Русская Версия

August 11, 2010
Ligonier, PA: The Chairwoman of the EADMC represented ROCOR at the Summer Music Institute of the Antiochian Archdiocese

With the blessing of the First Hierarch of the Church Abroad, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, Eastern American Diocesan Music Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth A. Ledkovsky accepted an invitation from the Antiochian Archdiocese’s music department to be the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia’s official representative at the 25th annual Summer Music Institute (SMI) at the Antiochian Village Conference Center in Ligonier in southwestern Pennsylvania. Musicians from many other Orthodox jurisdictions were also invited as honored guests of the conference, which had some 130 participants from many Orthodox jurisdictions across North America.

The Symposium was a wonderful opportunity to share ROCOR’s musical traditions. Each guest was asked to present music and information that would convey the traditions of his/her jurisdiction. Ms. Ledkovsky spoke about post-revolutionary Russian emigration and the musical legacies of the émigrés, noting especially the Moscow/Synodal school traditions as maintained and furthered in New York by her grandfather, Boris M. Ledkovsky, and the St. Petersburg and Kievan traditions which were notably followed by Mikhail S. Konstantinov in San Francisco. Many participants took particular interest in the resources that have been developed this past year by the Eastern American Diocesan Music Committee, which include a website offering English-language scores of Russian liturgical compositions.

To demonstrate the work of these two leading émigré composers as well as the quality of the sheet music that EADMC has made available, conference participants each received scores of two works that have been recently made available in English: Archpriest George Johnson’s adaptation of B. Ledkovsky’s To Thee the Champion Leader and Jared Brewer’s adaptation of the Cherubic Hymn from M. Konstantinov’s Divine Liturgy opus. Both Fr. George and Jared are members of the EADMC. Ms. Ledkovsky directed a sing-through of both pieces, noting that the latter had been sung in the Dormition Cathedral of Moscow’s Kremlin at the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday following the reunification of the Russian Church (2007). Both compositions and the overall presentation were very enthusiastically received, and the hope was expressed Ms. Ledkovsky would return to the Antiochian Village for future events.

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese