Conference Speakers
2024 Conference Speakers
Additional speakers will be added here as they are confirmed
Larissa Doohovskoy
Comfortable as both a leader and collaborator, Laryssa Doohovskoy is a sought-after soloist and ensemble member. Gathering inspiration from experience as a performer both in the United States and abroad, she enjoys dissecting a wide variety of repertoire including art song, opera, musical theatre, commercial music, as well as chamber and choral music.
A passionate educator and choral director, Laryssa Doohovskoy has over 25 years of experience as a teacher of both children and adults. She runs a thriving private studio in Acton, MA, teaches voice at the Middlesex School in Concord, MA, is on the faculty of the Instrumental Music School of Carlisle and Concord, and the Patriarch Tikhon Russian American Music Institute (PaTRAM). She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. In 2018, Ms. Doohovskoy joined the faculty of the Synodal School of Liturgical Music in Jordanville, NY. In 2018 and 2019 she served as the Director of the Vocal Program for the PaTRAM Institute’s Summer Academy for Singers. She has been invited to give several masterclasses across the United States and has served as an adjudicator for local and national competitions. Her students have successfully auditioned for professional and amateur productions, district festivals, university music, and conservatory programs. She has served as music director for several children’s theater companies in the Greater Boston area including Encore Players and the Popcorn Players. In 2012, Ms. Doohovskoy was appointed Music Director of the St. Xenia Orthodox Church in Methuen, MA, after having served as Associate Director since 2004, where she leads both the adult and children’s choirs.
A longtime resident of the Northeast, Ms. Doohovskoy earned her undergraduate degree from New England Conservatory (BM, Vocal Performance). She continued her studies in South Florida, earning a graduate degree from the University of Miami Frost School of Music (MM, Vocal Performance). While at UM, Ms. Doohovskoy was awarded a Teaching Assistantship and the Provost Scholarship for study in Salzburg, Austria. She has also completed post-graduate study in contemporary vocal pedagogy at Shenandoah Conservatory’s CCM Institute and Boston Conservatory.
Her principal teachers include Esther Jane Hardenbergh, Mark Pearson, Simeon Tregubov, and Susan Fisher Clickner.
Protodeacon Ioann Drobot
Born in 1957 in the family of Archpriest George Nikolaevich Drobot and Mariamna Elpidiforovna nee Tikhonitsky. From the age of seven he assisted in the altar during services at the St. Sergius Church at the Theological Institute in Paris and at the age of 17 he joined the church choir. He sang in the choir under the direction of Nikolai Mikhailovich Osorgin. In 1977 he joined the “Big Choir” (concert choir) at the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris under the direction of Eugene Ivanovich Evets. Since 1978, he served as an assistant choir master in the church of St. Constantine and Helena in Clamart near Paris. In 1979, he was tonsured a reader. In 1987, he created the male choir named after St. Romanos the Melodist. The choir sang divine services on Saturday and Sunday in the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral once a month and performed at concerts of sacred music. In 1995 Ioann became a singer in the church choir of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral under the direction of Vasily Evgenievich Evets. Since 2000, for three years, he participated in the preparation and conducting of the “ideal all-night Vigil” in St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. He was ordained a deacon on June 10th, 2012. Now Fr. Ioann is the protodeacon of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris. He is an author of articles on Russian church chants in Russian, French and English. He is vice chairman of the Society of Adherents for Church Singing.
Protodeacon Alexander Kedroff
Father Alexander Kedroff is an archdeacon of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris, France. He also teaches at the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Russian School and organizes concerts of the choir throughout Europe and Russia. Kedroff studied at the St. Serge Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, France. He grew in the Russian émigré community after his parents fled Russian following the Bolshevik Revolution.
Vladimir Krassovsky
HOLY VIRGIN CATHEDRAL PONTIFICAL CHOIR OF SAN FRANCISCO
The 45-voice Holy Virgin Cathedral Pontifical Choir sings at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the same name. The choir consists primarily of Russian singers whose parents have immigrated to the United States from Russia, China, and various European countries. It has been formed into a well-tuned instrument by the artistry of Mikhail S. Konstantinov, who had vast experience as an opera singer and conductor of a Cathedral Choir, the Symphony, and the Opera in Kiev, Ukraine (then Russia).
This artistry prompted the San Francisco Chronicle columnist, Herb Caen, to write of the choir that it is the best church choir in town.” The choir has sung many concerts in the Bay Area including concerts with such great artists as Metropolitan Opera tenor Nicolai Gedda. Retiring in 1979, Konstantinov turned over the choir to his young student, Vladimir Krassovsky, who has kept prominent the high quality of singing and artistry within the chorus.
VLADIMIR KRASSOVSKY
Vladimir Krassovsky, conductor of the Holy Virgin Cathedral Pontifical Choir, studied piano under V.N. Kostevich for thirteen years. Continuing his musical education in San Francisco State University, Mr. Krassovsky was also tutored by the Cathedral Choir Director, Mikhail Konstantinov (1904-1982) for 12 years in conducting and in the art of Russian choral singing. Becoming conductor of the Saints Cyril andMethodius Youth Choir in 1970, Mr. Krassovsky built it from a ten-voice to a strong sixty-voice chorus. Mr. Krassovsky relinquished his post in 1979 upon his appointment to the Holy Virgin Cathedral Pontifical Choir.
In 1987, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia appointed Vladimir Krassovsky to its Synodal Liturgical Music Commission whose mission is to preserve the Russian Orthodox Liturgical Music tradition for future generations. Vladimir Krassovsky has lectured on Orthodox Liturgical Music throughout the United States and Canada and in 2008, was invited to give a lecture at the Liturgical Music Symposium in Moscow, Russia. Vladimir Krassovsky has been a choir director for 50 years and actively continues performing his duties to this day.
Vladimir Morosan
Dr. Vladimir Morosan is one of the leading experts outside Russia in the field of Orthodox liturgical music. He is Founder and President of Musica Russica, a publishing company specializing in the publication and dissemination of Orthodox choral music throughout the Western world. He is also the Director of the “Orthodox Sacred Music Reference Library” Project (www.orthodoxchoral.org), the largest online library of Orthodox music. As Founder and Artistic Director of Archangel Voices, a professional-level choral ensemble, he has recorded six CDs of Orthodox liturgical music in English; he is also the composer and editor of numerous choral arrangements. He serves as Project Lead for music editing and online instruction for the Department of Liturgical Music of the Orthodox Church in America. A tonsured reader in the Orthodox Church, he currently serves as Director of Liturgical Singing at St. Katherine Orthodox Mission in Carlsbad, California.
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.