Bios

Alice Hughes served as co-director at St. Lawrence Orthodox Church in Felton, California, with Anne Schoepp for more than 30 years. She is currently a member at St Nicholas Church in San Anselmo, CA. Ms. Hughes has been directing choral music and teaching voice since 1981. She has been a regular speaker and guest clinician at many conferences. She is the Visual and Performing Arts Chair and Director of Choral Music at Pacific Collegiate School (grades 7–12) in Santa Cruz, California. In addition, she has a private voice studio and works as a musical director, and performer for several theater companies.

Ms. Hughes is a strong advocate for music literacy and spends much of her time developing materials and methods for increasing sight-singing and listening/intonation skills for choirs. Ms. Hughes received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of the Pacific in Music Education with a choral emphasis. She is also a founder of the West Coast Liturgical Singing Seminar, which host an annual conference for 200 years. And was one of the founders of PSALM.

Ms. Hughes is a partner with Anne Schoepp in Seraphim Six Productions, which is dedicated to producing fine recordings of Orthodox liturgical music in English and supporting the development of liturgical music.

Anne Schoepp serves as Choir Director at St. Lawrence Orthodox Church in Felton, California, and has worked with Alice Hughes for over 30 years. She also directs the St. Lawrence Academy Children’s Choir in musicals, concerts, weekday festal services, and teaches students to direct their own daily prayer service. She taught general music classes at St. Lawrence Academy for 20 years, and teaches piano, violin and voice privately.

As a composer and arranger, Ms. Schoepp is passionate about setting text in a way that sings beautifully in English, brings the message to life, and can infuse beauty into the worship in average parishes. She also composes and arranges music specifically for children’s choirs.

Ms. Schoepp holds a BA in Music from Stanford University, with an emphases in voice, composition and conducting, and has continued her studies independently. She founded the West Coast Liturgical Singing Seminar with Alice Hughes in 1994, bringing in speakers from around the country, directing and teaching at that event through 2013. She served on the board of PSALM (Pan-Orthodox Society for the Advancement of Liturgical Music) from 1996-2013, publishing and contributing articles to PSALM Notes, and organizing events.

Ms. Schoepp has sung with Josquin Singers in Berkeley, CA under the direction of John M. Boyer, in Santa Cruz Chorale with Christian Grube, and in Slavyanka Russian Chorus in San Francisco with Irina Shachneva, touring Russia with Slavyanka in 2016. She performs locally as violinist and vocalist in folk music, and she directed and recorded music for the film Painting Saint Lawrence: A Life in Icons.

Our collection has sprung from more than 30 years of working with Orthodox choirs at Ss. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Ben Lomond, CA and St. Lawrence Orthodox Church in Felton, CA. St. Lawrence Orthodox Church choir has averaged 20 – 30 members and sings Sunday Divine Liturgies, all festal Vespers, Matins and Liturgies, as well as Lenten and Holy Week services. We have endeavored to produce special music for each feast that brings joy in the festival and people look forward to singing each year. We draw on all Orthodox traditions to find melodies that resonate with our community and that are memorable and singable. Our parish enjoys singing along on common hymns, and a strong choir with appropriate music makes this a positive and beautiful experience, letting everyone present benefit from the physical act of singing praise to God.