Nektaria Karantzi is a Byzantine female chanter from Greece whose voice has been internationally acclaimed as one of the most influential voices in Byzantine Chant.
NEWS & UPCOMING EVENTS
Nektaria Karantzi participates as a performer in the new documentary by Yiannis Smaragdis for Theodoros Kolokotronis, which was warmly received during its first screening at the Athens Academy. Screenings of it will soon follow in selected venues inside and outside of Greece.
FIRST BYZANTINE MUSIC SCHOOL FOR FEMALE CANTORS
The Conservatory of Classical and Contemporary Music in Athens, under the artistic direction of Spyros Mazis, in collaboration with the Women in Byzantine Music Worldwide Association, present the School for Psaltries, the first Byzantine music learning program specializing in the teaching of Byzantine Music for "Psaltries", a Greek term for female cantors, through the "School for Psaltries" by Nektaria Karantzi, the internationally acclaimed female chanter, Byzantine Music professor and founder of the Worldwide Association of Women in Byzantine Music.
New CD Release: BYZANTINE
A collection of Byzantine ecclesiastic hymns in Greek by Nektaria Karantzi, whose works are widely recognized in the sacred art of Byzantine music. The album includes ancient hymns, from the early Christian period, such as “Gladsome Light” and “Christ is Risen”, hymns dedicated to the Theotokos -a repertoire to which Karantzi has centered her research in recent years- hymns of Great Lent and Holy Week, such as the well-known “They stripped me of my garments” and “Today, He hangs on the Cross”, as well as apolytikia for two significant recent Saints of the Orthodox Christian world, Saint Nektarios, Bishop of Pentapolis, and Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia, of whom Nektaria was a spiritual child. It includes also the famous «Kyrie Eleison» («Lord have mercy»), composed by the monks of Mount Athos, performed in Greek, Romanian, Russian and Polish. The hymns are a cappella and without the accompaniment of a Byzantine Isokratima (Ison), conveyed in their simplest form, revealing the overwhelming power of the solitary voice of prayer. The album presents ancient hymns and poems of Saint Hymnographers of the 2nd to 9th centuries in musical compositions of the great teachers of psaltic art of the 18th and 19th centuries (Petros Peloponnesios or Lampadarios, Georgios Redestinos), as well as musical arrangements and explanations of more recent great teachers of the 20th and 21st centuries (Athanassios Karamanis, Charilaos Taliadoros etc.), based on the classic works of Byzantine ecclesiastical music. The «Byzantine» produced by the acclaimed pianist, conductor and composer Vassilis Tsabropoulos for MSO Records – Musica Sacra Series, distributed by Challenge Records (https://bit.ly/3A4Ykuu). The album is also available on all digital music stores, music platforms and streaming services. It includes booklet with information about the works (hymnographers, melodists, liturgical place in orthodox Christian worship services) and lyrics in English language.
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“Classical Music is, without a doubt, more difficult than Byzantine music. Anyone who says otherwise is truly unfamiliar with either style. If, however, Byzantine music excels, it is not from a musical perspective, but from a spiritual one which transfigures and empowers the music to mystically touch the souls of its listeners. It is for this reason that when grace is missing from a byzantine chanter, no one can hear him”
~Nektaria Karantzi
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