About the Synodal Liturgical Music Comission

The Synodal Liturgical Music Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia is tasked with overseeing the liturgical music life of our parishes, engaging in efforts to raise the quality of the choirs and to help maintain it where they are successfully flourishing.

 

  • Very Reverend Andre Papkov, chairman
  • Protodeacon Serge Arlievsky
  • Dr. Irina du Quenoy
  • Peter Fekula
  • Vadim Gan
  • Michelle Ganson
  • Gregory Kotar
  • Vladimir Krassovsky
  • Dr. Kurt Sander
  • Dr. Nicolas Schidlovsky
  • George Skok

 

Programs of the Liturgical Music Commission include:

ROCM Conference

Main Areas of Focus:  Education, scholarship and networking, and quality control and publishing.

Education

  • Synodal School of Liturgical Music (Nanuet, New York), since 1991
  • Synodal School of Liturgical Music (Cologne, Germany), since 2022
  • Parish Outreach: The Commission works with parishes to bring workshop-style training in singing, conducting, liturgics, and other relevant skills to the local level depending on specific parish needs. 
  • Annual Liturgical Music Symposium at the St. Tikhon parish in Blountville, TN (since 2022)
  • Online webinars, run by the All-European Church Music Committee (AECMC)  that functions under the aegis of the Synodal Commission (since 2020). 

Conferences and Networking

  • Annual Russian Orthodox Church Musician (ROCM) conferences in North America. This is the LMC flagship conference, which serves as a model for diocesan events run by local liturgical music committees across ROCOR. 
  • Annual  (AECMC) conferences in Western Europe

Quality Control and Publishing

  • Quality control: Reviewing compositions/arrangements of currently active composers, determining whether they are fit for use in the church
  • Publishing: Past publications include a biography of the composer Gavriil Lomakin and a re-edition of the Church Singer’s Companion. Currently the Commission is working on publishing an anthology of the compositions of Mikhail Konstantinov, as well as a reissuing of the works of Boris Ledkovsky, among other projects