The talks from “We Knew Not If We Were In Heaven Or On Earth: Music, Liturgy, and Beauty in Orthodox Christianity” are now posted on Ancient Faith Radio’s website. Many thanks to John Maddex for making them available through this medium! Also, photos from the event can be viewed here — thanks to Anna Pougas for being the day’s official (more or less) photographer!
Posts Tagged 'early music institute'
Audio from Orthodox Music Symposium now on Ancient Faith Radio
Published 27 January 2011 Academia , General , Media , music , The Orthodox Faith 1 CommentTags: alexander khalil, all saints bloomington, american orthodox music, byzantine chant, chant, early music institute, ecclesiastical chant, ethnomusicologists, ethnomusicology, friends of music at all saints, hazards of church music, indiana humanities council, john michael boyer, kurt sander, liturgical music, medieval byzantine chant, national forum of greek orthodox church musicians, orthodox music symposium at indiana university, random acts of chant, richard toensing, sacred music, vicki pappas, why do we need beautiful music in churches?
Orthodox Music Symposium at Indiana University — “We knew not if we were in heaven or on earth…”: Music, Liturgy, and Beauty in Orthodox Christianity
Published 29 September 2010 Academia , General , Media , music , The Orthodox Faith , Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: alexander khalil, all saints bloomington, american orthodox music, byzantine chant, chant, early music institute, ecclesiastical chant, ethnomusicologists, ethnomusicology, friends of music at all saints, hazards of church music, indiana humanities council, john michael boyer, kurt sander, liturgical music, medieval byzantine chant, national forum of greek orthodox church musicians, orthodox music symposium at indiana university, random acts of chant, richard toensing, sacred music, vicki pappas, why do we need beautiful music in churches?
Given that there are two performing members of Cappella Romana on the panel, as well as two composers whom CR has performed, CR was nice enough to include a notice about the Symposium in their current e-newsletter (thank you, Mark!). For those readers clicking through to my blog for information (and anybody else who is finding this site looking for Symposium details), here’s the scoop:
All Saints Orthodox Church and The Early Music Institute of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music present:
The Musical Heritage of the Orthodox Church
“We knew not if we were in heaven or on earth…”: Music, liturgy, and beauty in Orthodox Christianity
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Sweeney Hall (Simon Music Center 015)
Lecture recitals and panel discussion featuring:
- John Michael Boyer of Cappella Romana
- Alexander Khalil, Ph. D., of University of California at San Diego
- Kurt Sander, D. M., of Northern Kentucky University
- Richard Toensing, D. M., emeritus of University of Colorado at Boulder
Schedule:
- 8:00am: Hall opens
- 8:30am: Brief introductory remarks
- 9:00: Boyer
- 10:00: Khalil
- 11:00-11:30: Break
- 11:30: Sander
- 12:30: Toensing
- 1:30: Panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Vicki Pappas, National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians National Chairman
Download a poster here. Download a press release here.
This program has been made possible by a matching grant from the Indiana Humanities Council, in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional co-sponsors include:
- The IU Medieval Studies Institute
- The IU Center for Middle East Studies (a unit so new there’s no website yet!)
- The IU Russian and East European Institute
- The IU Center for West European Studies
- The IU Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology
- Bloomingfoods Market and Deli
- The National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians
- The Department of Sacred Music of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
For any additional information, please e-mail me at rrbarret (AT) indiana.edu or call me at (812) 219-0286.
Looking forward to seeing you all there!
Orthodox Music Symposium at Indiana University a recipient of grant from the National Form of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians
Published 27 September 2010 Academia , General , Media , music , The Orthodox Faith 1 CommentTags: alexander khalil, all saints bloomington, american orthodox music, byzantine chant, chant, early music institute, ecclesiastical chant, ethnomusicologists, ethnomusicology, friends of music at all saints, hazards of church music, indiana humanities council, john michael boyer, kurt sander, liturgical music, medieval byzantine chant, national forum of greek orthodox church musicians, orthodox music symposium at indiana university, random acts of chant, richard toensing, sacred music, vicki pappas, why do we need beautiful music in churches?
I just found out this evening that we are the recipient of a grant from the National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians. As with all the other organizations that have been generous in supporting us, I’m incredibly grateful, but it is wonderful to see our little event, intended to represent a cross-section of musical heritages of the Orthodox world, be supported across jurisdictional lines. Dr. Vicki Pappas, National Chairman of the National Forum, cited this as a factor in the award letter:
The members felt that while it was unusual for us to support an individual parish and one not within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese’s jurisdiction, we also felt that your plans were cross-jurisdictional and served to highlight and benefit Orthodox church musicians in general to a very high degree.
In a way, the National Forum grant application is what got this going in the first place. Originally I had just planned on having John Boyer and Kurt Sander, and then I helped another organization write a National Forum grant proposal. While I was writing it, I realized — “Hey! I could apply for one of these too! And actually, if I expanded the slate of speakers, I’d have a better proposal!” So I checked with Alexander Khalil and Dr. Toensing to see if they were up for it — they were, and I submitted the application. After that, I got to thinking — “You know, I have a finished grant proposal sitting on my hard drive that I might be able to tailor for other organizations.” So, I started looking around to see what else might be out there, and — well, things happened from there.
All of this is to say, I’m really thrilled that the grant proposal that started the ball rolling to begin with bore fruit in the end. Thank you very much, Dr. Pappas and the National Forum!
Orthodox Music Symposium at Indiana University recipient of Humanities Initiative Grant from the Indiana Humanities Council
Published 24 September 2010 Academia , General , Media , music , The Orthodox Faith Leave a CommentTags: alexander khalil, all saints bloomington, american orthodox music, byzantine chant, chant, early music institute, ecclesiastical chant, ethnomusicologists, ethnomusicology, friends of music at all saints, hazards of church music, indiana humanities council, john michael boyer, kurt sander, liturgical music, medieval byzantine chant, orthodox music symposium at indiana university, random acts of chant, richard toensing, sacred music, why do we need beautiful music in churches?
Between school, the symposium, and Flesh of My Flesh being on her yearlong adventure in Germany, my life has been pretty much consumed on all fronts as of late, but I found out some fantastic news tonight that I wanted to make sure was disseminated as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
The symposium has been awarded a $2,000 Humanities Initiative Grant from the Indiana Humanities Council. I found out about this particular funding opportunity back in July, and as the deadline was 2 August I had to assemble the application very quickly (not to mention while I was in the middle of Kurt Sander’s recording project), but Prof. Rosemarie McGerr, the director of IU’s Medieval Studies Institute, and Mark Trotter, the Assistant Director and Outreach Coordinator for IU’s Russian and East European Institute, were very helpful and generous with their time, and provided wonderful letters of support for the proposal. After I hit “send” in the Starbucks in NKU’s student union building, there was nothing but to keep working on other sponsorship possibilities, and hold my breath.
In many ways I am less excited about the financial support than I am thrilled that the merit of what we’re putting together is being visibly acknowledged. I look at this as a huge step forward in terms of forging a relationship between All Saints and the university where together we can put together events that cultivate interest in Orthodox Christianity and raise awareness that All Saints exists in the first place. This is an academic event, yes, and it seems to me that there is much that an Orthodox parish in a college town should be able to offer in terms of intellectual and cultural interest, but it is also as a form of outreach to the campus. This is a way of being able to say, “Come and see.” Or, in this case, “Come and hear.”
It’s also a demonstration that support is out there for projects like this, and that All Saints doesn’t have to be the little church in the middle of nowhere that everybody ignores. I’m supposed to write letters to Indiana’s congressional delegation so that they know this is happening, since this is ultimately federal money. Yes, there is an Orthodox church in Bloomington, and even our congressmen know it!
By the way, if you aren’t able to attend the symposium but still want to support us in some way, please get in touch with me. Even with the IHC grant, there are still plenty of opportunities to be involved from afar. Drop me a line at rrbarret (AT) indiana.edu.
I guess this is technically publicity for the symposium, so that means I have to include this text: This program has been made possible through a matching grant from the Indiana Humanities Council in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities.
An update on the IU Orthodox Music Symposium
Published 3 September 2010 Academia , General , Media , music , The Orthodox Faith Leave a CommentTags: alexander khalil, all saints bloomington, american orthodox music, byzantine chant, chant, early music institute, ecclesiastical chant, ethnomusicologists, ethnomusicology, friends of music at all saints, hazards of church music, john michael boyer, kurt sander, liturgical music, medieval byzantine chant, orthodox music symposium at indiana university, random acts of chant, richard toensing, sacred music, why do we need beautiful music in churches?
