• Overview & Faculty
• Master Class Curriculum & Benefits
• Details on Levels of Participation: Conductors, Chorus, Auditors, Student Assistants, & Volunteers
• All participants will be required to audition: Download Application & Instructions
• Music Pieces Required for Application Process
• Master Class Full Schedule
• Tuition, Room & Board Costs
• Download a Flier about the Master Class
• Download "Praise the Lord," Hvalite (Slavonic)

Overview

The beautiful and inspiring sacred choral heritage of the Eastern Orthodox Church has in recent decades become more widely known in the West, through the increased availability of musical scores and recordings. Liturgical and academically-based choral musicians aspire to perform works from the Orthodox realm, both in liturgical worship and in concert settings. However, opportunities to study the technique, performance practice, and interpretation of Orthodox sacred music on a masterful level have been limited . . . until St. Vladimir's Seminary began cooperation with Dr. Vladimir Gorbik, one of the leading practitioners of sacred choral music in Russia today!

This choral master class—being repeated because of a highly successful Master Class in 2012—provides an opportunity to learn directly from one the master teachers of the Russian Orthodox Sacred music tradition. Dr. Gorbik will be offering his second Master Class on our campus in the interpretation and execution of Orthodox sacred choral music from the perspective of the Russian choral tradition.  

Who is invited to participate?

• choral conductors of university, college, community, and professional choirs, and Orthodox church choir directors; up to six advanced level conductors and up to six beginning level conductors will be selected
• up to sixty accomplished choral singers
• up to fifty interested auditors, student assistants

All participants will be required to audition, and those selected will have an opportunity to engage in an intense schedule of rehearsals, coaching sessions, a choral recital, and four Orthodox services—All-Night Vigil and a Divine Liturgy for both the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (June 29th on the New-Style calendar), as well as the weekend's services. the Master Class will culminate in an off-campus concert, on June 30, 2013. To apply, please download an Application with Audition Instructions, here.

About Vladimir Gorbik

Vladimir Gorbik (b. 1970) began his musical studies in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and continued them at the Moscow State Conservatory, completing a specialization in choral conducting in 1998 and in orchestral conducting in 2000. Since 1996 he has served as the choral director at the Moscow Representation Church (Metochion or Podvorye) of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery, and since 1998 has been Artistic Director and Conductor of the professional men’s chorus formed at the Metochion. With this choir he has made over a dozen outstanding recordings of both liturgical services and concert programs. The choir has on numerous occasions sung at Patriarchal services in the Dormition Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, and accompanied Patriarch Alexy II on his trip to the Holy Land. The repertoire of the Metochion’s Men’s Chorus cultivates the finest repertoire and interpretive traditions of the Moscow School and the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. Videos of their choral performances may be seen on YouTube: TSLPodvoryeCHOIR. In September of 2012, Vladimir was appointed to the Conducting Faculty of the Moscow State Conservatory.

View selections from Maestro Gorbik's choir performances on YouTube, here.

Listen to an interview with Dr. Vladimir Morosan about the Gorbik Master Class, on Ancient Faith Radio, here.

Download a flier about the Master Class here.

Download an Application and Instructions here.

 DEADLINE:  Send Application and Audition materials by March 25, 2013 (conductors and singers). Selected participants will receive a secure registration link. Those who auditioned but who were not selected may still register as an auditors; auditors should register early (since space is limited) and may request a registration link from  Dr. Nicholas Reeves.

• Overview
• Schedule
• On-campus Accommodations
• Off-campus Accommodations
• Registration 

Russo-Byzantine Iconography Workshop—Overview

Monday, June 18 – Friday, June 22, 2012

NOTE: Participants should arrive Sunday, June 17th, and depart on Saturday, June 23rd.

Protodeacon Nazari Polataiko will instruct aspiring and experienced iconographers, endeavoring to teach not only craft and technique but also the prayerful attitude required in executing this art. Protodeacon Nazari, along with his wife, Matushka Tatiana, established the Ss. Alipij and Andrew Rublew Icon Studio in 1996. Protodeacon Nazari is a graduate of Kosiv Art School, and Matushka Tatiana is a graduate of the Vyznytcia Art College in Ukraine; additionally, PDn. Nazari has studied under such master iconographers as Archimandrite Zinon of Pskov, and Dmitri Andreyev, of the Prosopon School in New York City. The Polataikos write icons in a Russo-Byzantine style, using egg tempera and gold leaf, and employing traditional materials and techniques.

