Out of silence a voice.
Twelve voices in a stone nave: from Victoria to Pärt.
A concert as a threshold: you come in from the street and leave quieter. The Spiritual Concerts cycle is led by Florent de Bazelaire.
The coming concert
In Praise of Creation
All Saints’ Church, Warsaw · 11 October 2026 · 13:30
St Francis’s Canticle of the Sun greets the sun, the wind, the water and the fire as its own kin, and at the end greets death on the same terms. The programme follows that road: from light towards what is fragile in us, and further — to where the praise of creation becomes the prayer of all the saints, in the church that bears their name.
Free admission
In silence, music is born.
Music is the soul's contemplation in time.
The sacred does not adorn.
It unveils.
Repertorium
Gibbons
Allegri
Bairstow
Dubra
It began
with longing.
Like anchorites — in seclusion, far from the clamour — we came to long for music that enfolds a person, reaches into them and stays in the soul like a living organism. So Voct came to be: out of silence and contemplation.
There are more than forty of us today; twelve voices usually go on stage. We adore heterophony, polytonality and polyphony — we weave our programmes out of works in which word and music are each other's mirror image.
Florent
de Bazelaire
The cycle takes its name from Paris in 1725: the Concert Spirituel sang on the evenings when the opera fell silent. Three hundred years later Florent de Bazelaire takes up that tradition in the basilicas of Kraków and Łódź, in Szczawnica and Niedzica.
He builds every programme around a single intention. Contemplation of the Incarnation for the debut (2024), nine leaves from the Book of Psalms, a prayer for peace in St Mary's Basilica, an epitaph for Gaza.
Alongside it he leads the VoctFoundation. The foundation exists to give this music a lasting place.
tacet.
Vox · Watch and listen
Out of that silence — a voice.
Out of that voice — memory.
Contemplation of the Incarnation · January MMXXIV
The Call of the Mountains · June MMXXIV
Nine Leaves from the Book of Psalms · November MMXXIV
Hymn to the Fallen · February MMXXV
Aeternam — Epitaph for Gaza · October MMXXVPhotographs of the cycle's evenings · MMXXIV–MMXXV
All the imagesWhat has already sounded.
Every evening of the cycle had a single intention. We set them down in the order in which they were performed.
- I MMXXIV Spiritual Concert · debut
Contemplation of the Incarnation
Sacred Heart Basilica in Kraków
An entrance into the mystery of the Incarnation, from Isaiah's prophecy to the Canticle of Simeon. Renaissance polyphony, Pärt, Vivancos.
The concert programme
- Jan Sandström · Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen · 1990
- Bernat Vivancos · Le cri des bergers · 2004
- Jacob Handl (Gallus) · Canite tuba · 1590
- Bernat Vivancos · A Child is born · 2001
- Tomás Luis de Victoria · Alma Redemptoris Mater · 1581
- Krzysztof Penderecki · O gloriosa Virginum · 2009
- Mariusz Kramarz · Gdy śliczna Panna
- Philip Stopford · Lully, Lullay · 2008
- Arvo Pärt · Nunc dimittis · 2001
- Claudio Monteverdi · Cantate Domino · 1620
- Anonim / aranż. Brian Kay · Gaudete · XVI w.
Recording: Jakub Garbacz, Ars Sonora Studio. Reprise under the auspices of the Carpe Diem Foundation.
- II MMXXIV 12 voices and violin
The Call of the Mountains
Dworek Gościnny · Szczawnica
A programme for which the mountains were the breath. Sacred polyphony and folk songs from Poland, Corsica, France and the British Isles, with Radu Ropotan's violin.
The concert programme
- Bernat Vivancos · Le cri des bergers · 2004
- Anonim / tradycja Oksytanii · Salve Regina
- David MacIntyre · Ave Maria · 1994
- Polifonia korsykańska · Tantum ergo sacramentum · XVII w.
