Cypriot Vespers

“We have never been modern … We have never moved either forward or backward. We have always actively sorted out elements belonging to different times. We can still sort. It is the sorting that makes the times, not the times that make the sorting.”
Bruno Latour

The concerts by Graindelavoix are breathtaking and yet more than mere musical experiences. The collective of professional non-singers based in Antwerp deliberately unsettles conventional views of tradition and history. It questions the authority of dominant musical approaches and reaches out through time to unearth unheard-of repertoires in unheard ways. The work of Graindelavoix is musical, archaeological and political at the same time.

This concert presents works by the obscure and previously unknown Jean Hanelle (c.1380–1436) alongside Maronite and Byzantine chants of an incredible beauty and melodical movement – a time travel into the culturally diverse and musically vibrant present of the 15th century.

Jean Hanelle
Cypriot Vespers
Maronite and Byzantine songs and motets

Graindelavoix
Björn Schmelzer conductor

Anne-Kathryn Olsen, Razek-François Bitar, Albert Riera, Andrés Miravete, Marius Peterson, Adrian Sîrbu, Jean-Christophe Brizard, Bart Meynckens, Tomàs Maxé, Björn Schmelzer

Koen Broos lighting design