Boston Byzantine Music Festival 2014

I am pleased to pass along  news of the upcoming Boston Byzantine Music Festival. The two-day event is hosted by the Mary Jaharis Center for Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross, and will take place on February 24-25. Byzantine art is commonly associated with mystical iconography and majestic architecture of domed cathedrals, but…

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Wedding with Carved Crowns

Several months ago I posted an article on wooden crowns I had carved for a young couple.  Well, I was overjoyed when this newly married couple, Peter & Chelsea Simko sent me pictures of the ceremony using the crowns.  I thought I would share them with all of you.  May Christ crown them with glory!…

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A Choros Chandelier for a Timber Frame Church

During the fall and winter of 2013, I had the marvelous opportunity to make and install a choros chandelier for St. Thomas the Apostle Orthodox Church in Waldorf, Maryland (a parish of the American Carpatho-Russian Diocese). The project was my second large articulated choros (the first, in South Carolina, was described in this article from…

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PaTRAM Institute Launches Website

The Patriarch Tikhon American Music Institute is part of the same effort behind the Patriarch Tikhon Choir who’s latest concert received wonderful reviews.  Under the continual guidance of Vladimir Gorbik, the institute offers many solutions for training North Americans who wish to increase their ability to chant in the Russian tradition.  As usual, our own…

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Dome Fresco Underway in Santa Rosa, CA

It is a rare treat to see the work of Fr. Patrick Doolan in progress. A renowned iconographer trained by Leonid Ouspensky, Fr. Patrick is a master of true fresco. For a number of years, he and his assistant, Fr. Moses, have worked to fresco St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church in Santa Rosa, CA…

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Bell Ringing in Scripture and Liturgy, from BLAGOVEST BELLS

Dear Readers, We have had a request for articles on liturgical bell ringing, so I am pleased to offer this excellent piece prepared by Mark Galperin and John Burnett of BLAGOVEST BELLS: Dear Brothers and Sisters: Church bell ringing is an intrinsic and permanent part of the Orthodox liturgical and musical tradition. It is deeply rooted…

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Recent Design Work for Orthodox New Mexico

It has been my great joy this summer to devote some of my attention to Orthodox Christianity in New Mexico. Northern New Mexico has a strikingly different history and cultural context than the rest of the United States. It began as a colony of New Spain, an Imperial establishment at the absolute edge of the…

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