The 44th International Festival of Orthodox Church Music "Hajnówka 2025" awards were handed out on Sunday afternoon - prior to the gala concert concluding this year's edition. This world-famous cyclical event is a brainchild of eastern Poland's Hajnówka-based Orthodox Church Music Foundation.
The Female Student Choir of the P. Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music from Kyiv, Ukraine, won the first prize in the Professionals category. The jury also awarded a special prize here - handed to the International Male Choir Unia from Vilnius for popularizing unknown Orthodox church works by Belarusian composers. Meanwhile, the "Psalmodia" Choir of the John Paul II Pontifical University in Krakow championed the Adult Amateur Choirs category.
The first award in the category of Amateur Children and Youth choirs was given to the Ukrainian Girls' Chamber Choir of the M. V. Lysenko Kyiv State Music High School. The jury, led by Father Jerzy Szurbak, also handed a special award for popularizing church music among children and youth in the region to the Children and Youth Choir of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok.
"The merit of the festival is the popularization of not only well-known pieces from the vast legacy of church music, but also the presentation of newly discovered compositions from this area of creativity" - the festival jury emphasized in the minutes.
The 2025 edition of the event marked the 200th death anniversary of legendary Ukrainian composer Dymitr Bortniański, as well as the 95th birth anniversary of late Romuald Twardowski (1930-2024), who for many years chaired the festival jury.
The International Festival of Orthodox Music "Hajnówka" is considered one of the most important events in the world which presents and popularises Orthodox music. According to the organizers from the Orthodox Music Foundation in Hajnówka - where the now-Białystok-held festival has its roots - it is also the world's oldest event of the kind that has a secular nature. Across its 44 editions - more than 950 choirs from 44 countries took part.
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Source: PAP, IAR