Protodeacon Nazari and his wife have been writing icons for almost 15 years. Their work can be seen in several churches in Ukraine, and in numerous churches across Canada and the U.S. They can also be found in the private chapels of His All Holiness Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv, Ukraine, and Metropolitan Wasylij of Winnipeg (of blessed memory).

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! Click here.

• Full Description & Faculty
• Schedule
• Preparation & FAQs
• On-campus Accommodations
• Off-campus Accommodations
• Registration 

REGISTRATION FOR THIS WORKSHOP IS CLOSED!

6th Annual Diaconal Liturgical Practicum— Full Description & Faculty
June 10–13, 2012

Intense liturgical training is the focus of this 4-day program to be held from Sunday, June 10–Wednesday, June 13, 2012 on the campus of St. Vladimir's Seminary. Participants are asked to arrive after 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 10th; the last day of the practicum, June 13th, includes morning Divine Liturgy, a closing discussion, and brunch. Participants may leave campus at noon for 3:00 p.m. and later flights from area airports.

Practical liturgical training for deacons and lay diaconal candidates will be supported by celebration of the Divine Liturgy and other services. Intensive workshops aim to provide participants with the skills needed to serve effectively in the Orthodox Church as an attentive server, deacon, or priest. Attention will be given to the liturgical patterns of movement that inform the entire rite of the Church. Participants will also receive guidance on concelebrations and hierarchical celebrations so that they can effectively prepare for such occasions. In addition to practicums, focused presentations by faculty will augment the deacon's understanding of his place in the liturgical life of the Church and the deacon's broader vocation as a symbol to the faithful of the diakonia of Christ our Lord. Instruction in public speaking and vocal technique will also be offered.

This practicum, which is being offered for the fourth consecutive summer, is held in conjunction with the Orthodox Church in America's Diaconal Vocations Program (DVP) and is highly recommended for participants in the Church's program by the Holy Synod. "Diakonia is at the center of the vocation of every Christian," explains His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). "The hierarchs thank God for the growth in diaconal vocations throughout our Church and this annual program that gives deacons a strong context for their service at the holy altar."

Liturgical workshops led by Archdeacon Kirill Sokolov, director of the Diaconal Vocations Program for the OCA, will aim to provide participants with the skills needed to serve effectively in the Orthodox Church as an attentive server, deacon, or priest. Particular focus will be given to the typical celebration of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by one priest and one deacon.

Priest Sergius Halvorsen will lead sessions on public speaking, teaching, and preaching, as well as church reading and vocal technique. Fr. Sergius holds an M.Div. from St. Vladimir's Seminary and a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from Drew University. He is the Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Rhetoric at St. Vladimir's Seminary.

Lectures by other seminary faculty will supplement the concentrated liturgical training for deacons and diaconal students.

"The seminary's former dean, Fr. Alexander Schmemann, taught that everything in worship concerns us as the Church of God, making us the living body of Christ," says Archdeacon Kirill. "Thus, everything in worship concerns me, as a living member of that body. The deacon's prominent role in worship requires that he studies and learns the rubrics of the services. The training we provide offers just such an opportunity for learning."

Last Updated: June 7, 2012. Subject to change, so please check this web page for the latest revision.

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED!  For further queries, e-mail diaconal2012@svots.edu.

• Overview
• Schedule
• On-campus Accommodations
• Off-campus Accommodations
• Registration 

Pastoral Counseling Skills Workshop: “Becoming a Healing Presence”—Overview

Thursday, June 7 – Saturday, June 9, 2012

NOTE: The workshop begins with Registration at 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 7th, and the first session is at 7 p.m. that evening. The workshop ends on Saturday, June 9th, at 1 p.m.

This workshop is designed for anyone interested in continuing to develop pastoral counseling skills. The emphasis will be on a counseling model to help participants “Become a Healing Presence,” beginning with one’s own inner healing. The counseling model to be taught pivots on “active listening as love delivered," that is, giving others strength and hope. The referent point of the workshop is Jesus Christ as our Healer who wants us to be His humanity on earth, His healing presence to others.

The interactive workshop will explore ways to empower participants to go beyond themselves, to transcend themselves, and in so doing, to transform others. “Healing” refers to psychological and spiritual healing; physical healing is beyond the scope of the short workshop.

