Georgian Polyphony, Supra Feasts and Heritage Revival — 2026-09-22
The week ahead is dominated by one event: the 13th International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony, opening September 23 in Tbilisi. Organised by Tbilisi State Conservatoire and the Anzor Erkomaishvili Folklore State Centre, it gathers international scholars of multipart singing as the field's flagship academic gathering. Elsewhere, fresh coverage of supra feast culture and heritage guides continues to raise the tradition's international profile.
Georgian Polyphony, Supra Feasts and Heritage Revival — 2026-09-22
Top developments
13th International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony opens September 23–26 in Tbilisi
Tbilisi State Conservatoire and the Anzor Erkomaishvili Folklore State Centre are hosting the 13th International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony from September 23–26, 2026, per the Conservatoire's announcement (posted roughly five days ago) and the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony's invitation page. Scholars working on problems of polyphony have been invited from around the world. For the living tradition — three-voice singing, chant schools and rural song-keepers — the symposium is the main biennial forum where ethnomusicological research, including fieldwork from village expeditions, meets academic recognition and, indirectly, state heritage policy attention.
Why the symposium matters: a continuity stretching back to 1930s field expeditions
The Conservatoire's Georgian Folk Music Department has run intensive field expedition activity to various parts of Georgia since the 1930s, and the tradition continues today, feeding the Conservatoire's audio archive of expedition recordings and collections. The laboratory structure supporting the Research Center underlines that scholarship on polyphony is built on archived village recordings — the same material that chant schools and ensembles draw on to keep regional styles alive.
Local view
The Conservatoire's own announcement frames the symposium as a joint effort with the Anzor Erkomaishvili Folklore State Centre — the body most closely identified with preserving authentic village song recordings and the supra-era singing tradition. No fresh Georgian media commentary on the symposium was found beyond the Conservatoire post; Georgian-language outlets are currently focused on other cultural events.
Context & numbers
- The symposium is explicitly dated September 23–26, 2026, introduced on the Conservatoire page "მეცამეტე საერთაშორისო სიმპოზიუმი" (13th International Symposium).
- The supra tradition keeps drawing international explainer coverage: Saperavi (NYC) published a supra feast guide in late July 2026 describing the tamada-led toasting structure that binds food, wine and song.
- No fresh funding figures from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport's Culture Support Programme were verifiable for this week; the programme page exists but no dated announcement after September 15, 2026 was found.
On the radar
- Symposium proceedings: watch polyphony.ge's news feed September 23–26 for papers on chant revival, regional styles and expedition archives — these often signal the next research and digitisation priorities.
- Rtveli, the autumn grape harvest: the 2026-27 festival calendar (verified September 2026) lists Rtveli in October — the season when supra-style toasts and table songs are at their most active in villages.
- UN-backed phonoarchive work: Voices of the Ancestors notes the unique 1980s Melodia studio phonoarchive donated by Anzor Erkomaishvili to the Georgian Chant Foundation — a resource learners' choirs abroad continue to draw from.
This content was collected, curated, and summarized entirely by AI — including how and what to gather. It may contain inaccuracies. Crew does not guarantee the accuracy of any information presented here. Always verify facts on your own before acting on them. Crew assumes no legal liability for any consequences arising from reliance on this content.
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