes, all students on campus)

*Registration has ended for this event. 
For questions, please email musicinstitute@svots.edu

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced musician, enhance your craft and immerse yourself in hymns from the Slavic, Byzantine, Coptic, and Georgian chant traditions this June, at the 2021 St. Vladimir’s Seminary Summer Music Institute. The online event, themed “Unity in the Church through Song,” will take place June 2-5, 2021 and will be hosted by the Seminary’s Institute of Sacred Arts (ISA).

Join an incredible lineup of musical instructors including Anthony J. Maglione, Vladimir Morosan, John Michael Boyer, Tynan Davis, and Benedict and Talia Sheehan—to name but a few. Conference participants will also enjoy exclusive presentations by colleagues pioneering in Orthodox sacred music including keynote lectures, panel discussions, and special pop-up presentations. Lectures and panel discussions will also allow time for Q&A.

“Recent times have left many of us wounded by isolation, division, and fear. Now more than ever we need to understand each other and care for each other,” said ISA Director Dr. Peter Bouteneff. “What better way to express that understanding and care than to immerse ourselves in each other’s different traditions of church singing?”

The Summer Music Institute aims to celebrate and explore the diversity of musical cultures in Orthodoxy and improve our technique as choir singers, directors, and composers. The Institute will provide the unique experience of learning hymns from four chant traditions—Slavic, Byzantine, Coptic, and Georgian—first hand. Led by a team of experts and technicians, you will be given the tools to analyze, understand, and faithfully JOIN IN the songs of our brothers and sisters across the world.

“The Summer Music Institute celebrates the unique capability of music to create unity out of diversity—harmony out of cacophony—by using songs, singers, and teachers from outside our respective traditions to help us become better artists in our own crafts,” said Talia Sheehan. Sheehan, a vocalist, music educator, and conductor, is teaming up with the ISA to put on the event with co-organizers Bouteneff and Dr. Harrison Russin, the Seminary’s director of music. 

Experienced participants will enjoy masterclasses with detailed coaching and feedback in their choice of three disciplines from gifted pedagogues. Beginners will also enjoy a series of masterclass presentations designed for those just starting out in church music. Built like a “boot camp” for new choir directors and singers, the program will offer a quick but thorough introduction to all the necessary skills—musical, liturgical, and interpersonal—they need to succeed as a new church musician.

The Summer Music Institute will kick off Wednesday evening, June 2, with a keynote address by Dr. David Drillock, St. Vladimir’s professor of liturgical music, emeritus. 

Click here to learn more, view bios of instructors and keynote speakers, and see the event schedule.

• (Update: 13 December 2021)

Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary has begun concluding its special year of celebration in honor of former dean and renowned theologian Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann (September 13, 1921–December 13, 1983). The year 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of Fr. Alexander's birth.

On December 13, 2021, the date of Fr. Alexander's remembrance in the Church, the Seminary released another powerful, timeless message resurrected from archived recordings of Schmemann. In it, Fr. Alexander speaks of two fundamental reductions of Christianity, which endure in our day, that obscure what is "horribly difficult"—but truly life-giving—about following Jesus Christ.

The "Year of Schmemann" celebrations kicked off Tuesday, January 26, 2021 with the release of an unearthed recording of Schmemann (embedded below). His words, captured decades ago—on a recording that had recently come into the Seminary's possession—are anything but dated. They are further proof that Fr. Alexander remains "A Voice for Our Time."

Celebrations continued Saturday, January 30, 2021 with The 38th Annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture. The online event coincided with the release of the book, A Voice for Our Time: Radio Liberty Talks, Vol. 1, featuring an English translation of Schmemann’s broadcasts into the Soviet Union. New York Times bestselling author Rod Dreher, who wrote the foreword for the book, delivered this year’s lecture. The second volume from St. Vladimir's Seminary (SVS) Press is forthcoming.

