Voices Across Time: A Concert from Samtavisi

Join us on Saturday, February 20, for an online watch party of CHC’s Samtavisi concert from our 2019 Georgian Tour, featuring two Georgian choirs: Aghsavali Choir and Ialoni. The watch party will begin at 7:30pm with a discussion with Artistic Director Binkholder and ethnomusicologist John Graham and then transition straight into the concert premiere. Both will take place via Zoom, but a YouTube link will available to those who want to watch the concert itself on a bigger screen!

This concert was our final performance in Georgia and the culmination of the Paliashvili Project. Samtavisi Cathedral is where the Karbelashvili brothers—master chanters and now canonized saints in the Georgian Orthodox Church—sang and developed their art. In the first decade of the 20th century, Zakaria Paliashvili discovered their work, composing the Liturgia (the work we have revived) using their chant melodies in an effort to preserve this 1,000-year-old tradition. At this concert, the two Georgian choirs performed the original Karbelashvili chants that inspired each movement, and then we performed Paliashvili's setting, going back and forth, working our way through the entire piece. It was a moving experience and so meaningful to hear this music in the place it came from.

Because of size limitations, the watch party is limited to 295 people, so be sure to reserve your space here on Ti.To. While we have suggested a donation of $15 to attend, this is a pay-what-you-can event and all proceeds go directly to the Chorale. We appreciate anything you can give to support CHC while we all navigate the effects of the coronavirus together.

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Program (Previously performed on June 29, 2019):

Selections from LITURGY OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM - Zakaria Paliashvili (1909)

Special thanks to Aghsavali Choir, Ialoni, The Georgian Embassy to the United States, The U.S. Embassy in Georgia, The Millenium Challenge Corporation, and John Graham Tours.