Metropolitan Alexander Congratulates Oleg Ovchinnikov on His Name Day

October 3, 2026 – the feast day of the Holy Right-Believing Prince Oleg of Bryansk – is the name day of Oleg Nikolayevich Ovchinnikov, Secretary of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, choirmaster of the Metropolitan District Choir and member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Russian Church Singing.

Oleg Nikolayevich received congratulations from Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan.

The congratulatory message reads:

Dear Oleg Nikolayevich!

Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on the feast day of your heavenly patron, the Holy Right-Believing Prince Oleg of Bryansk!

For many years you have served God and people through the art of church music and singing. You began your ecclesiastical and creative journey in your early youth, working to revive the tradition of church singing in the Vyatka region, singing in the choir of the St. Seraphim Cathedral and establishing a choir at the newly reopened Trinity Church in Makarye. You became a faithful assistant to the late Metropolitan Chrysanth (Chepil), carrying out the duties entrusted to you with diligence and wholehearted dedication.

A long period of varied work in the God-protected land of Kostroma followed. At the Epiphany-St. Anastasia Cathedral in Kostroma, you assembled an outstanding choir that became renowned far beyond Russia. The late His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II called it one of the finest choirs of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In those years, during the spiritual revival of our Fatherland, you also distinguished yourself as Secretary of the Diocese – a wise administrator and a capable and hardworking leader.

Your work is of great importance to the development of culture and the arts in the Republic of Kazakhstan. As choirmaster of the Metropolitan District Choir, you not only reveal the beauty and grandeur of the Church’s musical tradition but also contribute to cultural dialogue and the strengthening of spiritual ties between countries and peoples. You have earned the respect and affection of many admirers of classical choral music.

Through your work with sacred compositions by outstanding composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, audiences in many cities of Kazakhstan and Russia, throughout the CIS and farther abroad have been able to experience masterpieces of sacred music. It is gratifying that you do not rest on what you have already achieved, but continue your creative exploration, participate in a wide range of musical projects and release albums featuring outstanding examples of sacred and secular choral music.

As I congratulate you on the feast day of your heavenly patron, I wish that the choir under your direction may continue to proclaim “peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17) throughout the land of Kazakhstan.

Through the prayers of the Holy Right-Believing Prince Oleg of Bryansk and the intercession of the New Martyrs and Confessors who shone forth throughout our country, may the Lord grant you many years of creative work, peace and well-being, and make you worthy to continue serving God and people for many years through the art of church and classical music.