Some additional details on the Orthodox Music Symposium being held on the Indiana University campus:
- The event will be titled, “The Musical Heritage of the Orthodox Church: Music, Liturgy, and Beauty in Orthodox Christianity”.
- It will be in Sweeney Hall (Simon Center 015) at the IU Jacobs School of Music.
- A tentative schedule is as follows:
- 8am: Hall opens
- 8:00-8:30: Continental breakfast (incentive to come early!)
- 8:30-8:50: Introductory remarks
- 9:00-9:50: Lecture recital #1 (we haven’t yet determined the speaker order)
- 10:00-10:50: Lecture recital #2
- 11:00-11:30: Break
- 11:30-12:20: Lecture recital #3
- 12:30-1:20: Lecture recital #4
- 1:30-2:30: Panel discussion and Q&A
I also pleased to announce some additional sponsorships:
- The Department of Sacred Music of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Many thanks to the chairman of the Department, Christopher Holwey, for their generous support.
- The Center for Middle East Studies at Indiana University — an academic unit so new they don’t have a website yet! Dr. Feisal Istrabadi, the director of CMES, has been very enthusiastic about this project, and I am grateful for his excitement.
- The Center for West European Studies at Indiana University. WEST is the home of the Modern Greek program at IU, and they were instrumental in making John’s visit to All Saints back in January happen. Their ongoing support of these kinds of things is a real gift to the Orthodox community in Bloomington.
There are some additional irons in the fire where support is concerned that I hope to be able to announce in the near future. In the meantime, I can also say that one organization in particular, while feeling it was too late to get involved this time around, said that they would be very interested in supporting future projects like this, and asked what I might be thinking about. I told them something I had in mind, and they nodded vigorously and said, “Yes, that’s exactly the kind of thing we want to get behind.” So, we’ll see what happens. I am hopeful that the outcome of this development will also be positive with respect to these kinds of events.
In the meantime, if you want more information or are interested in supporting the Symposium, please contact me at rrbarret (AT) indiana.edu or call me at (812) 219-0286.
SAVE THE DATE: Orthodox Music Symposium at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Published 13 August 2010 Academia , General , Media , music , The Orthodox Faith Leave a CommentTags: alexander khalil, all saints bloomington, american orthodox music, byzantine chant, chant, early music institute, ecclesiastical chant, ethnomusicologists, ethnomusicology, friends of music at all saints, hazards of church music, john michael boyer, kurt sander, liturgical music, medieval byzantine chant, orthodox music symposium at indiana university, random acts of chant, richard toensing, sacred music, why do we need beautiful music in churches?
I am pleased to announce that, with the co-sponsorship of All Saints Orthodox Church, of the Early Music Institute at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the IU Medieval Studies Institute, and the IU Russian and East European Institute, as well as support from Bloomingfoods, the IU Bloomington campus will host a daylong symposium on Orthodox music on Saturday, 16 October 2010. Details are still being finalized, but the program will include lecture recitals and a panel discussion from the following slate of speakers and performers:
John Michael Boyer, Protopsaltis of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco. Mr. Boyer is also Protopsaltis and Director of Liturgy for Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Sacramento, CA, principal singer and arranger for Cappella Romana, and Director of the St. John Koukouzelis Institute for Liturgical Arts. Mr. Boyer previously gave a weekend workshop on Byzantine chant at All Saints Orthodox Church in January of this year.
Alexander Khalil, PhD, psaltis at St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in San Diego, CA, and postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Khalil’s recent dissertation explores the aural aspects of the chant tradition of the last remaining chanters of the church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul, Turkey. He has contributed as a cantor to recent efforts of both Cappella Romana and the Mount Lebanon Choir, and has taught at workshops for the Koukouzelis Institute.
Kurt Sander, DM, Associate Professor and Department Chair at Northern Kentucky University. Dr. Sander is a composer of many liturgical works in the traditional Slavic style, and his research interests include the history and aesthetics of Orthodox liturgical music, the cross disciplinary relationships between theology and Orthodox iconography with music composition, and the work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.
