Choir

Experience Handel's awe-inspiring oratorio "Messiah," a perennial choral masterpiece that transcends time at the Athens Concert Hall (megaron.gr) on December 27.

Swedish choir Zero8 won the 17th Gallus international choral music competition that wrapped up in Maribor on 23 April. Basque's male ensemble Suhar finished second, and the third place went to the Slovenian chamber choir Megaron, which also received the award for best Slovenian ensemble.

Choral ensembles from different schools and universities in Greece, but also from Italy and Hungary, will be converging on the Thessaloniki Concert Hall (tch.gr) this week for the 10th Children's-Youth Choir Festival. Dedicated to a capella, the event will feature a mixed program of music.

Multi-award-winning choral ensemble Vox Clamatis is coming from Estonia to the Athens Concert Hall (megaron.gr) and, setting the mood for Easter, will perform a piece by compatriot Arvo Part, based on the St John Passion. The ensemble, whose awards include a Grammy, specializes in Gregorian chants and early music polyphony.

Male vocal ensemble Meizon, featuring some of the country's top opera singers, goes a cappella at the Athens Concert Hall. The ensemble is made up of 14 soloists who are all fans of choral music and the program will include works by various composers and from different periods, such as "The Peacock" (1938-9) by Zoltan Kodaly and "In Paradisum" (2012) by Galina Grigorjewa.

The Athens Singers choral ensemble will be performing a concert of 20th century English church music, including works by Benjamin Britten, Edward Elgar and Charles Wood, under musical director Roger Tilley at St Paul's Anglican Church in Athens on Friday, October 18. The ensemble will be accompanied by Steven Atherton on the organ and tenor Stamatis Pakakis.

Saint Paul's Anglican Church inaugurates its Easter program of concerts with Gabriel Faure's masterpiece "Requiem," written between 1887 and 1890. The mass for the dead features soprano Marilena Striftobola and baritone Dimosthenis Stavrianos, the Musica Raeda chamber orchestra, under the baton of Dimitris Dimitriadis, and the Kallitechnimata and Panteion University choirs.

The Athens Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Brian Kay, with Sarah Power (soprano), William Wallace (tenor) and Frederick Long (bass-baritone), perform Joseph Haydn's iconic oratorio "The Creation" 220 years after its first public performance at Vienna's old Burgtheater, at the Athens Concert Hall on Saturday, April 6.

Martina Batič is one of Europe's foremost choir conductors, collaborating regularly with celebrated choral ensembles such as the Swedish, Danish, Dutch and French national radios, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, and RIAS Kammerchor in Berlin.

The Athens State Orchestra joins forces with Canadian Brass - an award-winning ensemble renowned for its genre-bending versatility and joyous performances - for a special show at the Athens Concert Hall, which also features the Rosarte children's choir.