The Society Moisey Petrovich is engaged in studying and performing the authentic style of our traditional music. Roots of Serbian music originate in the Byzantine culture, which covers an area wider of the Byzantine Empire and which continues even after its fall.
In medieval Serbia, Byzantine music was the musical expression of the cultural elite. The first Serbian composers compiled melodies by the Byzantine model. Today this art is almost entirely forgotten.
Members of our Society are ordinary people like you and me. They have their families and jobs, but they are always ready to sacrifice themselves for what they like and what they believe in.
However, to become a chanter in our choir, one must meet criteria that other choirs do not ask. Each member of the Serbian Byzantine Choir Moisey Petrovich has to undergo special training to learn the unique, Byzantine music system. Our notation – Neums – differ from the notation which is in the dominant use today. Singing style that we cherish, one can only learn in our Psaltic – chanters school.
Church Music is not the only field of our interest. Our Society nurtures the almost forgotten tradition of traditional folk songs performance – Chalgia. Chalgia Moisey Petrovich play on authentic instruments that have been raised in urban areas of the eastern Mediterranean, an area that our culture organically belongs to.
Today our Society is the most prominent representative of the Byzantine music style in our country. During all these years we have performed in some of Europe’s largest concert venues from Greece to Finland and from Spain to Russia. Repeatedly we performed in the Great Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonic and received the title of “the St. Petersburg audience’s favorite.”
In the future, we still have a large number of projects in order to present the old art to a new generation of music lovers. Our goal is to make our singing style – Byzantine music – a recognizable part of our common culture.