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Announcement
On a blessing
of His
Eminence Filaret the Metropolian of Minsk and Sluzk Patriarchal
Exarch to all Byelorussian from 15-th till 22-th of April
2007 in Minsk (Belarus) the 9-th International Festival of
Orthodox Chants is to be held. It includes the contests of
choral collectives, evenings (soirees) of spiritual (religious)
poetry, exhibitions, the festival of religious films, Round
Table, charity concerts. The Festival is to take place in Minsk
and then in Zodino, Kletzk, Borisov, Mihanovitchi and other
towns of Belarus.
International Festival of Orthodox Chants.
One of the pages of the
life of Orthodox Church of Byelorussian Exarchate are used to be
the Festivals of Orthodox Chants, that are held on a blessing of
His Eminence Filaret the Metropolian of Minsk and Sluzk
Patriarchal Exarch to all Byelorussian.
The first Festival was held
in 1989. Professional and church choral collectives of Belarus,
Russia, Estonia, Ukraine were invited to take part in it. It was
the first time in Minsk when orthodox liturgical Chants were
performed on the stage.
In 1995 the tradition of
the Festival went on, but the Festival got some other
peculiarities. Then children and adult, church and secular
choral collectives took part in it.
The founders of the
International Festival of Orthodox Chants were Byelorussian
Exarchate, the Ministry of culture, the Ministry of education,
the Committee on affairs of religions and nationalities under
Council of Ministers of Belarus, Mingorispolcom (The executive
Committee of Minsk), the society of support of Christian culture
Dobrolybije".
The Festival includes the
evenings (soirees) of spiritual (religious) poetry, picture
exhibitions and exhibitions of national-applied creativity,
including children exhibitions, photo exhibitions, the festival
of religious films, concerts, in the best concert halls of
Belarus, as well as in social establishments (in hospitals, in
colonies, in Houses of disabled, in children's homes, in
military units and others), conferences.
The Festival also includes
the contest of choral collectives. The jury of choral contest
consists of famous conductors, cantors, art critics, composers
and priests (musicians) from different countries. A famous
Byelorussian composer, the winner of the State premium the
priest Andrej Bondarenko is at the head of the jury. The members
of the jury organize creative meetings and master-classes, read
lections to the students of the highest special educational
institutions.
On of the obligatory
conditions for taking part in the Festival is used to be the
rendition of the singsong of a famous chants and of a
composition of a famous author in the program. The requirements
for performing ancient singsongs make cantors and conductors
study the roots of musical-singing culture of Orthodox Church.
The Chants of a famous singsong come to light a new world for
spectators: with the help of musical sounds can be felt the
inner world of their creators.
Famous scientists, art
critics, conductors and social leaders are getting interested in
the Festival.
The participants from
different countries of the world took part in the Festival. The
participants from Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Serbia, Poland,
Bulgaria, France, England, Estonia, Moldova, Romania demonstrate
for Byelorussian spectators traditions and customs of different
orthodox cultures. Choruses of different faiths (branches) of
Christianity take part in the Festival of Orthodox Chants, but
they sing the Chants only according to the liturgical texts of
Orthodox Church.
Among the guests and
participants of the Festival were church, amateur, professional
choruses and the ones of different church arrivals. Among them
there was a family singing collective of Zolotovie "Zivaja
starina", where take part not only the parents (the former
members of the world famous collective Sirin") but their
children; also folk-ethnic collective "Nekrasovskij kazachata",
that performed ancient heterophonic and melismatic styles of
singing, which were the part of east Slavonic musical-singing
culture of early Middle Ages; religious orthodox chorus of
engineering troops of the Armed Forces of Russian Federation
under Saint-Smolensk Zosimova desert; the Don choral chapel
"Anastasia"; vocal collective "Kedrov"(France), that exists more
than a hundred years; children-youth chorus of Patriarchal
farmstead of Sviblovo (Russia); the chorus of the students of
theological faculty of Jassa (Romania); a cliric chorus of
Russian Orthodox Old-believe Church of Nizhniy Novgorod (Russia)
Yspenskaja community (Belokrinitskoje agreement); and also the
best choruses of Belarus. The Festival and its activities are
very important and priceless for solving moral and religious
problems of education and up-bringing, which are so urgent in
our modern society. Addressing to the God with prayer helps to
find hope, soul harmony, without which creative work is
impossible. As His Eminence Filaret the Metropolian of Minsk and
Sluzk Patriarchal Exarch to all Byelorussian said: "Awakening of
spiritual beginnings in a person, helping him to understand that
he or she is a unique personality, up-bringing of kind treatment
to everybody in his soul -are the most important points. If
there are peace and harmony in a person's soul-it will be the
same in our society".
Every activity of the
Festival creates the atmosphere of peace, love and kindness. It
is very important as in our modern world, where the evil attacks
spiritual, soul and family spheres, it is so necessary to feel
the shoulder not only of your relative or friend, but the
shoulder of your brother on spirit, to feel that another person
is also your brother. A brother it is not only the one who
speaks the same language, who was brought up in the same
culture, but the one who is equal in the eyes of the God as well
as you, as the God gave this life, this world both of you, to
make them more beautiful, better but not worse.
