Tbilisi Choral Music Festival brings local, foreign talent to capital

Participants from Georgia, Lithuania, Germany, Azerbaijan and the United States will make the Tbilisi Choral Music International Festival, launching today, a regional spot for enthusiasts.

Promoted as "the only regional festival for development of choral music", the event will again draw on its tradition on choosing a new spot for its concerts.

For this year, participating choirs will be offered the stage at venues including the Catholic Church of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary in Tbilisi, the city's Music and Drama Theatre and the Tbilisi State Univesity.

This year's programme is launching with a show of the Azerbaijan State Choir Capella and the Youth Ensemble 'Tutarchela' at the Sokhumi State Drama Theatre in the capital.

Choras VILNIUS of Lithuania is one of the ensembles offering a guest performance in Tbilisi this year:

In a standout concert for this year's festival, Georgian choirs will be joined by Choras VILNIUS, a Lithuanian ensemble, in a homage to victims of the April 9, 1989 crackdown on peaceful protesters by Soviet troops in downtown Tbilisi.

Tbilisi and Gori women's choirs, Ensemble 'Rennaissance', the Briton Singers group of Albion College and other bands will appear in performances as the event invites vocal performance fans over the following weeks. Both adult and children ensembles will be on stage for those flocking to see local and foreign choral talent.

Established in 2011 in an initiative by art critic Maia Chachava and with support from the Tbilisi City Hall, the festival is led by choirmaster Archil Ushveridze an d partnered by the Georgian National Music Centre.

Organisers aim to use the festival to preserve, develop and promote choral performance heritage and create closer bonds between academic ensembles in Georgia and abroad.

The festival will receive is audiences through May 14.