Press releases

GRODNO, 12 December (BelTA) – Grodno will host the 13th edition of the international Orthodox church music festival “Kalozha Chime” on 19-22 February 2014, BelTA has learnt from director of the festival Vladimir Lebetsky.

Teams from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Armenia, France, and Lithuania have already applied for the participation in the festival. All in all, the festival is expected to feature around 40 church and secular companies.

According to Vladimir Lebetsky, the quality of performance of the groups that will participate in the festival is very high, and each group has a unique style. Among the guests of the festival will be a male secular group from Suprasl (Poland) and a female group from Armenia that performs at one of the churches of the Etchmiadzin Monastery, the spiritual center of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The opening ceremony of the festival will feature the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory Students Choir directed by Stanislav Kalinin, the Grand Prix winner of the 12th Kolozha festival. The contest performances will be held at the Svyato-Pokrovsky Cathedral. Out-of-contest concerts will take place at the Grodno Music College and the New Castle on 20 and 21 February.

The program of the forum also includes thematic exhibitions, cinema lectures, nights of spiritual poetry and bard songs, and the presentation of a book dedicated to the history of orthodox motets.

The Kalozha church music festival was established in Grodno in 2002. It was timed to the 10th anniversary of the revival of the Grodno Eparchy. In 2011 the Belarusian Culture Ministry presented the status of an international event to the festival. The organizers of the Kalozha church music festival are the Grodno Orthodox Eparchy and the Grodno Oblast Executive Committee. The international jury includes ministers of religion with special music education, professors of academies of music of Belarus, Russia, France, and Romania, composers, choirmasters, and directors of choirs from different countries. The festival awards winners in eight nominations.