Workshop leaders are Dr. Albert S. Rossi, Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Theology at the seminary and licensed clinical psychologist in the state of New York; and Priest David Mezynski, Associate Dean for Student Affairs at St. Vladimir’s Seminary.

 REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! Click here.

DOORS OPEN AT 7 P.M.! GENERAL SEATING!

View the Concert Program by clicking here!

Listen to details about the concert on Ancient Faith Radio by clicking here.

Join us for an exquisite evening of liturgical music sung in the traditional styles of Orthodox Christian churches worldwide. In a multi-media program that interweaves luminous icons, sacred texts, and a rich a cappella sound, the St. Vladimir's Seminary Chorale will perform ORIENT: Sacred Song and Image at the famous St. Malachy's,"The Actors' Chapel," in the heart of Manhattan, at 239 West 49th Street, New York City. This stirring concert will begin at 7:30 p.m.

 The concert program will include pieces from the broader Orthodox tradition sung in their original languages— Greek, Georgian, Estonian, Slavonic—as well as choral music by Orthodox composers written for the concert hall. Two visual projections—one of images of Orthodox icons and the other of translations of musical texts—will run simultaneously as the chorale sings. Icons, music, and text will expound one another, just as they do within the Orthodox liturgy. The concert will combine the best elements of a professional choral performance with the depth and authenticity of the Orthodox liturgical experience, resulting in a truly beautiful multimedia artistic performance, and a full, authentic vision of the Orthodox Christian faith.

The chorale will be directed by Hierodeacon Herman, Lecturer in Liturgical Music and Chapel Choir Director at the seminary, and Matushka Robin Freeman, who created the concert format and conducted in its premiere at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in 2010. Seminary Chancellor and CEO, Archpriest Chad Hatfield, will deliver a homily about the Resurrection of Christ, following the concert.

Spread the word to your friends, family, and church family! Download a PDF or a JPEG of the concert flier.

Tickets are $25, and may be purchased online here. Your printed registration form will serve as your admission ticket.

Bus seating is available! The cost of round-trip bus transport from St. Vladimir's Seminary to the concert is $10 per person (what a deal!). Concert goers can pay for a bus ticket online via the event registration link, here. The bus will depart the seminary campus promptly at 5:45 p.m. (individuals may park anywhere they like for FREE on the seminary campus that evening), and the bus will leave the city at 9:00 p.m. 

Limited seating will be available at the door (cash only) the evening of the concert.

I am greatly honored that you have invited me to give this lecture in memory of Father Alexander Schmemann...When I began to read the work of Father Alexander, I was able to glimpse, in a small way, what the liturgy meant from the inside, and reading his Journals, I caught something of the Orthodox world view. I managed to find again a couple of sentences in his 1965 book Sacraments and Orthodoxy,  which link closely to what I have prepared for today: "The liturgy of the Eucharist is...the journey of the Church into the dimension of the Kingdom...'Dimension'...seems the best way to indicated the manner of our sacramental entrance into the risen life of Christ."

With these words, our guest speaker Dr. Margaret Barker commenced the 29th annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture, transporting her audience into the liturgical world of the first Jewish Temple—a world remarkably familiar to Orthodox Christian worshipers. Her lecture was titled "Our Great High Priest: The Church as the New Temple." The audience listened with intense interest as Dr. Barker described with vivid imagery the furnishings, appointments, and keepers of that temple—the anointing oil, cherubim, bread of the presence, seven-branched lampstand, Melchizedek priest-king, and so forth—as they were drawn deeper and deeper into its ancient liturgical life.

As Dr. Barker focused on the structure of the first temple and on the figure of the high priest within that temple, she led her audience along "the trail that leads from Solomon's Temple to the Christian Church," her premise being that both the first temple and its high priest were restored by the coming of Jesus Christ. "The Christian community was the temple of the Messiah," she noted, "the original temple restored, and it was a living temple." Further on, she stated, "There is good evidence in the gospels that Jesus did see himself as the great high priest, and that his ministry was shaped by that ideal."

Upon her closing words, "Christians are the anointed ones of the restored temple, and our covenant is the eternal covenan," the audience exploded with sustained applause in gratitude for her presentation. At the close of her talk, His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), presented Dr. Barker with a beautiful icon of "Christ the High Priest."

