Now that my first semester of seminary at St. Vlad’s is behind me, it feels like a good time to briefly reflect on each of my classes and whether or not my planning and execution was successful. Liturgical Skills LS101 This class was an interesting combination of two hours of music theory, singing, and chanting from Harrison Russin, the SVOTS director of music mixed with one hour of liturgics from Dr. Vitaliy Permiakov. I’ve been singing and chanting in Orthodox Churches for a long time, so much of the material there was not new for me. At first, I wasn’t happy with the class because of this, but I quickly came to the realization that I will most likely need to know how to train singers and readers one day, and Harrison’s method for teaching both was great to see firsthand to give me a great example for future use. The liturgics section was likewise basic, learning the outlines of services, names of vestments/liturgical items, and memorizing a few texts such as Psalm 50. The final exam for Harrison was performing a Prokeimenon-Epistle-Alleluia sequence and singing a small group (2-3) prepared song. My two partners and I sang ‘O Pure Virgin’ a lovely hymn I’ll link below.
A Look Back at the Academic Year
A Look Back at the Academic Year
A Look Back at the Academic Year
Now that my first semester of seminary at St. Vlad’s is behind me, it feels like a good time to briefly reflect on each of my classes and whether or not my planning and execution was successful. Liturgical Skills LS101 This class was an interesting combination of two hours of music theory, singing, and chanting from Harrison Russin, the SVOTS director of music mixed with one hour of liturgics from Dr. Vitaliy Permiakov. I’ve been singing and chanting in Orthodox Churches for a long time, so much of the material there was not new for me. At first, I wasn’t happy with the class because of this, but I quickly came to the realization that I will most likely need to know how to train singers and readers one day, and Harrison’s method for teaching both was great to see firsthand to give me a great example for future use. The liturgics section was likewise basic, learning the outlines of services, names of vestments/liturgical items, and memorizing a few texts such as Psalm 50. The final exam for Harrison was performing a Prokeimenon-Epistle-Alleluia sequence and singing a small group (2-3) prepared song. My two partners and I sang ‘O Pure Virgin’ a lovely hymn I’ll link below.