Znamenny Chant for the 21st Century   

­ The subject of this article — the “Znamenny Chantlet Database Project” — is a continuation of a proposal[1] initially unveiled by the author at the 2014 Pan-Orthodox Symposium on Orthodox Composition, held at Northern Kentucky University, and in a paper[2] given in 2015 at the Conference of the International Society of Orthodox Church Musicians…

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Orthodox Arts Festival 2022 Opening on September 17

  This year’s ORTHODOX ARTS FESTIVAL 2022 will take place online from September 17th to October 17th of 2022. The Festival is considered to be the World’s biggest Online International Festival of Orthodox Christian Artists. The Festival will be the first to integrate High-Quality 3D technology on its numerous Virtual Reality Galleries (they are the…

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Institute of Sacred Arts hosts academic round-table on “Tradition and Innovation in the Arts of the Orthodox Church”

  The Institute of Sacred Arts (ISA) at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVS) is currently privileged to have Dr. George Kordis as its inaugural artist in residence for the Spring of this academic year. On Thursday, March 17, a group of distinguished scholars gathered around him at St. Vladimir’s Seminary for an academic round-table…

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Review: Great and Holy Pascha and The Mystic Pascha

In a recent panel discussion on music for the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University, composer Benedict Sheehan made the observation that the publication of musical anthologies tends to solidify and codify generational snapshots of particular traditions, carrying authoritative weight for those who use it as a resource. These anthologies… put on the page…

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Acoustical Considerations in Orthodox Church Design

As a designer of Orthodox churches, I am frequently asked whether a proposed church building will have good acoustics. Acoustics is a complex matter that cannot always be catagorized as simply “good” or “bad”. In order to shed some light on this topic, I am going to discuss the various acoustical characteristics encountered in churches,…

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Benedict Sheehan: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (2018)

Liturgical Music in America Liturgical music is closely bound up with the people that sing it. Language, history, culture, experience, education, social class, all of these things shape the sound-world of worship. The people that founded Orthodox parishes in America more than a century ago—for the most part, immigrants from Russia, Greece, Eastern Europe, and…

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