Reestablishing the St Vladimir’s Seminary Chorale with Director Zachariah Mandell

The St. Vladimir’s Seminary Chorale has had several incarnations over the last two decades. Most recently, it was reestablished at the beginning of the Spring 2025 semester by Seminary Liturgical Music Instructor Zachariah Mandell (M.Div. ’20), with assistance and input from Assistant Professor of Liturgical Music, The Rev. Dn. Dr. Harrison Basil Russin. We spoke with Zach about the decision to reassemble the Chorale, the process of training and preparing for future performances, and the overall history of the Chorale and other performing groups and recordings at St. Vladimir’s Seminary.

Zach, please tell us more about how the Chorale came to be this time around. What has it been like to begin rehearsing with an entirely new ensemble?

Basically, starting at the beginning of this spring semester, we put together a revival of the Chorale as an auditioned ensemble among our choirs. Yes, everybody who studies at seminary sings, everybody participates in chapel services, but for the students involved in the Chorale, this is their choir requirement. Additionally, professors and community members can audition for the Chorale. For example, Fr. Sergius Halvorsen, Mka. Nancy Rentel (wife of Fr. Alexander Rentel), and several students’ wives have joined. So it's been going well. 

We rehearse Tuesday nights in various ways—sometimes singing full services or parts of services, especially during significant feasts like the Annunciation. This allows the women of the Chorale to prepare some music, while the entire ensemble can work on more complex pieces for the service. During the semester, we aimed to have the Chorale sing a part of a service once every two weeks.

How is the Chorale dovetailing with the required choirs for the people who are not in the ensemble?

That’s definitely something we’re still figuring out, but there are aspects of it that are really positive. For those who aren’t in the Chorale, they still have a chance to sing with Chorale members when we have joint rehearsals and focus on some of the fundamental core things we’re trying to work on. In the broader scheme, we’re trying to align what we do in chapel choir rehearsal with our music curriculum. These two things inform one another, so the actual singing of services is guided by the principle that we are preparing to sing well and to sing appropriately for services. We’re also working on helping everyone understand the music they’re singing. One thing we’re balancing is that sometimes the male and mixed choirs do need to rehearse separately, so finding the right balance is a work in progress. But we’re willing to work on it and find a way to maximize everything within the limited time we have.

In your musical selections, are you focusing more on the OCA/Russian tradition? Or are you also incorporating some Byzantine or other traditions? 

In this new ensemble, the focus has been on new compositions. That focus spans various traditions, probably more in the Russian-OCA idiom, but we’ve also sung “Receive the Body of Christ,” a setting by Tikey Zes, a Greek composer who did Byzantine-style music with harmonization. In honor of his recent repose in the Lord, we performed this composition at the Commencement ceremony in May. We’ve done some Byzantine pieces as well, and we’re also considering incorporating something with a more “American” or Appalachian sound. 

Is this focus on highlighting new compositions in any way inspired by your experience at the 2023 Summer Institute, which had a distinct composing element?

Absolutely, yeah. That experience definitely inspired a funneling and focusing of this kind of vision. And then I think a “let's go do it” mentality kicked in. Before I came back to work here, following that Institute, I was working in the Twin Cities at St. Mary's in Minneapolis. Several of us attended that Institute together. When we went back to Minnesota, we organized composers' workshops for those in the area who were composing. There were people dabbling or experimenting, trying things out, but that experience made it clear: “This can be real, and this should be real.” We were able to do a lot of really good work that way. I know that, although I’ve since left and am now here, Mark Bushy, Peter Tabeling, and David Lucs—they're still working on those events in Minnesota.

 

Can you tell us a little bit about who the Chorale musicians are? 

The Chorale last Spring had sixteen singers, plus me as the director, and of course, Dn. Harrison Russin also sings with the group when he can. So, the composition was twelve students, one faculty member, one community member, and two spouses, with people from varying jurisdictions, including both Antiochians and OCA members. So, it was a mixed ensemble—eight women and eight men.

Will you be continually doing auditions once a semester?

I think going forward, it will be once a year, likely in the fall semester, at the beginning of the year, so that there can be a sense of direction throughout the year. That’ll also be part of the information for incoming students, because every year there's vocal testing when students come in, along with placement for the ensembles. But this will also be an opportunity to offer auditions for the ensemble each year.

How does the Chorale relate to the Institute of Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir’s Seminary?

There's an active relationship. Recently, we renovated the music room and reintroduced it as the Sacred Arts Room, expanding its purpose and versatility. The Institute of Sacred Arts hosted a beautiful opening event for the new Sacred Arts Room back in May, and the Chorale gave its first official performance as part of that event.

 

Do you see the potential for anything in terms of new coursework, or expanded composition seminars, etc., related to the Chorale?

From time to time, there have been these courses in the past, and I hope that the presence of the Chorale can allow those kinds of courses to be offered more frequently. The vision would be that, with the partnership with the Institute of Sacred Arts and the development of projects that highlight what's happening here, students and people interested in the music program will be drawn in. This could allow for greater offerings year to year, both in composition and conducting.

Some of the compositions sung by the Chorale are, in fact, the result of previous composition courses. One example is my composition of Gladsome Light, which I did when I was a student. Another is the rendition of Gladsome Light by recent graduate Jaime Rall (M.A. ’25), composed in her composition class with Dn. Harrison last year, which the Chorale also sang at Commencement.

