Our Choir

The choir has a role of special significance in the life of an Orthodox church. They engage in an ongoing dialog with the priest throughout the liturgy from the very beginning of the service until the end. In our church there is no organ and the choir sings a cappella. St. Theophan the Recluse, (pictured at left,) said of Church music: "The purpose of Church songs is precisely to make the spark of grace that is hidden with us burn brighter and with greater warmth. This spark is given by the sacraments. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual odes are introduced to fan the spark and transform it into flame …"

 While the music we sing today is largely in the Slavic style, our choir also uses music and chants from the Byzantine, Greek, Serbian and other traditions. In the earliest years there was a little use of material in Church Slavonic, since in the 1960s the movement to translate and update church music for English was just beginning.

The story of our choir starts with assistance rendered to us by Saints Peter and Paul Church of Syracuse. Stepan Beskid of that church was the “cantor” or reader as we would say today, and with encouragement from him and Fr. Kozak a choir was formed with Anastasia Wargo as the choir director. Her sister in law Jane Wargo and Professor John Chaus were active in building the choir in the early years as well. Later on Bill Kosachook directed the choir for many years until the late 1970s. 

In the late 1970s Mark Bailey, then a student at the Eastman School of Music, joined the choir, and became its director. Mark came at a time when the movement to translate music from Slavonic to English was leading into the writing of new music. Part of the issue was that melodies written with Slavonic in mind for the words simply did not match well when the Slavonic was translated into English. Mark moved into this transitioning church music scene and became known as a writer of music himself; many of the songs our choir uses are written by him. 

(Pictured here are Bonnie Maye Schwartz and Mary B____? against the wall, and from left to right in the foreground are Paul Wargo, Anastasia Wargo, and Mark Bailey.)

In an interview Bonnie Maye Schwarz, who has been our choir director for many years, noted the importance of Fr.Sergei Glagolev to English language music. Fr. Sergei comes from a long line of Orthodox priests, and his father, Fr. Andrew, did the first English language translation of the music for the liturgy in 1948. Fr. Sergei continued this work of his father for many years at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, where his summer music institutes educated many.

Bonnie shares her commitment to the choir with her husband Doug Schwarz, choir member and reader. The extent of their commitment is readily apparent to anyone at all familiar with the length and number of Orthodox services, and the complex movement of the liturgical year and its accompanying rotation of music and chant. She is greatly heartened to see the choir grow as it has in recent years!