Alternative Stage Founding Donor
Major Sponsor of the Greek National Opera
The Byzantine Music Days festival, titled Genres and generations of contemporary psaltic art and curated by performer and theologian Zaharias Karounis, offers a four-day musical and cultural pilgrimage through the world of Byzantine music, highlighting the vibrant continuity of psaltic art and the many manifestations of a tradition that remains creatively alive to date.
The Festival's central axis is the concept of genre, as expressed through the musical genres of Byzantine theory, the various psaltic schools and traditions that have evolved over the centuries, and modern approaches to psaltic art. Each day of the festival is organized around a major hymnological and theological axis of the Church's worship experience, bringing celebrated chief cantors, historical dances, new voices, and female psaltic ensembles onto the stage, and creating a polyphonic tableau of modern-day psaltic art. The festival aspires to become a new meeting ground for the GNO Alternative Stage and the vibrant Greek musical tradition, and to expand the reach of Byzantine music to a wider contemporary audience.
Hymns of the All-Night Vigil | 24 October 2026
Featuring: Fotios Ketsetzis, Archon Protopsaltis at the Holy Archdiocese of America• Greek Byzantine Choir Lykourgos Angelopoulos - Research Center, Choirmaster: Georgios Konstantinou • Solo chanters: Archimandrite Cherubim Tsinoglou, Vassilios Prassas | Opening address by f. Chrysovalantis Theodorou, PhD in Liturgical Theology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, vicar at the Holy Church of Theotokos' Dormition, St. Stefanos, Attica, titled: All-night Vigil. A Conceptual Approach.
The Festival will conclude with an evening dedicated to the ritual and atmosphere of the Mount Athos all-night vigil, in which psaltic art is inextricably linked to nighttime prayer, silence, and the mystical experience of worship. Through the hymns of the all-night vigil and the distinctive Mount Athos psaltic style, a deeply experiential tradition shaped over the centuries within the monasteries of Mount Athos will emerge. The choral melismatic developments, combined with the melodious performances of the solo chanters and the constant flow of psalmody, will transport the audience to the spiritual atmosphere of Mount Athos all-night vigils, where music serves as both prayer and an experience of collective reverence.
