It was wonderful! I certainly recommend going if you’re a choir director or choir member, or neither (I’m neither). Keep an eye on
their website which is slated for a total make over.
I was the only Catholic there. At one point Fr Stephan, talking about something that happened in 1970, asked how many in the room were Orthodox in 1970 and four hands went up, his among them, so largely converts.
You can look at the anticipated schedule and presenters
bios on the website. As it was fleshed out we had:
Lecture 1 What is “Liturgical Singing” with Fr Stephan Meholick, always a wonderful teacher. At the end he said he’d gotten a lot of material from some one else. Could any one guess who? His Holiness Benedict XVI Pope of Rome.
The presentation was a light bulb going off as to why even though there are some wonderful religious songs in Mass in my Latin parish I cringe singing them in the Mass and feel like they ought to be sung at another time, outside of Mass.
Practica 1 “Solfege: Variable Minor and the Relative Major” Fred Squatrito.
Practica 2 “Challenges in English Diction” Anne Schoepp.
Practica 3 “Singing Text Musically”- Nicholas Kotar, bio not on the website, choir director of the
St. John of San Francisco Men’s Chorale – take a listen!. He’s a young man of amazing talent and background. I’m thinking he is the son of a priest at Holy Virgin Cathedral. Anyway, a man of great skill and exciting background. The future of Orthodoxy!
Rehearsal for Vespers- Anne Schoepp
Vespers
Rehearsal for Divine Liturgy. Alice Hughes.
Sat.
Divine Liturgy.
Lecture 2 “The Songs of the Whales”- Fr Stephan. I’d heard this lecture at his parish when during their annual Bazaar he did it with his choir and was very glad to hear it again. We provided the choir’s part. In talking with Anne Schoepp she said they hope to transcribe it and make that available. It’s a very interesting typical Fr Stephan way of seeing connections and connecting stories from the immensity of his Orthodox background with here and now. All the hymns were to the Theotokos.
Lecture 3 “Choral Blend & Rehearsal Skills” - Alice Hughes
also Private Mini-Lessons with Anne Schoepp
Practica 5 Master Class St Lawrence parish Men’s Choir with Nicholas Kotar. Nicholas rehearsed the choir and we watched. In the feedback at the end a number of choir directors said how useful it was to watch him rehearse the choir.
Rehearsal for Great Vespers- Alice and Anne.
Wrap up. There were a number of choir directors, plus Fr Stephan, expressed how hard it is to ever get away and get this kind of support- how much they work in isolation.
Great Vespers with Antiphonal choirs. I’m sure this was wonderful. We missed it as we left after dinner to make the drive home.
I’m sorry there weren’t more people there, tho in addition to many locals, there were folks from WA and New Mexico. I don’t know what the head count was but I don’t think more than 50.
They fed us 3 wonderful meals a day. I think $100 for two full days (13+ hour days), plus meals is an amazing bargain. We stayed in a hotel Th and Fri for $80/nt and would gladly have shared a room with others.
The past two years I believe the seminar was held in Santa Rosa, about an hour north of SF.
I’m not a choir member. I went wanting to be a better participant in liturgy and am satisfied about that as well as the encouragement I received for continuing to assist chanting the hours when asked to do so. (I did a Private Mini-Lesson with Anne related to chanting the hours.)
Again, I highly recommend going next year for anyone wanting “more” re Byzantine Liturgical music.
