Speakers
Keynote Speaker: His Grace Bishop Job of Stuttgart
Bishop Job (Bandmann) was born in Berlin on 29 August 1982, and received a classical German education including ancient Greek and Latin. In September of 2003 he was received into the Brotherhood of the St. Job of Pochaev Monastery in Munich. On 10 November 2006 he was made a reader. In 2016 he was tonsured into the Lesser Schema and ordained a Hierodeacon, and in 2018 was ordained a Hieromonk with the blessing by the Synod of Bishops to wear a gold cross. In 2021 he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.
After the sudden passing of Archbishop Agapit, his predecessor on the Stuttgart cathedra, the Sobor of the Russian Church Outside of Russia chose Archimandrite Job as his successor, and he was ordained as the Bishop of Stuttgart in the Cathedral of the Sign in New York.
In 2009 he completed the theological faculty of the Ludvig-Maximilian University of Munich and in 2022 defended his doctoral dissertation on biblical theology.
In the monastery Vladyka Job has had a number of obediences, including responsibility for computers and typesetting (including bookbinding and journals). Pilgrims regularly ask him for advice and assistance in a variety of matters, and he refuses no-one. Vladyka Job also has musical talent: he is the director of the monastery choir and has trained many singers, deacons and priests who have undergone 40 days of training in the Monastery of St. Job of Pochaev.
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.
Vadim Gan
Vadim Gan leads the Synodal Cathedral Choir at the Synod of Bishops’ Cathedral in New York City. A vocalist, conductor as well as an expert on liturgics, he advocates for coordinated interaction between choir and clergy during divine services, toward a harmonious and seamless performance of their respective duties.
He has made numerous appearances as a soloist, conductor and lecturer across North America, Australia and Russia. He has also led several workshops on church bell ringing and the proper fulfillment of the diaconate’s role in divine services.
His experience as a church choirmaster began in California, where he grew up. In the 1990s, he led parish choirs in Sacramento and Burlingame, and also founded the St. John’s Male Choir of San Francisco. He later served as choirmaster and conductor in the Sydney, Australia area for many years. He had numerous professional singing engagements across Australia, including in Melbourne and Sydney, and was a featured participant at the invitational Festival of Deacons in Russia.
He has also contributed to numerous conferences and choral festivals, including in Moscow, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Los Angeles, has been a featured concert soloist in several major U.S. cities, including Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York, and has participated in numerous recording projects, both as a chorister and as a soloist.
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.
Andrei Roudenko
Andrei Roudenko served as Conductor of the Church of All Russian Saints Choir from 2001 to 2022. Prior to his appointment in June 2001, he was founder and Music Director of the Russian Chamber Chorus in Boston, was a long-time performing member of Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society.
He was guest conductor of the Karelsky Academic Chorus in Russia in 1991, and in 1992, conducted members of his Russian Chamber Chorus and Voskreseniye Choir in a joint performance and recording at MosFilm of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil in Moscow. Roudenko conducted the US premiere of the complete Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil in Slavonic, and presented the Slavonic US premier of Kastalsky’s Requiem for Fallen Brothers in Boston, Massachusetts, the latter with Bass soloist Fr. Andrei Papkov.
In 1996, Roudenko collaborated with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Shostakovich’s 13th symphony, featuring baritone Sergei Leiferkus and the men of the Russian Chamber Chorus. He made his Boston Symphony Hall conducting debut in 1995 in a concert of Russian liturgical and folk music that featured baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
Roudenko has served as language and style consultant to Boston-area choruses in their exploration of Russian vocal music and made his solo debut in Gretchaninov’s Sugubaya Ekteniya with Boston’s Chorus pro Musica.
He led the Church of All Russian Saints Choir in an all-Chesnokov program of liturgical works at the 3rd International Russian Choral Music Festival in San Francisco, and has presented numerous concerts of sacred music at the Church of All Russian Saints, which are available at https://allrussiansaintsburlingame.org/choirconcerts.
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.
Deacon Anthony Stokes
Rev. Dcn. Anthony Stokes has been the choir director at St. Maximus the Confessor Orthodox Church in Denton, Texas, since its very first service in July 2001. He is very active as a church choir director, conducting choirs in services and concerts throughout the United States and Russia, and also serves as an ordained deacon in the Orthodox Church in America. He is the founder and chair of the OCA Diocese of the South Liturgical Music Committee, and an active teacher of Liturgics and Conducting online.
Outside of the Church, he has taught music appreciation and music history classes at the college level for over 17 years. As an orchestral conductor, he has led performances with several orchestras, musical theater, and opera companies in the North Texas area. Principal conducting teachers include Vladimir Gorbik and the late Anshel Brusilow.