The IX Festival of Sacred Music and Folklore “Yule-2002” opens today in St. Petersburg.

Choirs of St. Petersburg and Leningradskaya Oblast will present different traditions of choral singing. The Petersburg professional tradition of church choral singing is presented by the Choir of St. Petersburg Theological Academy and Seminary and the Chanter Department. The opening of the festival will be held in the Concert Hall of St. Petersburg State University. This year concerts are also held in the Small Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonic named after Glinka, in the Big Petergof Palace, in the Russian Ethnographic Museum. Three of eight concerts are charity – inmates of Children's Homes and everybody who wishes can visit them. The final concert of the festival will be held on January 20, in the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.