An event dedicated to the 1700th anniversary of the declaration of Christianity as the state religion of Georgia and to the memory of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia, Ilia II, was held at the Vocational Education Centre of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. The event was attended by TSU Vice-Rector Kakhaber Cheishvili, Head of the TSU Quality Assurance Service Shota Potolashvili, Director of the Vocational Education Centre Levan Tsikaridze, program coordinators, teachers and students.

As part of the event, Nino Gogiashvili, Registry Manager at the TSU Vocational Education Centre and a doctoral candidate in Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, delivered a public lecture entitled Georgian Chant as a Realm of Memory. The lecture was dedicated to Georgian chant as an important realm of national and spiritual memory. Nino Gogiashvili spoke about the significance of Georgian chant in preserving national identity and cultural heritage, as well as the process of its revival at the end of the twentieth century, particularly during the period following the enthronement of Ilia II. The lecture placed special emphasis on the contributions of the custodians of Georgian chant, among whom Philimon Koridze and Ekvtime Kereselidze hold a particularly distinguished place.

The event was accompanied by a musical performance by the ensemble Ialoni, which presented examples of Georgian liturgical chants and traditional music, giving the audience an opportunity to engage directly with the living heritage that the guardians of Georgian chant have preserved for future generations.

The evening also featured the presentation of the book “Grandmother, I Am Writing a Letter to You” by Nino Naneishvili, the director of the ensemble “Ialoni.” The publication brings together themes of family memory, intergenerational connections and the transmission of traditions.

The event, organized by the TSU Vocational Education Centre, aimed to promote an understanding of Georgian chant as a unique form of cultural memory and to highlight the contributions of those individuals who preserved this tradition and passed it on to future generations.