| On October 16, 2004 a music workshop entitled "A Cappella Singing, How To Do It Well" was held at Holy Protection Cathedral in New York City. The speaker was Dr. Vladimir Morosan.
There were approximately 40 attendees, including two Episcopalians and one Ukrainian Catholic. One person came all the way from Harrisburg, PA! The Akathist to the Theotokos was served at the cathedral before the workshop began. The service text was provided and everyone sang along.
We charged $15 for the registration fee, which included meals and workshop materials. The workshop lasted from 10 am -3 pm. Dr. Morosan gave a brief introduction to the following subjects: Sight singing, vocal warm-ups, interpreting common chant, the movable-DO system. His presentations, four in total, were about 45 minutes long each with printed examples of what he was demonstrating. He also demonstrated the on-line Liturgical Music Resource, which PSALM is developing in order to make more music available to church musicians.
Discussions during lunch included lamentations about the need for training of our church musicians and the lack of effort to provide it it. Many said they thought their own parish would be willing to host a workshop and all were very excited about the upcoming weekend conference to be held May 13-15, 2005 in Jersey City.
An evaluation form was completed after the workshop. All gave good marks for presentation, venue, content, materials, organization, etc.
Among those in attendance were Fr. John and Eugenia Nehrebecki, who have always been, and continue to be, very supportive of the musical life of our church.
This workshop proved that there is a desire for these kinds of events, that we can do them and have them pay for themselves.
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