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 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.