The Structure of our School

Welcome to the model and original online School of Byzantine Music To Fanari. With the pioneering audiovisual system of teaching implemented by the School, the connected student is able, at any time of the day and from any place on the planet, to be taught in detail, parallagi (Solmization) and melos, the entire syllabus of Byzantine Music, which is required not only for obtaining the relevant degrees, but also for becoming a full-fledged chanter, and even in the chant tradition of Constantinople. It is this tradition that the deserving Archon Maestor of the Great Church of Christ, Gregory Daravanoglou, who is worthily ranked among the glorious group of officials (οφφικιάλοι) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, comes to transmit from this online teaching chair. Mr. Daravanoglou, who had the rare good fortune to follow this tradition from his childhood in the Patriarchal Church of Agios Georgios and in the other peripheral Churches of the Basilica, has taken over exclusively the teaching part of the School.

The vision of the Fanari is to offer the codified musical knowledge of centuries, in the simplest and most easily transmitted way, which today’s technical development allows and at the same time imposes. The older generations of cantors were able to decode this knowledge only after many years and suffering, as the well-known old fifteen-syllable admonition he who wants to learn music and praise must have a lot of patience, must have a lot of days… (O θέλων μουσικήν μαθείν και θέλων επαινείσθαι θέλει πολλάς υπομονάς θέλει πολλάς ημέρας) testifies. In no way, however, should the false impression be created that the Fanari is an advocate of the principle of least effort.  On the contrary. That is why, after all, it delivers Byzantine music in its most demanding interpretative form – but in the most sophisticated way. Because even in this particular subject, the internet is often an easy and makeshift solution, despite it’s often professed good intentions. But good intentions are not enough, when the cause is – like that of our traditional music – sacred. Every possible effort must therefore be made, not just to preserve the musical and worship past of Our own Orient, but to unite it with the present and integrate it into the future.

The ‹Fanari› begins this vision with the best of omens— the willing blessing of the head of the apostolic Church of Greece, His Beatitude Hieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.

For the “Fanari” does not aspire to be just another School of Byzantine Music, but “a different” School of Byzantine Music.

Structure and operation of the School

The School’s programme includes a curriculum of five years, fully based on the relevant Greek legislation, regarding the education provided in Byzantine Music Schools.

This curriculum however is based on a completely pioneering audiovisual system of teaching implemented by the School, which has the following stages: