Best parish choir of Ukraine chosen at festival in Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

The competition was held with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine. According to a UOJ correspondent, 19 choirs from parishes and Sunday schools in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk, Odesa, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy region, and Chernihiv region performed at the gala concert.

The Grand Prix was won by the Nikolskyi youth ensemble of St. Nicholas Church on Podil. According to the competition’s tradition, the main prize – a painted icon of the Holy Trinity – is kept by the winning ensemble in its church for one year. The icon is then passed on to the next winner.

A special prize from the organizers – the Foundation in Memory of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) – was awarded to the Salt of the Earth ensemble of the church in honor of Venerable Paraskeva of Serbia in the village of Lyshnia, Makariv district, Kyiv region, as well as to the Consonance ensemble of the Department of Social Ministry of the Kharkiv Eparchy.

All other participants received commemorative gifts from the organizers and sponsors of the event.

The competition was founded in 2011 with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr and is timed to the feast of Pentecost – the Day of the Holy Trinity. The gala concert is traditionally held on the second day of the feast – the Day of the Holy Spirit.