Unbroken Light: From Medieval Chant to Modern Orthodox Sound (Berkeley)

Across eight centuries, a singular musical flame has never gone out.

This program follows the radiant thread of Byzantine chant as it traveled north into Slavic lands — taking root, transforming, and enduring. The first half invites you into the soundscape of the medieval church: unaccompanied voices unfolding in timeless modes, drawn from Athonite and Serbian traditions shaped by the ancient system of the Octoechos. From these austere beginnings emerges a new richness—the flowering of early Russian polyphony in the 17th-century partesny style, where a single melodic line blossoms into layered choral sound.

As the Orthodox world encountered Western Europe, sacred music expanded in new directions. The luminous choral concertos of Dmitry Bortniansky and Maxim Berezovsky reveal a striking synthesis: Byzantine spirituality refracted through the elegance and structure of the Baroque.

In the second half, that same ancient voice resounds in new and unexpected forms. Composers such as Kornelije Stanković and Alfred Schnittke…