Sister Marie Keyrouz was born in Deir-El-Ahmar, not far from the old Roman town of Baalbek (Lebanon). She is a member of the Congregation of Basilian Sisters and founder and president of the Institute of Sacred Chant in Paris. She has written many studies in musicology and religious anthropology for the University of the Sorbonne.

She has the Diploma of Advanced Studies in Religious Science from Saint Joseph's University, Beirut, and has specialised in Western and Eastern classical chant at the University of the Holy Spirit, Kaslik.

A born musician and a committed believer, her aim is to harmonise musical and religious art. As a member of the Maronite and Melchite congregations originating from the Lebanon and Syria, she is fully identified with the great artistic traditions of the Eastern churches. As a Lebanese from the Mediterranean, she is able to bring the music of the Middle East closer to Western classical music. As a nun, musicologist, anthropologist and singer, she can blend art, academic knowledge, creativity and authenticity.

Her vocation for music has led her to study and sing original, authentic works from all periods from the first Christian psalms to Maronite, Syrian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Byzantine and Melchite chants.

She places her voice and her entire being and art at the service of the Divine Word and her religious mission. Never has this kind of communication between religions had such unprecedented success, as can be experienced by listening to the discs she has recorded. Her music has led her to give recitals the world over as a messenger of peace, a light of sacred music, a mysterious voice of the East.

Sister Keyrouz gives frequent concerts with her group Ensemble la Paix, whose name perfectly expresses her desire for tolerance, universality and ecumenicism.

The Ensemble La Paix came into being at a time (1984) when the Lebanon was being smashed by bombardment and there was a great need for peace. Sister Marie Keyrouz was living in Beirut at the time, and dreamt of doing something to prevent the disintegration of her country as a result of a war erroneously defined as "religious". She wished to help people to rise above intolerance, degradation of culture and oblivion of what is holy.

She appealed to her compatriots of all beliefs and denominations to come together under the aegis of sacred music. In this way the Ensemble La Paix came into being, and three years later the group included musicians from all the countries and religions of the Near and Middle East, united by the common wish to perform sacred music.

Musicians and musicologists, composers or professional artists, each instrumentalist or singer (voice, oriental cittern, flute, kaman, nay, etc.) has a privileged place within the ensemble and is an outstanding collaborator of Sister Keyrouz, whether taking part in the accompaniment or participating in the improvisations.

The ensemble travels the world over performing a capella repertoire and works accompanied by a group of 40 singers and musicians.

Songs of the Eastern churches Sebastià Janeras, Dr en ciències eclesiàstiques orientals pel Pontificio Orientale, de Roma

Under this title, Sister Marie Keyrouz's concert offers a number of liturgical songs from the Maronite and Melkite churches. They reflect her own experience, as a Maronite by birth and a Melkite through the religious order to which she belongs.

The Maronite church The Maronite church takes its name from Saint Maron, a monk who lived as a hermit near Apamea in Syria, beside the Orontes River, and who died around 410 AD. Saint John Chrysostom (d. 407) had probably met him, when he himself was living a monastic life in the mountains near Antioch. In 404, from his exile in Cappadocia, he wrote to one "Maron, prelate and solitary man". By the year 440 there may have already been a sanctuary in his honour, if we are to believe the words of Theodoret of Cyrrhus (d. around 466).

Of Syriac language and tradition, the Maronites accepted the Council of Chalcedon (451), thereby embarking upon broad discussions and controversy with the Jacobite Syriacs, who had rejected the council. In the 7th century, in arguments over whether one or two wills were combined in Christ, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius published (in 638) a document called Ekthesis, with Monophysitic leanings, which aimed to find an intermediate path that could be accepted by Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians alike; this document was widely disseminated and was also accepted by the Maronites. The Third Council of Constantinople (Sixth Ecumenical Council), from the years 680-691) condemned the doctrine of Monothelism (a single will in Christ). Due to political reasons, however, no bishop from the Syriac regions attended the council, so the Maronites retained the doctrine emerging from Heraclius' document, all the more so in that they saw in the opposing doctrine (two wills in Christ) a danger of Nestorianism. That is why they have often been called "Monothelites". With a patriarch of their own, holding the seat of Antioch, from the 8th century they took refuge in the Lebanese mountains due to persecution from the Abbassides, and were only heard of again in the era of the Crusades.