On March 17, 2021 St. Vladimir's launched the new podcast, Schmemann Speaks, featuring the words and wisdom of Fr. Alexander from the archives of the Seminary. Listen to the latest episodes below, or subscribe and download Schmemann Speaks on your favorite platforms (Spotify, iTunes, Google Music, and more to come).

May the memory of Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann be eternal! 

A lot of people have been talking about the new book, Science and the Christian Faith (SVS Press), since its release in January. Later this month, have a chat with the author of the popular book himself, Fr. Christopher C. Knight, as he tackles the question, “are science and Christianity in conflict?”

Join The Rev. Dr. Christopher C. Knight and SVS Press Foundations Series Editor Dr. Peter C. Bouteneff online Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 5:30 p.m. EST for the virtual book launch of Science and the Christian Faith: A Guide for the Perplexed. They’ll host a discussion about the book and its implications for Christians.

• Click HERE to buy your copy of Science and the Christian Faith

There is no cost to attend the webinar, but you must sign up before the registration period ends February 22 at 11 p.m.  

About the Author
Christopher C. Knight holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics and serves as a priest of the Orthodox Church. He is a senior research associate of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, England.

About the Foundations Series
Testifying to the faith and creativity of the Orthodox Christian Church, the Foundations Series draws upon the riches of its tradition to address the modern world. The series’ survey texts are suitable both for preliminary inquiry and deeper investigation, in the classroom and for personal study. Foundations Series Editor Dr. Peter C. Bouteneff is an internationally recognized professor of Orthodox theology who teaches at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, NY.

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Registration to attend the Virtual Book Launch of Science and the Christian Faith is now closed. A recording of the event is available here.

To stand for the sanctity of human life, St. Vladimir’s Seminary will participate in a virtual March for Life January 28 with the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). 

Saint Vladimir’s and sister seminary St. Tikhon’s join His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon each year at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. This year, due to pandemic, the seminaries will instead join the OCA at an online rally for the lives of the unborn. 

His Beatitude will lead a prayer service and deliver a message at St. Vladimir’s Three Hierarchs Chapel to begin the virtual march. That will be followed by a talk from Dr. Ana Iltis, professor and director of the Center for Bioethics, Health and Society at Wake Forest University and professor of philosophy at St. Vladimir's Seminary. Three more speakers will then offer reflections.

The event will be hosted by St. Vladimir’s Alumnus Fr. Thomas Soroka starting at 7:30 p.m. EST. The livestream will be available at OCA.org/live as well as the OCA Facebook and YouTube pages.

On-campus Gathering • By Deborah (Malacky) Belonick

Logan Johnson and Sarah Johnson, future hospital chaplains.Fellow students honored two senior seminarians this past Sunday with a small reception that recognized their recent great accomplishments. Seniors Logan Johnson and Sarah Johnson (no family relation!), who will graduate this spring with Master of Divinity degrees, have been accepted into highly competitive and prestigious full-time CPE (i.e., Clinical Pastoral Education) programs, starting in August 2012. The programs will prepare them to be certified hospital and institutional chaplains.

"The CPE residency program I am joining is at Carolinas Medical Center NorthEast in Concord, North Carolina—part of the medical system in the Charlotte area," noted Sarah. "It is in a community-oriented hospital that really impressed me as a positive atmosphere in which pastoral care is recognized and respected by the whole staff. This residency will help me prepare for board certification as a chaplain. I am really excited about this opportunity and look forward to starting the program in August."

And Logan, commenting on his upcoming residency at Cleveland Clinic (ranked fourth in the nation by US News and World Report), explained, "The CPE residency at Cleveland Clinic is within the Center for Ethics, Humanities and Spiritual Care, and residents minister to over 1,400 patients, their families, and the hospital staff. Patients come across the world for treatment, and I am excited to be part of a team that cares for such a culturally and religiously diverse population.

At the reception, students congratulated Sarah and Logan, offering a hearty "Axios" and "Axia" in recognition of their hard work, and offering encouragement for their upcoming challenges.