September 28, 2026. Oleg Nikolayevich Ovchinnikov, Secretary of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, Honored Worker of Kazakhstan, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, choirmaster of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District Choir and member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Russian Church Singing, celebrates his 55th birthday.
Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, congratulated Oleg Ovchinnikov on the occasion.
His Eminence’s congratulatory message reads:
Dear Oleg Nikolayevich!
I warmly congratulate you on this significant milestone in your life – your 55th birthday!
“Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day” (Ps. 96:2), proclaims the psalmist, King and Prophet David. From your youth, you chose the path of serving God and people through the art of church music. For many years, together with the ensembles under your direction, you have borne witness to those near and far to the heavenly beauty of Orthodoxy through majestic sacred music.
You began your life in the Church and your creative career at an early age, working to revive the tradition of church singing in the Vyatka region. You sang in the choir of St. Seraphim Cathedral and founded a choir at the newly reopened Holy Trinity Church in Makarye. You became a faithful assistant to the ever-memorable Metropolitan Chrysanth (Chepil), carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to you with diligence and heartfelt devotion. This was followed by a long and varied period of service in the God-protected land of Kostroma.
There, at the Epiphany-St. Anastasia Cathedral in Kostroma, you assembled an outstanding choir that became renowned far beyond Russia. The ever-memorable His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II called it one of the finest choirs of the Russian Orthodox Church. During those distant years of spiritual revival in our homeland, you also distinguished yourself as a wise administrator and a strong and diligent leader while serving as secretary of the diocese.
Today you serve in blessed Kazakhstan as my principal assistant in your capacity as Secretary of the Metropolitan District. Over sixteen years in the ancient land of the Great Steppe, you have accomplished much. As before, you successfully combine your work as a choirmaster with extensive administrative responsibilities. You have created an outstanding Metropolitan District Choir, in which talented singers, under your attentive direction, praise God and enrich the Church’s celebrations.
The choir’s high professional standard has been recognized by connoisseurs of musical culture, while its distinctive performances have won the affection of people throughout Kazakhstan. You also devote your efforts to the Church and Public Council under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ for the Development of Russian Church Singing.
Your wide-ranging work has been recognized with high ecclesiastical and state honors, reflecting society’s appreciation of your talents and achievements and the enduring importance of sacred music in the moral and cultural formation of the human person.
Through your concert and teaching work, you make a significant contribution to promoting high musical culture in Kazakhstan, Russia and abroad, while helping to revive and strengthen the traditions of sacred art.
Wherever you serve, dear Oleg Nikolayevich, you reveal to people the beauty and majesty of Holy Orthodoxy and introduce them to the rich treasury of Church tradition. The singing that has resounded beneath the vaults of churches for centuries reveals here on earth the power and light of the Heavenly Kingdom. The language of Christian music is understood by everyone – young and old, intellectuals and ordinary people, those of deep faith and those who are still seeking their path to God.
You possess strong organizational abilities and the gift of finding common ground both with the clergy and with people from many different walks of secular life.
The Lord has generously endowed you with talents which you have developed and multiplied throughout your life. Most importantly, since your youth you have carefully preserved in your heart the sincere and fervent faith inherited from your devout ancestors.
On this special day, dear Oleg Nikolayevich, please accept my wishes for good health, many years of life and enduring inspiration, God’s help and continued creative success!
With love in Christ and every good wish,
invoking God’s blessing,
HEAD OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF KAZAKHSTAN
METROPOLITAN OF ASTANA AND KAZAKHSTAN
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