The Patmos Sacred Music Festival
Patmos's annual festival of sacred and classical music — organised by the Municipality of Patmos with the Associazione Patmos Chamber Music Festival — ran its 23rd edition from 1 to 7 September 2025, opening with MusicAeterna Byzantina and closing with the National Chamber Choir of Armenia performing Komitas's Patarag.
The Patmos Sacred Music Festival is an annual festival of sacred and classical music held on Patmos in the Dodecanese, organised by the Municipality of Patmos with the Associazione Patmos Chamber Music Festival, under artistic director Roberto Prosseda and executive director Massimo Fino. The Patriarchal Exarchate of Patmos and the Monastery of St John the Theologian have been associated with the festival since its founding. The 23rd edition ran from 1 to 7 September 2025.
MusicAeterna Byzantina — the Byzantine choir founded by Teodor Currentzis — opened on 1 September with a programme honouring the Apostle John. The National Chamber Choir of Armenia closed on 7 September with the Patarag, the Armenian liturgy set by Komitas. The programme between those two concerts included Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps, Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria performed by soprano Eleni-Lydia Stamellou. The cellist Steven Isserlis also appeared during the week.
The 2025 concerts took place in the school hall of Skala at 9 o’clock in the evening. The festival’s customary stage is the open-air amphitheatre at the Cave of the Apocalypse. The 22nd edition, in September 2024, played at the Cave of the Apocalypse under the auspices of UNESCO, marking twenty-five years of the island’s World Heritage inscription. Entry to every concert was free by reservation.