Workshop on the Performance of Vocal Ornaments in Middle Eastern Music

Date:	October 10, 2026 | 15:00 (Sat)
Venue:	Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (Malá Chuchle)
Duration:	3 hours
Intermission:	No
Status:	Available
Reviews:	(3)

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Group discount 10+ people
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From theory to chant, this workshop is a hands-on journey through Orthodox vocal traditions

The workshop will begin with a brief introduction to the concepts behind Eastern music theory. From there, we’ll focus on Orthodox vocal traditions, exploring regional styles across Greece, the Balkans, Ukraine, Lebanon, and the US. You will learn how to listen to and sing Byzantine chants, practice targeted vocal exercises to master ornamentation, and sing specific songs together as a group and individually.

The workshop is led by Silva Morasten. 

About the Archaion Kallos festival:

Once again, the Philokallia association invites you to the Archaion Kallos International Festival of Orthodox Music. Do not miss this beautiful spiritual and musical experience. In its literal sense, the Greek expression “archaion kallos” means “ancient beauty,” but in the vocabulary of the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Christian Church, “archaion kallos” speaks of a certain archetype, an “original beauty,” that is to say, the beauty which man beheld in Paradise and which he experienced after Creation. The Philokallia Association (philokallia, a word of Greek origin meaning “love of the beautiful”) gave this name to the first and only festival of Orthodox music in Prague because the association perceives every act in sacred music, whether of composition or interpretation, as a kind of conscious or unconscious search for this pristine beauty, the Archaion Kallos.

Important: 

• No intermission
• Dress code: casual 
• Program subject to change

Prague historical centre tours - tickets

Venue photo gallery

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (Malá Chuchle)

Address:	V Lázních 15, Praha 5 - Malá Chuchle
Capacity:	40
Type:	Church
Winter heating:	Yes
Wheelchair access:	Yes

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary: a Baroque church above a hidden stream at Malá Chuchle

Tucked into the quiet valley of Malá Chuchle, on the southern edge of Prague, stands a late Baroque church consecrated in 1774. Its story reaches back much further still: a parish church is thought to have stood on this spot as early as the 13th century, though that earlier building has long since vanished. The church rests just below the level of the surrounding road and stream, giving it an unusually intimate, sheltered feel. Since 2018, it has served Prague's Greek Orthodox community, generously entrusted to them by the Roman Catholic Church. Surrounded by the greenery of the Chuchelský háj forest and just steps from the former Chuchle spa quarter, it offers a serene, atmospheric setting for a concert unlike anywhere else in the city.

How to get there:

• Accessibility by public transport:
  bus - Malá Chuchle stop (the bus departs from Smíchovské nádraží and stops by the church)
• Nearest car parking:
  Street parking along V Lázních near the church