Enjoy the experience of Eastern Orthodox Church music as it was meant to be sung

For people who love vocal music, the a capella singing of the Eastern Orthodox Church music brings an epxerience of the sublime. The soaring melodies, the intricate harmonies, the sense of something both foreign and familiar have made the music of the Slavic countries — Russia and Eastern Europe — an international treasure.

Eastern Orthodox Church music has earned its place in Western music culture with its contributions of Tchaikovsky and Chesnekov, many of whose melodies originated under humble onion domed churches of the Russian steppes.

You can hear the works of Kastalsky and Kalinnikov or in a concert hall, in instrumental versions such as by Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff or sung with loving attention by concert choirs.

At Kliros, we aim to take you someplace closer to those onion-domed churches of the steppes, where the music was not the object, but the liturgy was enfolded in the music as a cloak, enveloping various elements and disparate people within a single whole.

Kliros is a new ministry launched under the wing of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Portland. We will offer two liturgies per year using some of the best in Eastern Orthodox Church choral music, sung by skilled singers, in the context of the liturgy.

If you love choral music, whether or not you’re Orthodox or even Christian, you owe yourself the chance to experience the music as the composers expected it to be heard — in the midst of the bustle and movement, the processions and silences of an Orthodox Church services, under the watchful gaze of the icons, with the swish of brocade vestments and the humble reality of children’s voices.

We say to you, “Come and see.”

Find out about upcoming events.