Press releases

“Today we open the 15th edition of the festival. It has already acquired the status of international, and choirs from distant countries come to take part in it. The festival brings together different music cultures and church singing traditions. By learning about other traditions, we discover new aspects of our own culture, and this is of interest to our audience who are looking forward to every next edition of the festival. We see that Kolozha Chime has become a real celebration for the city of Grodno,” said Archpriest Andrei Bondarenko, a cleric at the Holy Intercession Cathedral in Grodno, chairing the jury of the festival.

Kolozha Chime has brought together 35 choirs and ensembles from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Armenia, Serbia, and France. The festival opened with a concert by the student choir of the Belarusian State Academy of Music hosted at the Grodno Oblast Drama Theater.

The competition program will continue on 25 and 26 February. The festival will finish on 27 February with an award ceremony and a gala concert. The program of Kolozha Chime 2016 also features lectures on bell-ringing, film screenings, and an evening of religious poetry and guitar poetry. Besides, there is a photo exhibition Orthodox Churches of Grodno Region running as part of the festival.

The Orthodox Church Music Festival Kolozha Chime was founded in 2002 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the revival of the Grodno Eparchy. In 2011 the Belarusian Culture Ministry presented the status of an international event to the festival. The organizers of the festival are the Grodno Orthodox Eparchy and the Grodno Oblast Executive Committee. The international jury includes ministers of religion with special music education, professors of academies of music, composers, choirmasters, and choir directors from different countries. The festival awards winners in eight nominations.