Trieste St. Spyridon Thaumaturge Church Choir
Trieste St. Spyridon Thaumaturge Church Choir was founded by maestro Francesco Sinico (1810-1865) in 1837, upon request of the Serbian Orthodox Community.
Since its establishment, the choir has performed under the baton of numerous talented choirmasters, such as members of the Sinico family (Francesco, Giuseppe and Francesco Riccardo), followed by Slovene maestros Viktor Šonc, Vasilij Mirk, Ubald Vrabec, Stane Malič, Vlado Švara, maestro Giorgio Kirschner who afterwards went to Rome to conduct the choir of St. Cecilia National Academy and finally prof. Zorko Harej.
Since 1999 the choir has been conducted by prof. Anna Kaira, the first female director of Orthodox religion in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Community in Trieste.
Currently, the St. Spyridon Church Choir consists of 24 members of solid musical education: Serbs, Slovenes, Italians, Russians, Croats and Argentinians. The choir’s key role is to sing at Sunday Divine Liturgies and other religious ceremonies during the year. Furthermore, it participates in various cultural events in Trieste and its surroundings.
The choir’s repertoire is based almost exclusively on the Serbian and Russian religious music, but it also includes pieces from the Serbian traditional folk music.
The Youth Choir (The children’s Church Choir) of the Saint Spyridon Church in Trieste
The Youth Choir (The children’s Church Choir) of the Saint Spyridon Church in Trieste was created by the Serbian Orthodox Community in 2012 as the children’s section of the main Saint Spyridon Church Choir. It consists of young boys and girls aged 7 to 19 years.
During rehearsals, all the choir members, have the opportunity to learn the bases the Orthodox Religion as well as the vocal technique, the basis of liturgical singing, music theory and solfeggio.
The choir regularly sings during Divine Liturgies and actively participates in cultural and spiritual life of the Serbian Orthodox Community. It also participates in numerous concerts and festivals in Trieste.
In November 2014 the choir went on its first tour beyond the Italian borders. The children sang in Zurich (Switzerland) in front of large and enthusiastic audience. In June 2016 the choir was in Bregenz (Austria), where they sang Divine Liturgy together with Bishop Andrej.
The choir is conducted by Maestro Anna Kaira from Kiev, (Ukraine) where she acquired her music education. She studied at the Academy of Music in Moscow and Kiev and graduated with honours from the “Tchaikovsky” National Academy of Music in Kiev, specializing in Choral Conducting and Musicology.
Subsequently, she continued her studies in the musical field by attending a doctoral programme in Musicology at the Bayreuth University (Germany) and was awarded a Ph.D. in 2002.
She held teaching positions at various universities in Germany and Italy, lecturing on Russian opera and she conducted numerous choirs in Ukraine, Germany and Italy, some of them being opera house choirs. In Trieste, besides conducting the main and youth Saint Spyridon Church Choir, she also teaches singing at the “Ars Nova” Academy of Music and participates in the international projects of this Academy as a project manager. She is a permanent member of the jury of “Ars Nova International Music Competition – Trieste”. Anna Kaira published various works in the field of musicology and sacral music. Since 2014 she is the president of the cultural association “Amici Gioventù Musicale – Trieste”.
