2026 Conference Speakers
Aleksandr Andreev
Aleksandr Andreev is a doctoral fellow at the University of Oslo, where he is writing a dissertation on the Middle Byzantine Horologion. A specialist in Byzantine liturgy, Church Slavonic, Greek paleography, and the history of Slavic worship, he holds a PhD in Orthodox Theology from St. Petersburg State University and has taught liturgics, Church Slavonic, Greek, and related subjects at institutions including St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, the Synodal School of Liturgical Music, and the Pastoral School of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America. His publications include studies and editions of medieval Slavonic liturgical books, the most recent being The Yaroslavl Horologion of the Second Half of the 13th Century, as well as numerous articles on Byzantine and Slavic liturgical traditions and Znamenny Chant. He also serves as a board member of the International Society for Orthodox Church Music and an editor of its journal.
Katya Ermolaeva
Dr. Katya Ermolaeva received her Ph.D. in Musicology from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (University of St. Andrews) in 2018. She specializes in 20th-century Russian music and the intersection of music and politics. Her doctoral thesis focused on the political censorship of Sergei Prokofiev’s opera “War and Peace” (1942-1954) and the reconstruction of the original version of the opera (prior to Soviet censorship). Dr. Ermolaeva’s reconstructed version of Prokofiev’s original “War and Peace” has been performed by the Welsh National Opera in Wales and at Covent Garden in London. During her Master’s in Musicology studies at Princeton University, Dr. Ermolaeva authored two articles focusing on Prokofiev’s film score for “Ivan the Terrible” (1945-46, directed by Sergei Eisenstein) and the use of Russian liturgical music in the film. Dr. Ermolaeva is also a certified Level I teacher in the early childhood music program, Music Together, and serves as a musicological consultant on the Music Together Song Advisory Board. With a longstanding dedication to church music, Dr. Ermolaeva has been conducting Orthodox church choirs for over twenty-five years and has served as a Music Director in various parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and the Moscow Patriarchate. Since 2022, she has held the position of Director of Music at Mother of God, Joy of All Who Sorrow, Orthodox Church in Princeton, NJ (OCA).
Mathieu Malinine
Mathieu Malinine is a founding member of the All-European Liturgical Music Committee (ROCOR), responsible for establishing and running annual liturgical music conferences in London, overseeing the European liturgical music school in Cologne, and other related events. Mathieu was born in Paris, into the Russian emigration and is related on his mother’s side to the renowned Kedrov musical dynasty. After graduating from the regional conservatory of Hauts de Seine in Rueil-Malmaison (majoring in piano, solfeggio, chamber music), he graduated from Haute École de Musique de Genève, HEM) in Geneva, Switzerland, with a masters degree in conducting.
Mathieu has spent his life immersed in Russian Orthodox liturgical music, first under the tutelage of his father Konstantine Malinine (choir master at the ROCOR parish in Meudon, France), Vasily Evgenievich Yevetz (at the cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, in Paris), Nicolai Ossorguine (the St. Sergius Institute, Paris), and with Archimandrite Matfei Mormyl (St. Sergius Lavra, Moscow).
From 2007 to 2021, he served as the Choir Master at the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross (Geneva). Also in Geneva, he taught solfeggio at the Popular Conservatory of Music, Dance and Theater (CPMDT) in Geneva, as well as teaching liturgical music at the St. Sergius Institute in Paris (2006–2010). Since 2021, he has been conducting services at the St. Sergius Institute. His professional commitments include leading the vocal ensemble “Malinine” as its artistic director, directing various collectives in France and Switzerland, and singing in professional French and Swiss ensembles. He currently teaches solfeggio at the regional conservatory in Saint-Denis (Paris).
Timothy Morrow
Timothy Morrow is a conductor, pianist, and composer from Basking Ridge, NJ. Currently, he serves as the director of the St. Sergius English Mission Choir at the Synod of Russian Orthodox Bishops (ROCOR) in New York City. He has served as an assistant conductor for the Bard College Community Orchestra, Westminster Community Orchestra, and most recently with the Opera National de Lorraine in Nancy, France in their production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. He has participated in masterclasses with Leon Botstein, José Luis Gomez, and Leonardo Pineda. He also sings with the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir under notable conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Joe Miller, and Riccardo Muti.
