In the opening ceremony of the proceedings there was a greeting by the Director of the Department Mr. Konstantinos Karagounis, who welcomed the participants and dedicated the congress to his two late associates of the Department, Christos Kotopoulos and Konstantinos Saitis.
Also, there was a greeting by the president of the Chanters’ Association of the Holy Diocese of Demetrias “Saint John the Koukouzelis”, Efstathios Grammenos, while His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatius of Demetrias and Almyros, who officially opened the conference, praised the role of the department and made a brief reference to its project and objectives, as well as the role of the Academy as a research center.
Moreover, there was a greeting by the Prof. Mr. Gregorios Stathis, while there were speeches by professor Mr.Koukousas and the Head of the Music School of Volos Mrs. Tzanetopoulou, who talked about the late Konstantinos Saitis and Christos Kotopoulos.
Next, the main speeches followed by the Professors, Ath. Vourlis, on the topic: “The apocalyptic vision of the prophet Isaiah, as an all time pattern of ecclesiastical psalmody”, by Antonios Aligizakis on the topic: “Basic principles of short members” and by Konstantinos Karagounis on the topic: “Saint John Sinaites’ theological teachings on psalmody as reflected in the great ascetic treatise of “the Ladder of the Virtues”, as well as by Mr. Kostis Drigiannakis on the topic: “From the church Analogion to the “byzantine choir”: Encounters of the Byzantine Psaltiki with European modernity”.
The proceedings continued on Friday with great interest and remarkable participations and presentations, as well as specially constructive dialogue, with 16 presentations in various cognitive fields such as Linguistics, Literature, Byzantine Musicology, Teaching method, Mathematic Science e.t.c., while on Friday afternoon in the proceedings of the conference, the Byzantine Choir “Anavassis” was present, which was conducted by the Protopsaltis Theodoros Ksionis, in the service of the Vespers in the Church of Trypa (of Goritsa) of Volos.
The Conference ended on Saturday, June 11, with 14 exceptional presentations of Greek and foreign scientists from: Turkey, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria in scientific fields including: anthropology, folklore and many scientific results of biographical interest, while what was remarkable on all the days of the conference, was the active participation of young scientists , constituting the new generation, the new blood, in the related scientific fields to Byzantine Psaltiki Art and science, with extremely interesting presentations. The proceedings of the conference were concluded with a round table discussion themed: “Proposals of Interdisciplinary Actions on Psaltiki Art” and the announcement of the results of this Conference.
The detailed program of the proceedings, as well as short biographies and abstracts of the papers, are posted on the webpage of the Department of Psaltiki.
