First Class of Certificate in Byzantine Music Holders from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology

[GabrielCremeens]

Christ is risen!

I am sure that there will be a more official announcement coming soon, but I wanted to notify the online community of the graduation of the first holders of the Holy Cross Certificate in Byzantine Music. They include the following individuals (in no particular order), who received their certificates at the 72nd Commencement of Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology this past Saturday, May 17th:

Fr. Aristides Garinis
Archdeacon Panteleimon Papadopoulos
Andreas Houpos
Christina Stavros
Gabriel Cremeens
Peter Elgohary
Peter George

Some of the recipients (those who actually attended the commencement) can be seen in the attached picture. They are (left to right),

Fr. Panteleimon Papadopoulos, Andreas Houpos [Fr. George Kouzelis - adjunct instructor of Byzantine Music at Holy Cross], [Dr. Grammenos Karanos - Assistant Professor of Byzantine Music at Holy Cross], Christina Stavros, Fr. Aristides Garinis, and Gabriel Cremeens.

Our warmest thanks and congratulations are due to Dr. Grammenos Karanos, the head of the program, for his absolutely tireless efforts to bring this about. On a personal level, I cannot express the depth of my gratitude to Dr. Karanos for the years of effort, guidance, help, and counsel he has given me as I pursued this degree during my undergraduate career. I cannot have asked for a better teacher.

Axios!

In Christ,
Gabriel

 

[Nikolaos Giannoukakis]

Axioi to all!

My hope is that the love and devotion of these wonderful individuals will motivate the Archdiocese to further expand the program and more importantly to sensitise all the parishes that the way forward is to look backward at the most authentic musical traditions of Orthodoxy, rooted in the Mother Church.

My hope is that these bright individuals, as stewards of our most authentic musical traditions, will be welcomed by their parishes and will be employed to further teach our music to future generations.

Kudos to Dr. Karanos for an innovative program, and to Metropolitan Methodios and Fr. Triantafyllou for their support of this program.

NG

 

[herron.samuel]

Congratulations, Tim! It is much deserved! Axios!

Sam

 

[romanos4]

Congrats on your achievements!

I was pleased to have read Christina's article in the most recent Orthodox Observer. I believe that, very much in the spirit of her article, that teaching the children to know and love our hymnology will have the multi-faceted benefit of increased participation in the life of the Faith, the revival, if not, continued flourishing of our rich Psaltik tradition and just the sheer "ownership" of psaltiki as one piece of the fabric that comprises Orthodoxy. Making something our own on a daily basis means our fervor for it and we all know our country can benefit from leadership - whether clerical or lay - with respect to our sacred music.

Again, congratulations!