Other hierarchs in attendance at the lecture were His Grace The Right Rev. Benjamin, bishop of San Francisco and the West (OCA), and His Grace The Right Rev. Maxim, bishop of the Western Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church of North and South America.

To get a sampling of Dr. Barker's research, and to hear her on YouTube, visit her website www.margaretbarker.com.

Read Dr. Barker's 29th annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture, "Our Great High Priest: The Church as the New Temple," here.

Listen to the podcast of Dr. Barker's lecture, "Our Great High Priest: The Church as the New Temple," here.

Priest John E. Parker III, newly appointed chair of the Department of Evangelization for the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), will be speaking Tuesday, January 31st, at 7:30 p.m. in the Bashir Auditorium on the seminary campus. A dynamic presenter, he will address the topic, "The Realities of Life in Orthodox Mission Churches."

The talk is free and open to the public, and Father John especially welcomes all SVOTS seminarians who have an interest in inter-jurisdictional cooperation among Orthodox Christians in planting new missions across the U.S.

Note: the Bashir Auditorium is directly across from the SVS Bookstore, on the second floor of the Education Building.

"St. Matthew Orthodox Church was very blessed to have Archpriest Chad Hatfield come to speak to our parish," noted Fr. Maximus Cabey, rector of the parish, and his wife, Matushka Photini, as they recounted the weekend of January 7–8 at their church in Green Bay, Wisconsin. "On Saturday, Father Chad gave a talk about baptism titled 'Putting on Christ,' which greatly edified our congregation."

The following day, Fr. Chad, who is the Chancellor/CEO at St. Vladimir's, celebrated the Divine Liturgy with both Fr. Maximus and Fr. Michael Herrick, who was the first full-time rector at St. Matthew's; Fr. Chad also delivered the homily. After Divine Liturgy he shared a brief presentation about the seminary and conducted a Question & Answer session.

"Father Chad was very well received by our congregation," said Fr. Maximus, a 2011 graduate of St. Vladimir's.

View Fr. Chad's 2012 travel schedule here, to see if he is coming to your locale!

"You've made my day!" exclaimed His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, as our seminary dean, Archpriest John Behr, presented him with a signed copy of his newly translated and published On the Incarnation, the classic 4th-century treatise by St. Athanasius the Great. Father John had dedicated the volume to His Eminence, with the words: "Faithful Guide, True Teacher, Genuine Lover-of-Words"; he presented the work to His Eminence in an informal meeting at the Archbishop's office on Tuesday of this week.

The book, published by St. Vladimir's Seminary Press in December 2011, expounds with simplicity the theological vision defended at the councils of Nicaea and Constantinople: that the Son of God himself became "fully human, so that we might become god." Its influence on all Christian theology thereafter, East and West, has ensured its place as one of the few "must read" books for all who want to know more about the Christian faith.

"The book has already experienced quick sales from many professors of introductory Christian religion college courses throughout the United States," noted Dn. Gregory Hatrak, marketing manager of SVS Press and Bookstore. We have received excellent feedback on this title."

Two features especially distinguish the volume: a preface written by C.S. Lewis, and the fact that the book contains English and Greek parallel text.

Father John's volume, which is part of the Press's Popular Patristics Series (PPS, numbers 44a and 44b), has been published in two formats: in English (PPS 44b) or in English with the original Greek text presented in parallel text on the facing page (PPS 44a). The bilingual version (978-0-88141-409-7) is 174 pages, and sells for $22.00; the English-only version (978-0-88141-427-1) is 112 pages, and sells for $16.00.

Order this title here.

During the second week of Great Lent, March 10–11, 2012, which commemorates St. Gregory Palamas, our seminary Men's Choir will be singing at two parishes in Western Pennsylvania: St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Allison Park, Pennsylvania (OCA), at Vespers and Divine Liturgy, and   Holy Trinity Church, State College, Pennsylvania (OCA), at Sunday evening Vespers. The choir is under the direction of Hierodeacon Herman (Majkrzak), lecturer in Liturgical Music and Chapel Music Director at St. Vladimir's Seminary.

The choir will be accompanied by Archpriest Chad Hatfield, chancellor/CEO of the seminary.

The traveling SVS Press & Bookstore will accompany the choir, stocked with CDs, books, and more!

Click here to listen to our Men's Choir!