Cultural Committee
Spiritual Music Festival
The Rhode Island Orthodox Clergy Fellowship and our Cultural Committee presented an evening of Spiritual Music on Sunday, October 22 in the sanctuary of our Church.
The following churches and their choirs, organists and clergy participated in the Music Festival: Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Cranston; Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, Pawtucket; Holy Dormition Orthodox Church, Cumberland; St. Ephraim Syriac Orthodox Church, Central Falls; St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church, Pawtucket; Sts. Mary & Mena Coptic Orthodox Church, Cranston; Sts Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church, Providence; and Sts. Sahag and Mesrob Armenian Apostolic Church, Providence.
Maestro Konstantin Petrossian, Cultural Committee Director and Music Director of our church, welcomed the overflow audience. Linda Minassian, Chairperson of the Parish Council, brought the greetings from our church and extolled the virtues of the unique program of spiritual music that would be presented that evening.
The melodic chants and hymns were sung in English as well as the various languages of the affiliated churches. Some of the melodies were thousands of years old, dating back to Byzantine times and in the case of the Coptic tunes, to the time of the Egyptian Pharaohs. The St. Ephraim Syriac Orthodox Church sang their hymns in the ancient Aramaic language that Christ and his followers spoke.
Several choirs wore their traditional robes. The two Armenian Apostolic Churches donned their cream and burgundy robes with the women wearing their white lace head covering or mantilla.
Most of the choirs had their organists accompanying them. However, Sts. Mary & Mena Coptic Orthodox Church had an all male choir and sang acappella accompanied by cymbals and bells. St. Ephraim Syriac Church’s choir was led by keyboard and oud. A highlight of the evening was the enthusiastic congregational chanting of psalms in the Slavonic style led by the choir of Holy Dormition Orthodox Church.
Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Church’s Choir, as well as our Church’s Choir and Junior Choir, sang the familiar hymns or “sharagans” from the Divine Liturgy by Magar Yegmalian.
Rev. Father Andrew George, Pastor of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, and President of the Rhode Island Orthodox Clergy Fellowship, thanked Maestro Petrossian and remarked how all the choirs sang with “vigor, commitment and faith.”
The evening ended with an invitation by Very Rev. Fr. Simeon Odabashian, to the Sts. Vartanantz Church Choir to join our Choir and Junior Choir in singing the Hayr Mer along with the audience participating. The final blessing was offered by the Rev. Fr. Gomidas Baghsarian of Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Church.
Concert goers were treated to a table of sumptuous Armenian refreshments in the Egavian Cultural Center, hosted by our Women’s Guild.