I would say that whether formally or informally, through class or just by composing, the Chorale can, and already has, acted as a workshop choir for people who have composed pieces. They can sing with a group that makes it sound like it's supposed to, allowing for tweaking or adjustments. It also continues to serve as a place where people who want to conduct can get time to learn things like how to lead warm-ups for a group and how to prepare for rehearsals. This is a place where we can cultivate those skills for people who are going to be choir directors in parishes.

It’s really beautiful that the Chorale is also a great learning experience for someone who might not be sure of their musicianship but has growth potential. It’s for someone who wants to challenge themselves. Who wants to practice and improve, and who can realize that this is serious work. The rehearsals will be fast-paced, and that’s part of pushing development. 

How would you say this new group relates to the past musical groups at St. Vladimir’s Seminary? What’s the same and what's different?

What’s the same is that it’s an attempt to live the legacy of public-facing musical performance. The Octet was the first public-facing ensemble that St. Vladimir's had, and also the male choir in general, through some of the early recorded albums: e.g., The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (SVS Male Choir, 1972), Great and Holy Saturday (SVS Male Choir, 1975), Pascha (SVS Male Choir, 1977), and so on. Then, of course, the Octet also became a traveling ensemble. 

 

In 2005, when Kevin Smith was the choir director, he conceived the idea of the Chorale. There’s been a shift in demographics over the years, of course, in terms of the seminarians in general. Back in the Octet days, most of the guys here were not married; they were single, and many of them had come through the pre-theological program. They were undergraduates, and this was their early twenties, studying here for their M.Div. Being single and unattached, they had more time to travel, as the Octet did. Over time, though, the demographic has shifted toward married students. There’s also been a shift in the curriculum, especially with things like diocesan internships or, for the M.Div., Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). We don’t have the same ability to travel as we did in the past, and there are also broader jurisdictional requirements that don’t allow for that kind of thing anymore. 

However, what this new setup does is provide a chance to cultivate a cohesive sound. By having a standing ensemble, we can focus on specific projects. It gives students with higher-level musicianship the chance to engage more broadly with music. It also allows us to revisit the possibility of traveling on a limited basis, if a group is dedicated to that. 

One of the challenges that recent alumni remember is that balancing student life and concert preparation can be difficult. Having a group like this, with a standing repertoire, makes it easier to be prepared for a concert on demand. The vision is to be perpetually building a repertoire so that we can pull from it when needed. It also helps to solidify the music we are interested in singing, and that deserves to be sung, and that we want to share.

Something that really struck me when I was reading about the original version of the Chorale was something Director Kevin Smith said: there’s a trajectory of singing from chapel to performance. Everything we do is rooted in liturgical worship. So, when we prepare this other music, it’s not just for the sake of music. It’s not just a concert for the sake of a concert, but it aligns with that very Schmemann-y way of thinking, where chapel, library, and classroom are interconnected. That’s kind of the vision here—to be present and engaged, not just singing old music but also singing what is new and inspiring. It also offers the chance for people interested in composition and directing to engage in those areas. By having the group as a standing ensemble that regularly sings services together and rehearses, it’s not just, “Oh, we’ve been asked to do a concert, so we’ll put the word ‘Chorale’ over that.” It’s a cohesive entity, and I hope that’s what will give it the longevity to continue.

 

Why do you think music from St. Vladimir's Seminary has been so influential in the Church in North America in the past? Why do you think people have related to it so well?

In the past, there was a sense of alignment in vision—”we are here now, and therefore, we need to sing things in English.” That was such an incredible and inspiring aspect, even before Dave Drillock was the choir director. When he was a student, working with the conductor at the time, Boris Ledkovsky, a Russian composer and choir director, Dave would translate things on the fly and create music in real-time. There was a living momentum of “this is important, this is a priority, this is something we need to do.” Then, with SVS Press, they were able to produce that music. 

Early on, many of the seminary’s recordings—whether by the Octet, male choir, or the seminary choir—accompanied music books. The Pre-Sanctified music, the Pascha book, and the first green liturgy book all came out alongside recordings of this music. Maybe not exactly at the same time, but around the same period. There was a showing and telling happening at that time, and that was very successful because it was necessary. 

Now, the next step, I think, very much follows what Father Sergei Glagolev did through the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, and what’s been carried on by new generations of composers: “Alright, now we have English, so now what?” There are new sounds, a living tradition here and now. I hope we can continue this with the Chorale—bringing new music forward, both in recording and performance. And, God willing, if it's music produced here, in sheet music, so that it can live on and be experienced.

 

Can you tell us if you are planning to start venturing out for a few concerts off campus, maybe starting this fall?

Yes, in fact we are planning one for November 6 [Stay tuned for details!]. We are getting the word out that the ensemble is here and available for requests. We would definitely like to do at least one significant concert per semester. We’d also like to possibly have one or two trips per semester. But with a group like this, there’s also the possibility of being asked to provide services. For example, we’re open to sending a few people from the group, if someone needs a quartet to sing liturgy or a wedding, to accommodate that. These are the kinds of things we’re really open to and would like to do. 

If you would like to learn more about inviting the St. Vladimir’s Seminary Chorale to sing liturgically or give a performance, please contact Zachariah Mandell at zmandell@svots.edu.