On Sunday, July 14, the 34th annual summer session of the Synodal School of Liturgical Music (SSLM) began with a moleben in St. Seraphim Cathedral at Holy Dormition Convent "Novo-Diveevo" in Nanuet, NY, served by Archimandrite Siluan (Lembei; cleric of Three Hierarchs Church in Hollywood, FL) and Priest Artem Siss (convent cleric). Following the moleben, opening remarks were delivered by SSLM’s administration and faculty, in which the students were welcomed to what promised to be "among the hardest but most rewarding two weeks" of their lives.

At SSLM, students are immersed in two weeks of courses in Typicon, choir conducting, voice, Church Slavonic, church music history, liturgical performance practice, music theory, and sight-singing. Classes last from 8 o’clock in the morning to 6:30 in the evening. Two choir rehearsals are held daily, at which students put their choir conducting skills to the test and conducting instructors work with the choir to learn pieces for a hierarchical service and the closing day moleben. Additionally, second- and third-year students are divided into small groups, each responsible for putting together and singing at least two daily services in St. Seraphim Cathedral.

On Wednesday, July 24, at the invitation of SSLM, His Grace Theodosius, Bishop of Seattle, celebrated Divine Liturgy for the feast day of the Holy Equal-of-the-Apostles Princess Olga of Kiev. In addition to the convent clerics, the liturgy was joined by SSLM teachers Protodeacon Serge Arlievsky (cleric of the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City) and Deacon Vitaly Permiakov (assistant professor of Liturgical Theology at the St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary OCA). The choir, composed of SSLM faculty and students under the direction of choral methods instructor Nikolai Kovalenko (Melbourne, Australia), sang beautifully, including among others compositions by Dcn. Sergei Trubachev, Pavel Chesnokov, and Dmitry Yaichkov, as well as a setting of the exapostilarion to St. Olga harmonized by Fr. Serge Arlievsky especially for this occasion.

Bishop Theodosius joined SSLM for lunch following Liturgy, at which time he touched on his years in the brotherhood of the Kiev Caves Lavra and spoke warmly of the school’s contributions to preserving and strengthening ROCOR’s liturgical music culture, and in particular of the role played in this endeavor by SSLM founder and Director, Archpriest Andre Papkov, who served as the head of the school for more than 30 years and also served for many years as the chairman of the Synodal Liturgical Music Commission.

This year, as in numerous previous years, the school received financial support from the Fund for Assistance to ROCOR, permitting SSLM to keep tuition costs down to a reasonable level. The school also received a donation of two high-quality electronic keyboards from the Beloselsky Fund of ARAA-Otrada.

The SSLM session concluded on Saturday, July 27. Closing day ceremonies included a conducting final exam, during which the graduating students demonstrated the results of two weeks’ work with the SSLM choir (this year this included an English-language setting of Chesnokov’s "A Mercy of Peace – Kievan chant"; Tchaikovsky’s "Blessed is the Man" and Solomin’s "Who shall separate us"). A thanksgiving moleben followed immediately after the exam, served by Fr. Artem Siss and conducted by SSLM faculty member Peter Fekula. At the conclusion of the moleben, the graduates – Morgan Maudiere, Anna Rakova, and Timothy Zelinsky – received their certificates of completion as "conductors-precentors".