- Ēriks Ešenvalds · O salutaris hostia · 2005
- Henryk Mikołaj Górecki · Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus · 1986
- Ēriks Ešenvalds · Stars · 2011
- George Enescu · Ménétrier · 1940
- Claudio Monteverdi · Quel augellin che canta · 1603
- J. S. Bach · Preludium z Partity E-dur BWV 1006 · 1720
- Ralph Vaughan Williams · The Lark Ascending · oprac. P. Drayton · 1914 · rev. 1920
- Jacek Sykulski · Stoi lód na Prośnie · 2017
- Ken Steven · Dawn and Dusk · 2020
- III MMXXIV A cycle of psalms · 6–12 voices
Nine Leaves from the Book of Psalms
St Anthony's Basilica in Rybnik · Łódź Cathedral · Sacred Heart Basilica in Kraków
Nine psalms: penitence, lament, praise. Allegri's Miserere, divided into nine parts, is woven through the whole evening.
The concert programme
- Gregorio Allegri · Miserere mei, Deus · ok. 1638
- Orlando di Lasso · Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
- Anton Bruckner · Os justi, WAB 30 · 1879
- Charles Villiers Stanford · Beati quorum via, op. 38 nr 3 · 1905
- J. S. Bach · Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225 · ok. 1727
- Orlando Gibbons · O clap your hands · 1622
- Salomone Rossi · Barukh habba beshem Adonai · 1622/23
- Heinrich Schütz · Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt, SWV 36 · 1619
- Claudio Monteverdi · Cantate Domino · 1620
- Orlando Gibbons · Drop, drop, slow tears · 1623
- IV MMXXV A prayer for peace
Hymn to the Fallen
St Mary's Basilica in Kraków
A tribute to those who gave their lives defending Ukraine. At the climax, as the altarpiece of St Mary's Basilica was opened, the anthem of Ukraine sounded.
The concert programme
- J. S. Bach · Fantazja i fuga g-moll, BWV 542 · ok. 1720
- John Rutter · A Ukrainian Prayer · 2022
- Siergiej Rachmaninow · Ektenia Pokoju, op. 31 nr 1 · 1910
- Giovanni P. da Palestrina · Super flumina Babylonis · 1581
- Dieterich Buxtehude · Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder, BuxWV 178
- Arvo Pärt · The Deer's Cry · 2007
- Ēriks Ešenvalds · O salutaris hostia · 2005
- John Tavener · Song for Athene · 1993
- John Williams · Hymn to the Fallen · 1998
- Jean Sibelius · Be Still My Soul · hymn z Finlandii, op. 26 · 1899
- Gabriel Fauré · Pie Jesu · z Requiem op. 48 · 1887–90
- Edward Elgar · Lux aeterna (Nimrod) · oprac. J. Cameron · 1899
- Michał Piechnik · Impresja organowa na temat „Szcze ne wmerła Ukrajiny”
- Edward C. Bairstow · I sat down under his shadow · 1925
- V MMXXV An epitaph · 4, 8 and 12 voices
Aeternam — Epitaph for Gaza
Mistrzejowice · Niedzica
An evening for the people of Gaza. Vivancos's Aeternam, the two Taveners, the commendation of the victims to the Mother of God.
The concert programme
- Bernat Vivancos · Aeternam · 2014
- Mikołaj Zieleński · Vox in Rama · 1611
- Arvo Pärt · Da pacem Domine · 2004
- Ola Gjeilo · Serenity · 2010
- Hanna Havrylets · Prayer · Молитва до Пресвятої Богородиці
- Antonio Lotti · Crucifixus · przed 1717
- Caroline Shaw · and the swallow · 2017
- John Tavener · Mother of God, here I stand · 2003
- John Tavener · A Hymn to the Mother of God · 1985
- Rihards Dubra · O crux, ave
Partners: Łapsze Niżne Commune · Łapsze Niżne Cultural Centre · ZEW Niedzica · Dunajec Castle · ACN — Aid to the Church in Need. Media patrons: Gość Niedzielny · Radio Alex · Tygodnik Podhalański.
Let the music have a place of its own.
The largest cost of a concert is the singers' fees; then scores, sound, lighting and travel. That is what donations go to. You can also invite us to you: we sing concerts and liturgies, wedding Masses, anniversaries.
Transfer title: Darowizna na cele statutowe VoctFoundation
The silence sounds on.
Nuntius · Invitations
We will let you know about upcoming concerts.
One short letter before each concert: the place, the hour, the programme. Nothing else.