The Maronite church has always been linked with Rome, and has no non-Catholic or Orthodox counterpart. It is deeply rooted in Lebanon, where it is not only the Christian church with most believers (some 3,300,000) but also the majority religion alongside Islam. The current patriarch is S.B. Nasrallah Sfeir, who is based in Bkirki, in the Lebanon.

The Melkite church The term "Melkite" was applied in the 6th century to Christians faithful to the Council of Chalcedon (451), which had condemned the Monophysitic beliefs of those Christians who did not accept the Council and had organised themselves into an independent church around the seats of Antioch (the Orthodox Syriacs or Jacobites) and Alexandria (the Copts). Rejecting the Council, they also rejected Byzantine domination and emphasised their own cultural and linguistic character (Syriac or Coptic). The Chalcedonians were derisively termed by them "Melkites" or "imperialists" (from the Syriac word malko, "king" or "emperor"), or followers of the Byzantine emperor, the symbol of Chalcedonian orthodoxy. These Melkite Christians also adopted the Byzantine rites, at first in Syriac, later in Greek, and finally to a large extent in Arabic.
At present, however, the term "Melkite" specifically designates the Catholic branch of that church, which arose out of a split over choice of a patriarch in 1724. From that time on there has existed a Catholic Melkite church, which today plays a leading role in ecumenical relations with the Orthodox church of the Middle East or Greek Orthodox church. The Catholic Melkite church has some two million faithful. Its patriarch is S. B. Gregory III (Lutfi Laham), who has the title of Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem, and has the seat in Damascus. The Greek Orthodox church has seven million faithful. Its patriarch is S. B. Ignatius IV Hazim, who has the title of Patriarch of Antioch and of all the East and also has the seat in Damascus. Both churches - Catholic and Greek Orthodox Melkite - share the same liturgy.

Maronite songs Syriac is a Semitic language belonging to the eastern branch of Aramaic, which it much resembles, to the extent that it may be said to have been the language spoken by Jesus Christ. Having become a dead and sacred language, due to the absolute ascendancy of Arabic, it has nevertheless survived as a language, called neo-Aramaic or neo-Syriac, in certain parts of Syria, Iraq and what is now southern Turkey, formerly the territories of Syria and Mesopotamia.
The Maronite liturgy belongs to the Antiochian branch and is very similar to the Syro-Antiochian liturgy, though with some traits of its own. It uses the Syriac language, and both the Syro-Antiochian liturgy and the Syro-Eastern or Chaldean liturgy, though over the course of the centuries the Maronite church has gradually adopted Arabic, the language of the people, while not entirely forsaking Syriac. In this concert there are some liturgical songs from the Good Friday services (no. 5), sung in Syriac, while others come from the Christmas services (no. 1) and are sung in Arabic, in translation from the original Syriac.

Melkite songs The Melkite church is a Byzantine-rite church, as is the Russian and other churches. The original language was Greek, which the Melkites then translated into Arabic, just as the Slavs translated it into ancient Slavic. From that tradition, the concert contains two liturgical songs. The first (no. 3) is the song to the Mother of God which is sung within the eucharistic prayer (anaphora), at the moment of commemoration of the Mother of God and the saints. More specifically, this comes from the Liturgy of Saint Basil, celebrated on Sundays in Lent and on some other occasions, while in the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, frequently used, the song to the Mother of God is different. In the second case (no. 7) we have the ninth ode (pertaining to the Magnificat) of the Easter orthros mass, which is also sung in the Divine Liturgy over the Easter period instead of the usual hymn to the Mother of God.

Christian-Arab songs In addition to these strictly liturgical songs, of Syriac (Maronite) or Greek (Melkitic Byzantine) origin, the concert presents four pieces which are poems in Arabic, with words by Raouad Tarabay and music by Ousama Hantira (no. 2), words by Nadim Kayrouz and music by Sister Marie Keyrouz (no. 4), words by Michel Geha and music by Zaki Nassif (no. 6) and words by Michel Geha and music by Sister Marie Keyrouz (no. 8).

This concert thus offers a very rich variety of "songs of the Eastern churches", and particularly those of the Antiochian tradition, itself multi-facetted and varied.