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Russia—A Musical Pilgrimage
A Travelogue December 27, 2012 – January 9, 2013 Vladimir Gorbik Conductor, teacher, mentor, friend—Vladimir Gorbik is arguably the finest living conductor of Russian church music, and the reason for my journey to Moscow this past December and January. Over the course of about two weeks I was privileged to work closely with him and…
Continue reading »Celebrating 25 years of the Prosopon School of Iconology and Iconography
(Editorial Note: this article was submitted by Lynette Hull, an iconographer trained in the Prosopon School) The Prosopon school of Iconology and Iconography will celebrate its 25th anniversary by hosting a conference, entitled “Locating Prosopon,” at Princeton Theological Seminary, April 12 – 13, 2013. The Prosopon School, founded by Master Iconographer, Vladislav Andrejev, has taught…
Continue reading »More Western Medieval Art
A few weeks ago, I posted a short piece on the Catalonia Museum and some beautiful icons, frescoes and objects that show the amazing unity between Orthodox Art and early medieval Western art. Petrus Agricola, on his Flickr stream has just posted many images (about 150), enamels, ivories and other objects form the Schnütgen Museum in Cologne, a…
Continue reading »Notes from the psalterion, updated and annotated — part III, dealing with that strange subspecies called the “musician”
This is post 3 of 6 in the series “Notes from The Psalterion” Richard Barrett gives us practical advice for the discipline of liturgical music in a local parish context. Notes from the psalterion, updated and annotated – Part I, First Principles Notes from the psalterion, updated and annotated – Part II, Getting Started Notes…
Continue reading »The Saint John of Damascus Society on NPR’s “Harmonia Early Music”
The mission of The Saint John of Damascus Society is “revealing Orthodox Christianity through its sacred music”, and one part of how we seek to do this to be a collaborative partner for existing arts organizations and entities on projects promoting Orthodox liturgical music. Our first collaboration to reach the public eye is a segment…
Continue reading »Christabel Anderson: Authenticity in Sacred Art
Christabel Anderson is one of our collaborators on the Orthodox Art Journal. She is a British Iconographer and Manuscript Illuminator to whom was recently attributed the prestigious QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) Craft award. That someone who considers herself first and foremost an Iconographer could be recognized in this manner is already a tribute…
Continue reading »St-John Chrysostom on Liturgical Art
As a liturgical artist, as someone who makes expensive objects to furnish the Church or to be worn by its clergy, there is a homily of St-John Chrysostom I like to keep in the back of my mind. It is a homily on the Gospel of St-Mathew in which he warns us: “Do you want…
Continue reading »Roman Frescoes of the 8th Century
John Sanidopoulos of the quality Mystagogy blog has posted a nice little article on the restoration being done of 8th century Byzantine style frescoes in the Santa Maria Antiqua church of Rome. On Monday October 1st Italy’s Culture Ministry allowed a rare peak at a (EURO)3 million ($3.8 million) restoration of medieval frescoes in the…
Continue reading »Wooden Vessels
Recently I had the chance of making a wooden chalice and diskos set for a priest. It was quite an interesting undertaking as it required a woodturner, a silversmith and myself to bring the whole thing together. Interestingly enough, the order for this set came as I was working on another wooden chalice, making stone roundels…
Continue reading »The Background Color of an Icon
This text is a resume of a conference-slideshow presented at a meeting of the Saint John of Damascus Association, June 15, 1996 and published in the Sacred Art Journal 17, 2, (summer) 1996. Thesis: The background of an icon should be either golden or of a light color. At the beginning of the slideshow, the…
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