Tomasz Szewerowski (1646/1647?–1699). Vesperae

Tomasz Szewerowski was a theologian, graduate of Vilinius Academy. A singer and composer, conductor of the Kiev Uniate metropolitan bishop Cyprian Żochowski’s vocal-instrumental ensemble, was also one of the founders of the Eastern rite school of sacred music composition in Vilnius. In 1693 he joined the Basilian monks in Vilnius, then he worked in Połock as a regens chori and superior in Biała Podlaska, where he taught singing to Prince Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł’s French musicians. Already in his lifetime, he was well-known in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s eastern territories as an outstanding musician, whose works were listened to by both members of the Polish Parliament and the Polish kings. Szewerowski’s only piece known to us to have survived in complete form is the eight-part Vechernya (Vespers) stored in the State Historical Museum in Moscow.

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