Anastasia Shmytova is a musicologist and vocalist from Saint Petersburg, Russia. She holds a PhD in Musicology from Princeton University. Her dissertation, titled “Musical, Liturgical, and Aesthetic Change in Seventeenth-Century Russia," examines the political and religious upheavals of seventeenth-century Muscovy and their effects on the music of the Russian Orthodox Church. Her project has received support from the Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Dissertation Fellowship, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Center for Culture, Society and Religion, the Program in Medieval Studies, and the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies. In addition to her research, Anastasia is an active performer of early and new music. She is the founder and director of Demestvo (demestvo.org), an ensemble specializing in Slavic medieval chant and early polyphony.
