Please join us for a 4:00pm lecture, "Introduction to Georgian Chant Studies," by Dr. John Graham (PhD, Princeton University) followed by a concert of Georgian Chant at 7:00pm.
4:00pm Dr. Graham is a leading authority in the history and practice of Georgian chant, and is joined in this lecture and concert by 12 singers from the Republic of Georgia. This vibrant tradition of sacred and secular music features three-voice polyphonic settings with close exploration of a single band of sound. SMND students who traveled to Georgia on Alice A. Martin Fellowships will host the musicians from Georgia.
7:00pm The student chant choir of the Tbilisi Ecclesiastical University performs three-part polyphonic folk and sacred music sourced from the traditional repertory of Georgia. The choir was founded in 2006, at the same time that the Chant Studies program at the Tbilisi Ecclesiastical University was opened, under the blessing of His Holiness and Beatitude, Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. The university specializes in the education of church choir directors and choir-masters of Georgian folk song. The student choir takes an active part in music festivals in Georgia as well as internationally. In 2016, the choir performed in Lithuania at the International Folk Festival “Parbeg laivelis,” and in 2017 in Switzerland at the “Les Buskers de Neuchâtel” festival. In 2018, the choir performed in Turkey at the 10th Uluslararası Sanat Günleri festival. The choir has published an audio recording in 2017, and continues to learn new repertory even as some students graduate and new students join the choir.