The Russian choir of the Sretensky Monastery sings hymns and folk songs at the Church of the Holy Cross in Damascus

The Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Cross in Bab Touma, in Damascus hosted the Russian Sretensky Monastery choir, which presented religious hymns and Russian folk songs.

The audience who gathered in the church hall included a number of Syrian choir groups affiliated with more than six Syrian churches, as well as clergymen who listened through the choir of the Sretensky Monastery to the Russian experience in religious singing and collective chanting.

An exhibition of old plastic and documentary pictures of the history of Russian monasteries and monasticism was also opened after the party in the same hall.

This ceremony comes within the framework of artistic and cultural exchange between the Ministries of Culture in Syria and Russia and the Russian Cultural Center in Damascus, under the direct supervision of the Russian Federal Agency.

It is noteworthy that the choir of the Sretenskyi Monastery was founded in conjunction with the founding of  the monastery in Moscow in 1397.

Its membership includes students from the monastery’s school and graduates of the Moscow Theological and Musical Institutes, in addition to singers from the academies of choral arts.

O. al-Mohammad