Richard Toensing, DM, Professor Emeritus at University of Colorado at Boulder. As a composer, Dr. Toensing has received many distinguished honors for his work, having been a Guggenheim Fellow and a recipient of a commission from the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. Toensing’s composition Kontakion for the Nativity of Christ, as well as his cycle of Orthodox Christmas carols, were recently recorded and performed by Cappella Romana.
My opening remarks for John Michael Boyer in Bloomington: “…it is my fondest hope that this is not just the completion of one thing, but perhaps the beginning of a number of other things”
Published 29 January 2010 Academia , General , Media , music , The Orthodox Faith Leave a CommentTags: all saints bloomington, all saints orthodox church, American Society of Byzantine Music & Hymnology, annunciation church sacramento, archives of traditional music, axion estin foundation, byzantine chant, cantores in ecclesia, cappella romana, carmen-hellen tellez, daniel reed, early music institute, franklin hess, harmonia, IU dept of folklore and ethnomusicology, iu medieval studies institute, iu west european studies, john michael boyer, john tavener, koukouzelis institute, lamentations and praises, liturgica.com, liturgical music, luann johnson, mark powell, orthodox outreach, robin freeman, sacred music, stansifer radio, the byzantine chant narrative of continuity, the divine liturgy in english
I’m still writing the applicable blog post, but this seemed long enough to justify breaking out separately. More to come.
Good evening, everybody. I am very keenly aware that none of you came to hear me speak, so I will do my absolute best to keep my opening remarks as short as possible.
A few informal orders of business before I launch into my introduction – first of all, let me welcome you to All Saints Orthodox Church. Just to get it out of the way, let me emphasize that we are in a church, and we ask that you be respectful of the space. If you are unsure about what that means, by all means please ask me or Fr. Peter.
[…]
A word about the card and the envelope [in your packets]: this weekend represents, in virtually every respect, an experiment for All Saints. We have never done anything like this before, and there has been a lot of figuring things out as we go. We would really like to be able to do it or something like it again, maybe even on a somewhat regular basis if it works out. So, with respect to the card, we’d like to hear from you all what you thought. Whatever you have to say – this worked, that didn’t, maybe this could be covered next time, you need a jacket with elbow pads – we’re all ears so that we can do better next time.
Now, as for the envelope – as I said, this has been an experiment, and it’s the kind of thing of which we’d love to be able to do more. We’ve been very fortunate to be able to put this together with some very generous help from the Indiana University Center for West European Studies and a private donor. That said, there are always costs one wasn’t anticipating, but more importantly, it would be terrific to have some seed money for the next event like this. All of that is to say, the envelope is there not because this weekend isn’t paid for; it is there because the next one isn’t… yet. If you decide you want to do something in that regard, please make checks out to All Saints Orthodox Church, and put in the notes “chant workshop” or something like that. The point is, if you come away from this weekend having felt it was of value to you, both the card and the envelope represent a couple of formal ways you can express that. By all means talk to me if you have any questions; you can leave cards and envelopes on your chair or give them to me, or to Fr. Peter.
There is also a retail means by which you may support these kinds of events at All Saints. There is a table in the parish hall where you can buy recordings of the kind of music we’re here talking about tonight; a lot of these can be reasonably difficult to get in the States, and we encourage browsing – and buying! – at the breaks. All of these are recordings John told me to have around for this weekend, so perhaps he’ll be able to say more about them.
All right, enough of the administrative chatter.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all very much for coming tonight. The road to this weekend has been a long one; if I wanted to, I could trace it back to approximately 1996 or 1997 when I first met and became friendly with Mark Powell, the executive director of Cappella Romana and then a colleague of mine in its sister ensemble, the Tudor Choir. It is the network of relationships that seems to hover around Mark that in the end brought this weekend about, after all. That, however, would be far too long of a story for our purposes, so I will fast forward to the fall of 2006. Having traveled reasonably significant distances three summers in a row to various workshops and conferences for Orthodox Christian liturgical music, and subsequently lamenting the impossibility of being able to bring my entire choir to such an event, I began to consider how an effort might be launched to bring the event to my choir. Initial ideas were floated about trying to stage something in Indianapolis, but these conversations didn’t go anywhere, and to be truthful, it ultimately seemed worthwhile, particularly if I wanted to maximize the participation of the All Saints choristers, to try to put something together right here. If I played my cards right, it might even get some people in Indianapolis to come down to Bloomington – imagine that!
