CONTRIBUTIONS

JOHN BOYER

Mr. John Boyer was commissioned by the National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians to transcribe all the music scores which will be used in the symposium into western notation and to accompany the original Greek text with English phonetics.

Click here to view a sample of John Boyer's work.

John Michael Boyer has been performing since the age of 7, then the youngest ever member of the Portland Opera Association. Now considered an expert Byzantine cantor, he lectures at workshops and seminars on Eastern Orthodox liturgical music across the United States, and recently served as specialty coach for both Chanticleer and the Minnesota Symphony for world première performances and recordings of works by John Tavener. Chanticleer’s recording, Lamentations and Praises won a grammy. Boyer has received critical acclaim for his solo chant performances with Cappella Romana.

He began studies of Byzantine Chant at age 14 under musicologist Alexander Lingas at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Portland. In 1996 and 1999, he furthered his in Athens under Lycourgos Angelopoulos, director of the Greek Byzantine Choir. In 2000, he lectured and sang at the Liturgical Singing Seminar in Santa Rosa. At the 2001 Western States Diocese Greek Orthodox Church Music Federation Conference, he directed the Byzantine Chant Schola in liturgical performances of his own transcriptions and English adaptations of the Byzantine melodic tradition. These settings have been recorded and released on a CD by the female vocal group Eikona, under Boyer’s direction. In 2002, he led the University of California Chamber Chorus in performances of his own transcriptions for the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition. In the 2003-04 academic year, he worked as research assistant to Professor Alexander Lingas on a general historical survey of the Byzantine musical tradition at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and chanted as assistant to Protopsaltis Dr. Yioryos Bilalis in Jamaica, New York. Since then, he has returned to Athens to study advanced theory and orthography with renowned cantor and musicologist Ioannis Arvanitis, and to sing with Angelopoulos at Saint Irene’s church in Monastiraki.

Boyer continues to produce original and adapted settings of Byzantine Chant in both Post-Byzantine and Western notations. He is now one of Cappella Romana’s main editors for the composition, transcription, adaptation and compilation of Byzantine Music in the received tradition, including the scores for the upcoming recording of the Greek Orthodox Divine Liturgy sung in the English language.

Having completed the music major at the University of California, Berkeley, he continues to sing on a regular basis with Cappella Romana, and is now artistic director of the Bay Area-based ensemble The Josquin Singers, and associate conductor and assistant director of Bay Area Classical Harmonies. He is also Cantor and resident instructor of Byzantine Chant at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in San Francisco and at the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley.

In March 2006, by the grace of God, John Michael Boyer was appointed to the position of Protopsaltis (First Cantor) of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco by His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos.  As Protopsaltis, and through the Koukouzelis Institute, Boyer continues to develop educational and performance programs in the liturgical arts of the Greek Orthodox Church for the Holy Metropolis of San Francisco.