Anastasia Serdsev

Anastasia Serdsev holds an M.M. degree in conducting from the Bard College Conservatory of Music and an M.A.T. degree in music teaching from Lehman College. She is a conductor, teacher, and performer of differing styles in music and an active participant in various Orthodox liturgical music conferences, concerts, and projects. Ms. Serdsev is particularly interested in the training of current and future generations of Orthodox church musicians in North America. On this subject, she wrote her conducting master’s thesis titled Orthodox Liturgical Music in North America: Finding a Place for Professionalism. At the 2017 PaTRAM Memorial Day Workshop, she gave a talk titled “Choral Tone and Prayerful Singing” and another titled ‘Working with Your Church Choir: Will the ‘Next Generation’ Follow?” at the 2015 Russian Orthodox Church Musician’s Conference. Ms. Serdsev regularly appears as a conductor and singer at different Orthodox liturgical events. In April 2017, she directed the Prince Vladimir Youth Association Choir in its third annual Paschal liturgy and concert. In the preceding year, she traveled with select members of the choir to Ukraine, where they performed at several of the country’s most prominent monasteries. She has, likewise, participated in the Patriarch Tikhon Choir concert series in September 2013 and in the choir’s recording “Praise the Lord, All Ye Nations” in December 2014. More recently, she sang in the premiere celebrations of two newly-composed liturgies by Kurt Sander (2017) and Benedict Sheehan (2019).

Ms. Serdsev completed the choir director’s certificate  program at the Synodal School of Liturgical Music and has been working and assisting as a church choir director at different parishes for several years. In 2020 she joined SSLM as a teaching assistant in choir conducting. In 2022 she is teaching the Choral Methods core course during the July summer session.