Georgia's Ensemble Basiani Will Perform at Lincoln Center's White Light Festival

The all-male a cappella choir, embodying otherworldly sound from the world’s oldest polyphonic tradition, will perform on November 13 at Lincoln Center's White Light Festival.

Basiani’s White Light Festival return marks its third Lincoln Center appearance, and Tskrialashvili says these New York concerts have introduced Georgian music to new Western audiences and created unforgettable memories for the ensemble. “It was a real acknowledgment of Georgian traditional polyphony as the masterpiece of the world,” he says. This year’s performances are at the intimate Church of St. Mary the Virgin, which is especially fitting, as one of the ensemble’s most popular songs is a secret hymn to Mary. The Kartli-Kakheti (eastern kingdom) song, which translates as “You Are a Garden,” persisted during the Soviet era due to metaphorical lyrics that obscure its object of sacred devotion.