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 Holy Week and the Resurrection | 23 October 2026
Featuring: En Psaltirio Choir, Choirmaster: Konstantinos Fotopoulos, Chief Cantor (Protopsaltis) at the Holy Church of Saint Kosmas the Aetolian, Marousi • Choir of the Association of Constantinopolitan Friends of Music in Athens, choirmaster: Kallistratos Kofopoulos, Chief Cantor (Protopsaltis) Holy Church of Saint Eleftherios, Piraeus • Athenian Byzantine Choir, Choirmaster: Georgios Hatzichronoglou, Archon Hymnodist at The Great Church of Christ (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople), Chief Cantor (Protopsaltis) at the Holy Church of Faneromeni, Cholargos | Opening address by Zaharias Karounis, performer - theologian, titled: The Troparion of Kassiani - A Theological And Hymnological Approach.
The third day will illuminate the most reverent and radiant period of the Orthodox Church's liturgical cycle: Holy Week and Christ's Resurrection. Through the tropária of these days, ecclesiastical hymnography traces the path to Christ's willful Passion, the Crucifixion, and ultimately to the Light of the Resurrection. The choirs and solo chanters will perform hymns from the services of the Bridegroom, the Holy Passion, the Epitaphios Lament, and the Resurrection, highlighting the theological, poetic, and musical richness of the Byzantine psaltic tradition.
