Iasi Byzantine Music Festival at its 3rd edition

The 3rd annual edition of Iasi Byzantine Music Festival organized by the Department of Religious Education of the Metropolis of Moldavia and Bucovina will take place from 2nd to 6th of October 2019. For five days, the city will be the host of well-known national and international choral groups, soloists and researchers from Georgia, Greece, Lebanon, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine and Romania.

Therefore, the guests of this edition are the Patriarchy Choir of Tbilisi Holy Trinity Cathedral (Tbilisi, Georgia), Nektaria Karantzi, lecturer Evelina Mineva, ”Romeiko” Ensemble (Greece), ”Theotokos” Orthodox Choir ( Lebanon), ”Saint Ephraim” Male Choir (Hungary), ”Kljuch Razumeniya” Ensemble (Russia), Sergii Radkevich (Ukraine), ”Tronos” Psaltic Group of the Romanian Patriarchy Cathedral, ”Righteous Iosif” Choir of Varatic Monastery, ”Byzantion” Academic Choir, Fr. Alexandru Grigoraș, Byzantine Choir of “Chesarie Episcopul” Orthodox Theological Seminary of Buzau, ”Saint Hierarch Iosif Naniescu” Choir of “Dumitru Staniloae” Faculty of Orthodox Theology of Iasi, and ”Chivotul” Psaltic Group of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iasi (Romania).

This year’s edition is an offering to the Mother of our God, protectress of singers, who’s Holy Protection we feast on the day before the opening date of the festival. Thus, by word and chant, our guests will show us the beauty of a repertoire dedicated to reverently venerate the Most Holy Mother of God.

The psaltic music is God’s gift for the estranged souls of the people and their companion on the way towards Him. Iasi Byzantine Music Festival is inviting you to follow, as one, the light signals of this way and to learn again to enjoy the blessings of the Lord of all (Archim. Hrisostom Rădășanu, president of Iasi Byzantine Music Festival).

The programme of the festival will include four concerts of sacred music that will bring closer to the public the Byzantine and Russian musical traditions and the Georgian polyphonic chant. The centre of the event will be the Athonite All-Night Vigil in honour of the Holy Protection of the Theotokos. The festival will also include exhibitions and editorial and educational activities such as book launches, an opening conference by Evelina Mineva, lecturer at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, three workshops concerning the old Russian, Georgian and Neo-byzantine music and a workshop on mural painting.

More details regarding the festival and its guests are to be found on the event’s website www.ibmf.ro/en or Facebook page facebook.com/www.ibmf.ro.