Effective January 1, 2023, Boris Derow has been hired as St. Mary's full-time Cantor. Boris is delighted to fulfil the role of cantor/music director of St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic parish.

    Boris was born and raised as a Ukrainian Catholic in the Canadian prairies.  At an early age he began his studies as a reader in his local parish of Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canora, Saskatchewan.  Since then, he has honed his cantoring skills at numerous parishes throughout Alberta while living and studying with the Basilian Fathers (OSMB).  His first exposure to the Ruthenian Church was in 2001 at St. Andrew the Apostle parish in Westbury.  After his time with the Basilians, Boris went on to form Axios Men's choir in Edmonton and was associate conductor of the "Resurrection" liturgical project, a recording of an original Easter divine liturgy composed by Fr. John Sembrat, OSMB.  The choir consisted of fifty-five male voices hailing from seven different organizations across Canada, USA and Ukraine.  Boris also recorded two albums with Axios, Liturgical Treasures (2003) and Rizdvo (2006).  He earned a Bachelor of Theology Degree from Newman Theological College and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Brandon University. 

     Boris's solo career has seen him sing numerous operatic roles in Canada, Europe and Africa.  He has also sung many concerts and looks forward to pursuing his career further in the United States while singing alongside the congregation of St. Mary's.  Of particular interest is his renewed plans of a concert tour of Opera and Broadway's greats hits with Stefan Szkafarowsky, Bass (Principal artist, metropolitan Opera) which began before Covid 19 took the world by storm.