Peter Jermihov
Renowned Choral Conductor and Scholar
Peter Jermihov (4 July 1954, Chicago) is an American choral conductor, music educator, and an internationally recognized specialist in Orthodox liturgical music. Jermihov founded a professional chamber choir St. Romanos Cappella (Society of St. Romanos the Melodist) in June 2001 and has served as an Artistic Director and Conductor of PaTRAM Institute Singers since January 2016. He's a Choir Director at the St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church in Chicago and has taught Voice & Music Theory at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, since August 2005. Before taking his current faculty position, Peter Jermihov served as director of choral activities at Sam Houston State University's Hope College and San Jose State University; he also taught at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago and the National Sun-Yat Sen University in Taiwan.
Born in a Russian-émigré family, Peter Jermihov studied conducting with renowned Ilya Musin of the St. Petersburg Conservatory and took masterclasses with legendary maestros, including Leonard Bernstein, Eric Ericson, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Helmuth Rilling, and Leonard Slatkin. Peter served as Vladimir Minin's and Robert Shaw's assistant at the 2nd World Symposium on Choral Music in Stockholm, Sweden. He received a comprehensive education in the United States, with a Bachelor's degree in Music Theory & Composition from Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University (1972–77), followed by his Master's ('78–79) and Doctor of Musical Arts (1979–91) degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
As a conductor, Peter Jermihov performed with various prolific ensembles, such as The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Moscow State Chamber Choir, Moscow Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Pro Arte Orchestra, Russian State Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Chamber Choir, and Shinsei Nihon Symphony Orchestra.
In 2020, his recording of The Divine Liturgy Of St. John Chrysostom by Kurt Sander with PaTRAM Institute Singers, released by Reference Recordings, received Grammy Awards nomination for "Best Choral Performance."