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Serbian
Byzantine choir Choir
director
“ …and this man of good judgment called from the Holy Mountain hieromonk Anatolios, a knowledgeable chanter. And founding Greek school in Belgrade, he chose, time after time, juveniles with excellent voices, lectured by this chanter according to Greek chant method, in an adequate amount; and thus he gladdened Church a lot…” archemandrit John Raich (1726 – 1801)
Through the efforts of the Metropolitan Moisey, the “Psalter chanting school” was created in Belgrade in 1731. One of the most well known chanters of his time, the hieromonk fr. Anatoly from the monastery of Vatoped on mount Athos was invited to lecture there. This event brought about a renaissance of church singing amongst the Serbs. Inclining towards the everlasting fountain of Athonite tradition, the choir who bear the name of the restorer of Serbian Byzantine psalmody, together are reviving the work of the Belgrade chanting school. The choir are dedicated to researching and presenting authentic orthodox Christian church music. The repertoire of the choir contains compositions from Greek and southern Slavonic melographs from the middle ages until the present day, as well as melodies from unknown authors whose fountainhead is the oral tradition of the various local churches. Altogether the chanting opus is written in new analitic byzantine notation and in the question of musical theory, the choir respect and recognise as an authority the musicologist Simon Karas. Greek textual poems are faithfully rendered in the Slavonic liturgical language. The choir were founded in 1996 and since then, they have been appearing on solo concerts, festivals and theatrical performances, as well as taking part in liturgies and all night vigils at various churches and monasteries at home and abroad. The founder of the choir, Nikola Popmihajlov, was born in Belgrade in 1968 where he studied history at the University of Belgrade. At the same time he studied Byzantine music under the music teacher (daskalos) and composer Vladimir Jovanovic, and afterwards under the two excellent chanters and daskali the monks Andrey and Kozmas from the holy monastery of Kovilj. Since 1994 he chants continuously in the chapel of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, and from 1996 serves as the protopsaltis (the first chanter) in the same church and parish of the priest fr. Panagiotis Karatasios. Popmihajlov also is a member of the choir of the renowned chanter Dragoslav Pavle Aksentijevic, whom he accompanied on numerous presentations in Yugoslavia, Greece, Russia, Hungary, Germany and many other places.
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