Support Demestvo's tour to Georgia and Armenia in May 2025!

After a packed out concert in December 2024, Demestvo has big plans for spring 2025: we will be recording our first album and going on an international tour to Georgia and Armenia!

Named for a tradition of Slavic chant, Demestvo is a quartet of Princeton graduate students founded by musicology PhD student and soprano Anastasia Shmytova, for the performance of chant and early polyphony, especially of the music that serves as the foundation of her research. Demestvo is dedicated to bringing the magical and unique soundworld of these earlier traditions to contemporary audiences.

This summer, we plan to take our Lost Polyphonies project to Georgia and Armenia. Lost Polyphonies is a program of medieval chant and vocal polyphony from western and eastern Europe, presented alongside new works in dialogue with these earlier traditions. The program features music from Russia, Georgia, Byzantium, France, and England, much of which has been newly transcribed by scholars and has not been heard for three hundred years. Alongside this music, Demestvo performs contemporary works written in response to these early traditions of chant. In December, we premiered the first movement of Demestvo member Lucy McKnight’s piece, commissioned by and written for Demestvo. Our program on tour, and our album recording, will include the full work, a unique response to the medieval Slavic tradition of singing nonsense syllables.

Having performed Georgian chant from both the Eastern and Western traditions, touring to Georgia will give us the opportunity to partake in masterclasses from incredible singers steeped in this tradition, as well as to perform the broader program in beautiful venues. The projected itinerary includes concerts in Yerevan, Tbilisi, Kutaisi, and Batumi; masterclasses with Georgian singers specialising in chant; and some recording sessions to contribute to our album based on this project.

We are hoping to raise $10,000 to help offset the expenses of our airfare, trains, and accommodations for 10 days in Georgia and Armenia; hiring a videographer, audio engineer, musicians for the masterclass; the cost of renting the venues. We would be so grateful for any amount of support you can offer - it is such an enormous privilege to perform this rare music and we’re so excited to take it on tour!

Click the link below to watch some of our past performances:

Demestvo Performances