Artistic Director Mark Bailey
Mark Bailey, a recognized expert in Slavic sacred music, is broadly experienced as a lecturer, conductor, and composer. He was appointed artistic director of the Yale Russian Chorus (YRC) in 1995 and also serves as music director of the New Haven Oratorio Choir, a period-style choral and instrumental ensemble specializing in 18th century music. Recently, Mr. Bailey was appointed music director of the Westchester Concert Singers (in-residence at Pace University, where he also serves on the faculty). His former positions include music director of the Manchester Symphonic Chorale, Manchester, Connecticut, co-founder and director of the New England Benefit Orchestra, Boston, Massachusetts, assistant conductor for the Heidelberg Castle Opera Festival, Heidelberg, Germany, and music director of the Festival Chamber Orchestra at Yale.
Mr. Bailey conducts numerous nationwide concerts per season with the YRC, and their work together is documented on "Chants and Carols", an internationally released recording that received critical acclaim and was placed on the New York Times "Critic's Choice list" in 1996, as well as recommended as a "must have" by National Public Radio's Performance Today and Billboard Magazine, among others. He has also conducted on gala performances at Carnegie Hall, receiving praise from New York Times critic Bernard Holland.
Currently, Mark Bailey serves on the faculty of St Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary, Crestwood, New York, where he conducts weekly and teaches composition, analysis, choral leadership techniques, and voice. He is published on a variety of topics related to Orthodox liturgical music. He also leads seminars for Orthodox musicians on conducting, singing, and composition. Mr. Bailey additionally serves as a research associate at Yale University and is a Fellow and Freshman Faculty Adviser at Davenport College (at Yale).
As a composer, Mr. Bailey has written a number of instrumental and choral/vocal works. Most of his compositions are written for Orthodox liturgy. His compositions, many of which are commissioned and published, have been premiered at Lincoln Center, Yale University, Boston's renowned Emmanuel Church, throughout the North America, and at St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, and his liturgical settings are sung in churches throughout North America and abroad. He is co-founder of the Benchmark Performance Series on Cape Cod and created the annual Slavic Choral Festival at Yale. Mr. Bailey's music performance degrees were earned at the Eastman School of Music (1984), and the Yale School of Music/Yale Institute of Sacred Music(1989), where he also studied liturgy and Russian. His former teachers include, Aidan Kavanagh (liturgy), Harold Farberman, Marguerite Brooks, and David Effron.
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