Victor Pokrovsky

In regard to liturgical music of the Japanese Orthodox Church, Victor Pokrovsky was to Sergius as Yakov Tikhai was to St. Nicholas.

As Manchuria included a large Russian population prior to the war that supported and operated the Trans-Siberian Railway short cuts to Vladivostok, a Russian-based lifestyle was available for his choir to work in.

Indeed, the Harbin Archdiocese was active, as the situation in Russia deteriorated, including supporting the Church of Japan.

Among the candidates that the archbishop interviewed he liked the music of Victor Pokrovsky who was directing the choir at the Holy Theotokos Church in Harbin.

Invited by the archbishop, Victor moved to Japan in 1924 to form a full-scale choir at the Holy Resurrection Cathedral and to introduce the new Russian masterpieces, such as those by Arkhangelsky and Kastalsky.

He was invited to a position in San Francisco, but the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred before their ship could leave Japan.

The war years proved to be very difficult, often living a starvation diet and, for Victor, an arrest on spying charges.

Then in 1962, Victor, with his wife and younger daughter, immigrated to the United States where he led choirs in a number of parishes before retiring in 1972 in Vienna, Virginia.

He died on February 12, 1990, and is buried at St. Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery (South Canaan, Pennsylvania), a place that he said reminded him of the Russia he left so many years before.

Much of the following is based upon a study of Pokrovsky's musical work by Maria Junko Matsushima, of the Holy Annunciation Church in Nagoya, Japan.

Often Sergius sat in back, listening to their singing, and even chided some lazy choir members.

In this even, Metropolitan Sergius was careful, often heard coordinating on which Cherubic hymn version Victor would sing that day so that he could decide on his pitch.

The hard work of these early years came together in the singing at the re-consecration ceremony for the rebuilt Holy Resurrection Cathedral on December 15, 1929.

Afterwards Metropolitan Sergius praised him: "Victor Alexandrovich Pokrovsky, a great choir director who has done hard work since 1924.