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CHRONICLE – MAY 19th, FRIDAY
Again at 10 o'clock in the church “Saint Maximus, Bishop of Turin”, a liturgy was held - that day in liturgical Greek. Representatives of the Greek community in Turin were also present in the church. The liturgy was held in liturgical Greek language by Abbot Ambrose (Kassinasko) and Father Victor (Matveev), a prayerful participation also took Protopresbyter Iosif (Restagno) - primate of “Nativity of St. John the Baptist” – the Greek Orthodox Church of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The singers performed the liturgy divided into two kliros – male and female ones (“kliros” - a place for the psalm-readers or singers in an Orthodox church), with most of the chants being sang from the male kliros.
After the service, the choir members had a very heartfelt meeting with the representatives of the Greek community, who, with tears in their eyes, thanked for both the writing and the performance of this liturgical music. Besides the Greeks, the Italian Catholics and Orthodox present, as well as representatives of the Russian community, all expressed their admiration and did not suppress their sincere excitement evoked by the Devine service.
The conductor of the Greek Church’s choir in Turin, Mrs. Irene Rotondale, came to the heads of the Collegium right after the end of the liturgy and proposed a joint activity for promotion of the Byzantine musical culture in Italy.
In his speech after the liturgy, Father Ambrose said: “Let us render thanks to those who travelled thousands of kilometers to bring us this liturgy, since the greatest effort without doubt was made by the choir which sang today – Collegium HOSANNA – whose members, I believe, would be amongst us not only during these liturgies in different languages, which would be held during the following festive days, but also for many years that would come, with many other choirs, and we would have the opportunity to organize joint concerts during our future festivals… this is a good start… I would like to thank all of the participants, but I hope that you will all agree to sing “Many Years”…”
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