Boris Ledkovsky’s Years at St. Vladimir’s Seminary — Reflections and Reminiscences Fifty Years after His Death — An Interview with Professor David Drillock by Dn. Harrison Russin
August 2025 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Professor Boris Ledkovsky (1894–1975), one of the most influential figures in the development of Orthodox church music in America. Through his work at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and the Synodal Cathedral (ROCOR) in New York City, Ledkovsky introduced a generation of American Orthodox Christians to the principles of the Moscow School of Church Music, emphasizing a return to traditional Russian chant and the concept of tserkovnost’ (churchliness) in liturgical singing.
This article combines biographical material with the personal recollections of Professor David Drillock, who studied under Ledkovsky at St. Vladimir’s beginning in 1956 and served as his assistant from 1957 onward. The interview provides rare insights into Ledkovsky’s personality, conducting style, and musical philosophy.
Professor Boris Ledkovsky was born on May 9, 1894 (April 26, Old Style), in Agrafenovka, Russia, near Novocherkassk, the capital city of the Don Cossacks. His father was Archpriest Mikhail Ledkovsky, and his mother, Sophia, was a pianist. Music permeated his childhood home—from age fourteen, he was already directing the choir in his father’s parish.
Ledkovsky’s musical education began at the Novocherkassk Theological Seminary. He later wrote that in that high school seminary, “There were many useful courses in music for future choir conductors. Choral singing was taught so well that a musically gifted person graduated as an excellently trained choirmaster.” He then attended the Rostov Real School (a school concentrating on natural and mathematical subjects), where during his final two years he conducted a student orchestra and composed music for it.
Following secondary school, Ledkovsky evidently enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory, studying theory, composition, counterpoint, and voice training. Among his professors were Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859–1935), then director of the Conservatory, and Alexander Kastalsky (1856–1926), the noted composer who would become director of the Moscow Synodal School of Church Music¹, located immediately next door to the Conservatory, whose choir sang in the Uspensky (Dormition) Cathedral in the Kremlin. Even in his early twenties, Ledkovsky possessed a magnificent bass-octavist voice, which did not go unnoticed by the Moscow choirmasters. Later, when David Drillock knew him, he could easily reach a low C (also known as C2) and would frequently add the lower octave at the end of pieces at concerts. In Ledkovsky’s words, Kastalsky and the Moscow Synodal School had a great influence on his musical tastes, his church compositions, and his directing style.
Notes
For more up-to-date biographical information, see Elizabeth Ledkovsky’s article in this issue; she observes that the evidence for his study in Moscow is not abundant.
