A musical note

Congratulations to Cappella Romana on its $36,000 grant to fund three recordings. One is the Byzantine Divine Liturgy in English, scheduled for release next Christmas. For Christmas 2005 is Divine Liturgy and choral motets by Peter Michaelides. The third is music by Fr. Sergei Glagolev, conducted by Vladimir Morosan, in 2006.

Cappella Romana is an a cappella choral group based in the Pacific Northwest. They perform a variety of Church and Church-inspired music that is truly other-worldly.

I met Fr. Glagolev, though I didn't know it until later, at St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York. My friend and I had traveled there to attend an Orthodox theological conference and hear a noted French theologian talk about women's ministries in the Church.

During our first few minutes at the seminary, we passed a small man with collar-length gray hair, who greeted us with the Paschal greeting, "Christ is risen!" I don't think he walked with a cane, and yet my memory sees him carrying a pilgrim's staff, though I don't think carried that either. His face and his conversation were filled with joy that he always had a group of people surrounding him. I learned later that this was "our" Fr. Glagolev (the sense not of ownership but of relationship, because our church choir sings so much of his music).

So I wait eagerly for Christmas 2006 for Slavic Orthodox music in English.