WCR This Week

PHOTO SUPPLIED Student Bohdana Grytsiv writes an icon at Living Water College of the Arts.

Living Water College of the Arts will offer three fine arts programs next summer, including iconography and sacred choral music.

The iconography program, the fourth offered so far, will run June 4-19 at the college in Derwent, Alta. It will give participants an opportunity to train the eye, hand, soul and mind to produce sacred art.

During the 16-day course, students will learn the traditional method of egg tempera painting and 24-karat gilding as they write their own icon, said college spokesperson Nicole Dunn.

Through reading, lecture and discussion, integrated with technical training, students will explore the history and theology of icons, including the iconoclast controversy, symbolic meanings, and the scriptural significance of icons.

Frank Turner, a professional artist in the areas of iconography, theatre and filmmaking, and Naomi Arielle, an Alberta iconographer, will teach the program.

The college is also offering two sacred choral music programs: one for adults July 7-21, and one for youth aged 12 and up from July 14 to 21.

This program presents a vibrant and rewarding musical experience for professionals and beginners alike, according to Dunn.

She said participants would become steeped in Gregorian chant and polyphony and become familiar with the rich liturgical tradition of Church choral music through the works of great composers such as Mozart, Vivaldi and Schubert.

"We want participants to come to understand what a wealth of Church music there is out there."

The hope is that participants take this music to their parishes, "especially now that there have been lots of liturgical changes."

Teaching the choral music program will be Maestro Uwe Lieflander, who has over three decades of experience in musical performance and pedagogy as an instrumentalist and choral conductor.

Participants will live on campus, and take part in the Liturgy of the Hours and community fellowship, with access to Reconciliation and daily Mass or Divine Liturgy.

For more information, contact the college by phone: 780-741-2488 or by email: admin@livingwatercollege.com.