Greetings from the City of Roses, Portland, OR
My name is John Presson. I am the first chanter of the "old calendar" HOCNA's Portland, OR Cathedral, and as of July of last year was made Protopsaltis of the western Metropolis. I am 43 and have been chanting since 1992. I hail from a family of long time professional musicians (my mother was one of the first woman trombonists in the Seattle, WA music community), and I have continued in the tradition over the years as a life long musician.
I studied music (primarily organ performance, with vocal minor work) at the Univ. of Wash. in Seattle. I first became interested in Byzantine music when I converted to Orthodoxy in 1985, but never really pursued it until I initially went to Holy Transf. Monastery in Brookline to study with Metr. Ephraim in 1992. After beginning to listen to traditional chanters from Greece, I became convinced that much of what was being taught in HOCNA was highly westernized, and that much of the interpretations I was hearing from Greek chanters came from a good understanding of the traditional notation, but I lacked a good teacher until I found J Boyer who was in Portland, and became a good friend and teacher. Things just took off, and have been involved in promoting Byzantine notation, and traditional yphos in English in my Cathedral Parish and diocese. My hierarch has followed my work for some time and since our community was elevated to Cathedral status, I was elevated to Protopsaltis of our Metropolis.
I am endeavoring to form a male chant schola here in Portland, although we have met with limited success. So (here is the message from my shameless promotion division) if anyone is interested in joining with me to help build --Portland is a lovely place!
John, the salty Psalti