John Graham Tours Information

John Graham Tours is a small company, built over the past twelve years on the idea that cultural travel can and should involve meaningful contact with local people, remain current on the ways that tourism can positively and negatively impact local natural environments and economies, and above all provide genuine and extraordinary experiences for our tour participants. This is a family style operation. Everyone gets to know John's family, and many participants return for subsequent trips, and/or maintain long term friendships with the Graham-Diasamidze family. The inclusion of traditional polyphony in our itinerary programming makes our tours unique. Originally, we called the company Georgian Chant Tours precisely because of the emphasis on experiencing liturgical churches and monasteries by sounding the acoustics of the space. John's co-leaders are always excellent musicians. In each monastery church and cathedral that we visit, the sounds of medieval Georgian polyphonic singing resonate through the stone colonnades and soaring apses as visitors reflect on the fading frescoes. Later, finding our places around a typical Georgian banquet table laden with dishes like grilled lamb in tomato sauce, fresh baked bread with a layer of melted salty cheese inside, and grilled aubergine with walnut and garlic sauce, the guests hear the kinds of folk songs sung in the region that we're visiting with texts: "May God glorify our meeting today, blessing the hosts, and blessing the guests!" * * * * * John Graham holds a PhD in historical musicology from Princeton University, where his dissertation became the first major international study of the audio and written sources for Georgian liturgical chant. He has lectured at numerous conferences around the globe, and recently held a one-year fellowship at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music where he was also appointed as a lecturer in the Yale Music Department.