Byzantine Chants dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary
Choir of Chanters “The Maestros of the Psaltic Art”

Concert, Wednesday, 24.8.2022, 19.30-20.30h
Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens (“Mētrópolis”)

Abstract:

The choir “The Maestros of the Psaltic Art,” under the direction of Achilleas Chaldaeakes, with the invited choir “Enechema,” under the direction of Sotirios Koutsouris, will perform the Vespers of the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, according to the tradition of the highly acclaimed composer Peter the Peloponnesian (+ 1778), in the Metropolitan Church of Athens. “The The Maestros of the Psaltic Art” will also perform a typical Byzantine hymn dedicated to Virgin Mary, at the end of the tour of the Byzantine Museum of Athens.

Choir of Chanters “The Maestros of the Psaltic Art”

Established in 1983, “The Maestros of the Psaltic Art” is a choir of chanters that is well known in the field of Byzantine Musicology. The main goals and objectives of the choir: 1. the study and presentation of the works of the main Byzantine and post-Byzantine composers, 2. the formal study and analysis of the various “types” of composition, 3. the general promotion of the Psaltic Art, with scholarly substantiation and skilled technique, and 4. the chanting of entire divine services during times of worship. Up to now, “The Maestros of the Psaltic Art” have offered over four hundred presentations, both in Greece and abroad (Europe, Asia, America, and Australia). They have chanted in renowned music halls (such as the “Main Hall” of the University of Athens, the “Music Hall” of Athens and Thessalonica, the Opera House of Sydney, the “Music Hall” of Seoul, etc.), as well as in numerous Byzantine churches (such as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, the Church of St Andrew in Patra, the “Ekatontapyliani” Church on the Island of Paros, the Church of Apocalypse on Patmos, the main Monastery of Meteora, the Church of St Lazarus in Larnaca, Cyprus, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Basilica of St Mark in Venice, the Church of St Paraskeva in Iasi, Romania, etc.) and also during various important services and ceremonies (such as in the Island of Aegina for the grand opening of the new church of Saint Nektarios, in Great Hellas-Calabria and Sicily for the official pilgrimage of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeus, in Nazareth for the 2000 years since the Annunciation, etc.). Up to now, “The Maestros of the Psaltic Art” have recorded the following works: Ioannes Koukouzeles (3 records and cassettes), Balasis the priest (2 records), Germanos of New Patras (1 CD), “Apocalypse and Historical Witness 1088-1988” (2 records and cassettes), Meteora Sacra (2 records and cassettes), Mount Athos Composers I (1 CD), “Come, Christ-bearing Peoples” (2 cassettes), Engainizou-Engainizou (1 cassette), “Rejoice, O peoples” (1 CD), Beloved Hymns (1 CD), Pannychis (1 CD), Lift Up your Heads, O ye Gates (1 CD), Byzantine and Gregorian Antiphons (1 CD), Chant for the God I-II-III-IV (9 CDs), Compositions of K. A. Psachos (1 CD).
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Achilleas G. Chaldæakes is a Professor of Byzantine Musicology and Psaltic Art at the Department of Music Studies of the School of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He teaches on both undergraduate and postgraduate level at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, but also at other Universities and Institutes. His published scientific work comprises more than 200 studies (monographs, articles, entries in encyclopædias, papers in conferences, essays in various collective volumes, and scientific reviews, etc.), mostly on various subjects (theoretical, historical, aesthetical, etc.) pertaining to the field of Byzantine Musicology and Psaltic Art. He has participated in conferences both in Greece and abroad, and has been a member of the scientific and organizing committees in most of them. He has also been an active member of various international scientific societies, whose activities are focused on Byzantine musicological studies. At the same time, he has been the director of an artistic group of international renown, the choir “The Maestros of the Psaltic Art”. With this choir, he has given, up to the present day, more than 400 performances in Europe, Asia, America, and Australia, and has appeared in radio and TV shows in Greece and abroad. He is also an internationally acclaimed chanter, i.e. an artist-performer of Byzantine music, and he has recorded, alone or with various ensembles, often under his own direction, Byzantine hymns—several of them were discovered by himself in the context of his ongoing academic research—or even musical works of secular or folk music and compositions of contemporary music as well. His entire activity as an internationally acclaimed musician in his twofold capacity, both as a scientific researcher and university professor, and as an artist, composer, interpreter, and director of musical ensembles, explores new paths toward a global, multifaceted, and innovative approach to Byzantine Musicology and Psaltic Art.
WEBSITE: www.achilleaschaldaeakes.gr

Choir "Enechema"
When we are about to chant or teach chanting, it is necessary to begin with an “apechema.’’ The “apechema’’ delineates the sound which is going to define and characterise the melody of the music. The chanting choir “Enechema,” consistently following the definition given by Ioannis Agiopolitis to this word, is a choir consisting purely of students, whose gathering for worship takes place in Sts. Anargyroi Church in Ilioupoli. This is where they started their course in teaching, too. The Head of the choir is Mr. Sotirios Koutsouris, surrounded by a group of teachers, young and promising Byzantine Chanting Certificate holders, university and highschool students. Every single thing that begins, has to begin from God and end in God.

Sotirios Koutsouris
Sotirios Koutsouris was born in 1994 in Athens, Greece, where he completed his highschool studies. He is a graduate of the Department of Primary Education of the University of Patras. In addition, he has completed his postgraduate studies on Byzantine Musicology in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is both a Chanting Art Certificate holder and a teacher of the Chanting Art. Since 2016, he has been teaching Byzantine music at the “Enechema’’ Music School, directed by the parish of Sts. Anargyroi Church in Ilioupoli , Athens. At the same time, he has been directing the students’ chanting choir, the children’s choir, and the mixed youth choir in the aforementioned parish, too. Recently, the chanting choir “Enechema’’ has successfully taken part in the 8th International Musicological Conference, which was organized by the Institute of Byzantine Musicology, run by the Standing Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, entitled: ‘The Musical Typography of the Psaltic Art.’’ He has been actively cooperating with the Institute of Byzantine Musicology , run by the Standing Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, on the organization of conferences about Musicology and the Chanting Art. Since 2016, he has been serving as a chanter in the Church of Sts. Anargyroi in Ilioupoli, Athens. He works as a teacher in Primary Education.