Timothy studies at Manhattan School of Music with conductor George Manahan. He enjoys working as an accompanist throughout New York and New Jersey and is also fond of folk music, recently traveling to the Republic of Georgia to study Gurian folk songs and Georgian Orthodox Chant.
Very Reverend Father Andre Papkov
Father Andre was born in 1951 in Munich, Germany. Arriving in the US in 1956, upon completing his secondary education he entered the Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY, which he graduated in 1973. The same year he was ordained to the diaconate, in which capacity he served for twenty-eight years, in Nyack, NY (1973–1976), at the San Francisco Cathedral of Joy of All who Sorrow (1976–1982), and at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville (1982-2001). In 1984 he graduated from New England Conservatory with a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance. In 2001 he was elevated to the holy priesthood and was assigned to the Holy Trinity Monastery until 2005, whereupon he was assigned as the Cathedral Dean to Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral in Chicago/Des Plaines, where he served until his retirement in 2022.
Father Andre has been extensively involved in the field of Russian liturgical music since the 1970s. In the years that he served as a deacon and later protodeacon, Father Andrei was recognized throughout the Russian diaspora and Russia as an exemplary Orthodox bass soloist, recording numerous CDs and working with some of the best Orthodox choirs in the world. In the 1980s, he directed the choir of the Holy Epiphany parish in Roslindale, MA, and was, for several years, the director of the Seminary Choir at Holy Trinity Seminary, where he also taught liturgical singing. In 1992, with the blessing of the late Metropolitan Laurus he founded the summer program in liturgical music at Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary in Jordanville, which evolved eventually into the Synodal School of Liturgical Music. He has also been active in the work of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia’s Synodal Liturgical Music Commission since the mid-1980s and is presently serving as its chairman.
Kurt Sander
Sander is currently a Professor of Composition at Northern Kentucky University. He received a D.M in Music Composition from Northwestern University where he studied with Alan Stout and Andrew Imbrie. The 2019 CD release of Sander’s 90-minute choral work The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom on the Reference Recordings label was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance. The recording featured the PaTRAM Institute Singers under the direction of Peter Jermihov.
Kurt Sander’s compositions have been performed in 14 countries on five different continents. Much of his choral and instrumental work takes its inspiration from the sublime dimensions of the Eastern Orthodox faith and its rich artistic traditions.
His sacred choral work has been recorded and performed by professional ensembles throughout the world including Cappella Romana, the Kastalsky Choir (RUS), the Cincinnati Camerata, the Cantata Singers of Ottawa (CAN), the St. Romanos Cappella, the Clarion Choir, Archangel Voices, the Patriarch Tikhon Choir, and The Orthodox Singers (RUS) and the PaTRAM Institute Singers.
In 2017, he received a commission by the Patriarch Tikhon Russian-American Music Institute (PaTRAM) for a new English-language setting of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. This 90-minute work was recorded by the PaTRAM Institute Singers under the direction of Peter Jermihov and released as a 2 CD set on Reference Recordings label in 2019. The CD of this work was nominated for a Grammy in 2020 under the “Best Choral Album” category.
Sander was one of five featured composers on the collaborative composition “Heaven and Earth” which was commissioned by the St. John of Damascus Society and will be recorded in 2021 by the renowned choral ensemble Cappella Romana under the direction of conductor Michael Boyer. The CD is scheduled for international release in 2022 on the Cappella Recordings label.
Sander has also acquired notoriety for his chamber and orchestral writing. He was recently named a finalist in the American Prize for his song cycle “Ella’s Song” about the life of St. Elizabeth, Grand Duchess of Russia. Other instrumental works have been performed by the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, the Brasov Philharmonic (Romania), the Pleven Philharmonic (Bulgaria), the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Synchronia, the Corbett Trio, the Solaris Wind Quintet, and the St. Petersburg Quartet.
Sander currently serves as Professor of Music and Coordinator of Music Theory and Composition at Northern Kentucky University. He holds degrees in composition from Northwestern University, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Cleveland State University where he studied with Bain Murray, Alan Stout, Rudolph Bubalo, and Andrew Imbrie.
Sander’s choral music is published through Musica Russica.