On Wednesday, January 28th at the Kunstquartier Bethanien's Studio 1, a very special benefit concert and the festival's only exclusively acoustic programme will act as the rich denouement of a day devoted to investigating themes related to archaeoacoustics.

Antiquity specialist Iegor Reznikoff will perform a programme consisting of  selections of Early Gregorian chant (4th-11th Century) and his own composition, "Cantata Grand Magnificat". The performance features Reznikoff's exploration (with his unamplified voice) of the resonant properties of the space, which served as a chapel when the Kunstquartier was still used as a hospital.

The concert rounds off a full day of discourse programme events on the archaeology of sound in the same room, featuring lectures by Reznikoff himself as well as by Paul Devereux and Rupert Till, other leading figures in the field. The programme, which runs from 12h-17h, will also include an interdisciplinary panel discussion.

All proceeds from the concert's ticket sales will be donated to charities aiding refugees in Berlin.

Reznikoff gave his first concerts in the field of ancient Christian chant in 1975. Today world renowned, his fundamentally new interpretations of these ancient chants as well as his theoretical and historical research have since greatly influenced the understanding and interpretation of ancient Christian chants at large and that of Gregorian chant in particular. Above all he should be credited with the rebirth of the solo performance of many of these chants.

Reznikoff's approach to chant is based on very careful research on some of the oldest manuscripts available and on those manuscripts' neumatic notations. It is also informed by his experience listening comparatively to the great oral traditions of sacred music linked with the use of just intonation. The application of this tuning system to scales in early music was made possible only through a vast comparative study of the historical and contextual use of specific intonation systems, for example, those of Oriental Churches or of the sacred music traditions of Turkey, Iran and, above all, India. This research on historical tuning systems also led him to delve deeply into the study of the resonant properties of the various religious edifices at which chants were typically performed, thus rendering to the ancient religious architecture its essential contemplative dimension.

Professor Reznikoff is not only a specialist in the study of antique and medieval resonance but also in the resonance of Palaeolithic ornate caves and in that of modern edifices. We have his research to thank for the new concept of cultural heritage of architectural resonance.