A number of objectives intersected in the planning for this weekend. First of all, it was very important for the All Saints choir to have the opportunity to work with an expert with a strong link to the received tradition, to experience an intensive kind of master class situation with the kind of person we hadn’t had the opportunity to work with before, somebody who could give us water from the well rather than artificially synthesized hydrogen and oxygen. As mentioned, it would also be nice to have an event that would make All Saints in Bloomington the destination for interested parties.
An additional goal was to find a way of reaching out to and engaging the local community through music. In the last few years we have looked for opportunities to do this; we have hosted a youth music festival on the grounds here two summers in a row, and a couple of years ago we contributed a concert of Holy Week music to a Middle Eastern arts festival put on by IU’s Program for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. A person who would be of interest to the Orthodox Christians who worship here, of musical interest to the local community, and of academic interest to the university community, would represent a huge step forward in that effort.
The first goal has this entire weekend to be accomplished. With respect to the second goal, however, as I look around the room, as well as glance at my list of registrants, I see my choir, I see All Saints parishioners, I see people from Bloomington, I see faculty and students from IU’s Early Music Institute, the Department of Choral Conducting, the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, and the Center for West European Studies. I see people who have come from Indianapolis, Greenwood, Evansville, and Louisville. I see faculty from, besides IU, Wabash College and Butler University. It is a very real blessing to have you all here, I can truly say that the interest in John’s visit has exceeded my wildest expectations, and it is my fondest hope that this is not just the completion of one thing, but perhaps the beginning of a number of other things.
I will tell you that the planning of John’s visit originally moved ahead with private money. In the course of events, however, Dr. Lois Wise, the Director of the Indiana University Center for West European Studies approached me out of the blue one day and said, “Richard, are there any music events coming up at All Saints that we can help support?” Through WEST’s support and partnership, much more has been possible than would have been otherwise, and I am truly grateful for their sponsorship. WEST is represented this evening by Dr. Franklin Hess, the instructor of Modern Greek at IU – also my own Greek teacher, and a good friend. Frank, please accept on behalf of WEST this token of our appreciation.
There are a number of other people to thank as well for helping to make tonight possible, either through promotion, logistics, or other support; the Archives of Traditional Music, the Medieval Studies Institute, the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Robin Freeman, Dr. Carmen-Hellena Tellez, Dr. Daniel Reed, WFIU, the program Harmonia and their staff, especially LuAnn Johnson, the Bloomington Herald-Times, the Indiana Daily Student, Stansifer Radio for installing this wonderful sound system on Wednesday, Liturgica.com, all of my choir for their support, and of course Fr. Peter and the people and parish council of All Saints for taking me seriously when I said, “This may sound crazy, but what if we could make something like this work?” Above all, a special thank you to my wife Megan for all of her last-minute help with errands, assembly of materials, and being just all around some of whom I am undeserving.
Finally, this brings me to our honored guest himself. John Michael Boyer, it has been said, sang before he spoke. At the age of 7 John was singing as the then-youngest member ever of the Portland Opera Association. Over the years he has gone from singing for a papal audience as a boy as part of the liturgical choir Cantores in Ecclesia, to being the Protopsaltis, or first cantor, of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco and one of the principal singers of the professional vocal ensemble Cappella Romana. He is also the Protopsaltis and director of liturgy at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Sacramento. He has studied for a number of years with Greek master cantors Lycourgos Angelopoulos and Ioannis Arvanitis. In addition, he coached the vocal ensemble Chanticleer in their Grammy-winning recording of John Tavener’s Byzantine-influenced Lamentations and Praises. He is very active as a composer and adapter of traditional Byzantine liturgical music in the English language, and many of his efforts in this area culminated in Cappella Romana’s recent release, The Divine Liturgy in English – which, I am told, has just gone into a second pressing. He is one of the main movers and shakers in the United States in the movement to reincorporate traditional music in American Orthodox churches, and to this end he lectures and conducts workshops in Eastern Orthodox liturgical music at churches across the country. John has spoken at the conferences of the American Society for Byzantine Music and Hymnology as well as the Axion Estin Foundation, and he is also the director of the Koukouzelis Institute for Liturgical Arts, an outgrowth of the educational aims of his role as Protopsaltis of San Francisco.
It truly is a pleasure and a blessing to have him here – please join me in welcoming John Michael Boyer.