The Saint Tikhon Choir

The Saint Tikhon Choir is the professional choral ensemble of the Saint Tikhon Orthodox Monastery in Pennsylvania. It is the first professional vocal group affiliated with an Orthodox monastery in the U.S. The Saint Tikhon Choir was founded in 2015 by Benedict Sheehan, who remains its conductor and music director, and Archimandrite Sergius, Abbot of Saint Tikhon's Monastery; that institution is the oldest Orthodox monastery in the U.S. The choir currently has 44 singers, many of whom are members of the Orthodox church, and most of whom pursue singing careers independently of the choir, which is a professional ensemble. They live in various parts of the U.S. The Saint Tikhon Choir has the stated mission of fostering an American Orthodox choral tradition at the highest artistic level, and it rapidly gained recognition as one of the top groups performing Orthodox music in the U.S. Much of this music comes from the tradition of the Russian Orthodox church, and some of its singers are Russian, but the national divisions of the Orthodox church refer to language rather than liturgy, and the group also performs music in English, much of it composed by Sheehan himself. The Saint Tikhon complex also maintains a Mission Choir at its theological seminary, which has evangelistic, teaching, and fundraising goals. The Saint Tikhon Choir has become widely known through its recordings, which began in 2015, the year of its founding, with Till Morn Eternal Breaks: Sacred Choral Music of Benedict Sheehan. That album was well-reviewed in the Orthodox press, but the choir's breakthrough came in 2018 when it participated in the Washington, D.C., world premiere of Alexander Kastalsky's giant Requiem for Fallen Brothers (1917), with three other choirs and the Orchestra of St. Luke's under the baton of conductor Leonard Slatkin. That performance was widely noted in the Washington area and was named one of the top ten area performances of the year by the Washington Classical Review. The performance was recorded and released in 2020 on the Naxos label, where it earned a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance. The Saint Tikhon Choir was then signed to the audiophile Cappella Romana label, where it released recordings of Sheehan's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (2020) and Vespers (2021).
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