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GREGORIAN CHORAL OF BELO HORIZONTE

 

The Gregorian Choral of Belo Horizonte - Coral Gregoriano de Belo Horizonte - was founded on March 19, 1990, in the Cultural Center of the Federal University of Minas Gerais - UFMG, in Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais State (Brazil).

 

The first group was composed of 38 people (men and women), which most of them were ex-seminarists that had already contact with the gregorian music during the school times. This choral is one, of a rare groups in the Country, that sings exclusively in gregorian.

 

The choral creation and the gregorian chant course were an initiative of former priest Nereu de Castro Teixeira who decided to rescue and maintain alive the oldest repertoire of Catholic Church. The creation of the choral was due to a family questioning about the fact that he is the largest expert in Brazil in gregorian chant and didn`t have the opportunity to transmit his knowledge to other people. This was the reason he decided to create the choral and the gregorian chant course.

 

The choral, in 2006, was reduced to 16 components, which 7 of them are the pioneers of choral activities.

 

Particularly, due to the kind of gregorian music, the choral has been presenting, basically, in liturgical celebrations (masses) and, sometimes, in other events with the sense of disclosing the gregorian chant; being the presentations performed through invitations of parishes, churches and other entities.

 

Beyond participation at singing masses in Belo Horizonte, the choral already took part in celebrations in the following cities of Minas Gerais: Caeté, Campo Belo, Congonhas, Juiz de Fora (V International Festival of Old Music and Brazilian Colonial Music), Lavras (1st Choirs Festival of the Abraão Kasinski Foundation - FAK), Mariana, Ouro Preto, Santa Luzia, São João del Rei; and in Barretos, in the state of São Paulo, participating on the thanksgiving mass of Dr. João Monteiro Filho`s birthday, founder of the Rede Vida de Televisão (a Catholic network television); and in Cabo Frio, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and also, as part of the 10th year-old commemorations, the choral sang a mass with the monks of São Bento's Monastery, in Rio de Janeiro.

 

The choral`s rehearsals are performed on Mondays, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm, at the Colégio Arnaldo where the choral sings a mass every third saturday of the month. During the rehearsals and celebrations the choral uses the "Repertório de Canto Gregoriano", manual of internal circulation, containing 141 musics extracted from Antiphonale Monasticum, Cantus Selecti, Graduale, Graduale Romanum, Liber Cantualis, Liber Hymnarius and Liber Usualis.