Artistic curator: Zaharias Karounis
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.