From July 11 to 13, 2015, a cantors’ gathering was held at St. Mary’s Cathedral (St. Petersburg), organized by the Educational Department of the Ingrian Church. The three-day intensive brought together 25 musicians from several congregations in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Region, Karelia, as well as from Borisoglebsk (Voronezh region), Kazan (Tatarstan), Rzhev (Tver region), and Saransk (Mordovia).
The program included Vespers with Taizé chants, a meditation on the Magnificat text led by cathedral pastor Mikhail Ivanov, numerous rehearsals (even during lunch breaks!), a masterclass on liturgical accompaniment by the cathedral’s principal organist and head of the Ingrian Church’s Cantors’ Guild Marina Vyaizya, the concert The World of Chorales, a choral conducting masterclass by Ekaterina Andreyeva, and participation in the Sunday worship service. To conclude, Marina Vyaizya invited all interested attendees to her organ concert at St. Catherine’s Church.
During a roundtable discussion, key challenges in musical ministry were outlined – chief among them being the current shortage of qualified cantors in our congregations. The participants discussed whether a USB drive with hymns could replace a real cantor, whether singing to a backing track during worship is acceptable, who can be considered a cantor in the broadest sense, and what defines a cantor according to the Ingrian Church’s canonical law. They also fondly remembered pastor Timur Pamyatnykh of the Novosibirsk congregation, who is developing electronic organs based on the Hauptwerk platform. Thanks were given to God for enabling music ministers and parish choirs to collaborate, support one another, visit each other, and organize joint projects – liturgical, missionary, and educational.
The Days of Church Music brought together both experienced cantors, some with over 30 years of ministry, and novice parish musicians.
We wanted to show the audience that the chorale preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach are based on the same chorales sung today in the worship services of the Ingrian Church. A choir of cantors performed several verses in Russian.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Darya Shkurlyateva, coordinator of the Days of Church Music
