The "Tropos" Byzantine Choir

The "Tropos" Byzantine Choir - Centre for the Study of the Psaltic Art

The source of our inspiration and discipleship has been the deepest understanding of the church experience, the devout attendance of its services, the imbuing of our analogia with the style and the spirit of “the music of angels,” the devotion to our own music, and the scholarly approach to a wide range of compositions made by renowned composers of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine period, who represent the chanting tradition of the Great Church and Mount Athos.

The Tropos Byzantine Choir has performed at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (Athens – Epidaurus Festival), at the National Opera of Greece, at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), where it held 7 concerts in collaboration with the Music Ensembles of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, as well as in other Greek cities.

Of utmost importance has been the cooperation with the musician Julien Jâlal Eddine Weiss and the Al-Kindi Ensemble, with Unesco Artist for Peace Kudsi Erguner, with a number of Turkish singers of religious music, and with Socrates Sinopoulos.

The Choir has also participated in joint worship services with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem, Patriarch Cyril of Moscow, Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus, Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, and Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, in long-lasting vigils at various monasteries of Mount Athos, such as the Vatopaidion, the Docheiarion Monastery, the Simonopetra and the Xenophon.

In its 16-year long activity, the Choir has travelled to 19 countries bringing into the foreground the Greek music culture, the psaltic art, a musical art that is instilled with distinctive and moving spirituality, defines the Greek identity and is invaluable to the development of music worldwide.

The Choir has recorded 30 CDs, points of reference for our rich musical heritage as they feature a rich body of unpublished works by great composers from Constantinople and Mount Athos from the 13th century to the present.

Constantinos Ath. Angelidis

Protopsaltes, Master of the Psaltic Art

Constantinos Angelidis was born in the city of Tripoli, Greece, in 1964. He studied Theology at the Athens Higher Ecclesiastical School and at the Faculty of Theology in the University of Athens. He also studied Byzantine chant with Constantinos Tassopoulos (Lower Cantor Certificate in 1979) and Lycourgos Angelopoulos (Byzantine chant Certificate in 1988). He won a scholarship from the Alexandros Onassis Foundation and participated as a researcher in the programme “Study and Analysis of the works of the Byzantine master Ioannes Koukouzeles.” Having served the psaltic art since 1981, he became the Protopsaltes in the church of Sts Anargyroi, Dependency of the Holy Sepulchre Church in the district of Plaka, Athens in 2014.

Since 1988, he has been teaching Byzantine Music in various educational institutions and schools, conservatoires and monasteries. He organised and taught the Choir of the Fathers of the Vatopaidion Monastery on Mount Athos from 1994 to 2005. He has also been the choirmaster in the 14 CDs that have been released featuring chants by classical Byzantine and Vatopaidion composers. He has also directed a choir of cantors for the recording of a double CD in collaboration with the Chilandarion Monastery, Mount Athos. He has been teaching at the School of Byzantine Music of the Archdiocese of Athens since 1996. In 2008 he conducted the Byzantine Choir of the aforementioned school for the recording of the CD Metaxy Athenon kai eschaton (From Athens to Eternity). In 2012 he taught Byzantine music in Cyprus and he has been teaching in Romania since 2015. Being a member of the Greek Byzantine Choir, directed by Lycourgos Angelopoulos, he participated in more than 900 events in Greece and in 30 countries in Europe, Asia, America and Africa. He worked as a music producer for the Hellenic Radio from 1985 to 2005, and since 2009 he has cooperated with the radio station of the Church of Greece in matters of Byzantine music.

In late 2005, Constantinos Angelidis founded the Centre for the Study of the Psaltic Art and the TROPOS Byzantine Choir. He has directed its concerts and participation in liturgical services in Greece and in 19 other countries. He has also been the choirmaster in the recording of 30 CDs, presenting classic as well as unpublished works by Byzantine and post-Byzantine composers from Constantinople and Mount Athos.