It is not easy to combine fame and applause with a hieromonk's cassock. But Vitaly Mochalov is evidence that this is possible. A pleasant melodic voice made him popular throughout Russia.
Biography
Vitaly was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1985. His parents have nothing to do with religion. His father worked as a welder, and his mother raised him and his younger brother. Father Fotiy reluctantly recalls his school years, he was not very popular among his peers, he often clashed. As he himself says, in many ways he differed from the noisy and mischievous classmates.
The outlet was music. From early childhood, he attended a music school with pleasure, and there, on the contrary, he had good relations with friends. He played the piano, sang at school events and in the choir. As an adult, I saw myself as a composer.
After school, he went to study at a music school with a degree in music theory. After the first year of study, he emigrated to Germany with his family. But even there he developed as a musician and singer. He learned to play the organ and even earned his living doing it. He played at services in Catholic and Protestant churches.
Monasticism
He attended church willingly, and the feeling of grace during the divine services prompted him to enter the monastery. He approached the choice of the future monastery responsibly, and he fell on the Borovsky Monastery in the Kaluga region.
He entered the monastery in 2010. The guy took the tonsure, took the name Savvaty, became a monk. A year later he received the rank of hierodeacon, and a year later he received a new name - Photius. Since 2013 - the rank of hieromonk.
Music
The love of music did not leave him even within the walls of the monastery. On the contrary, he revealed his potential in a new way. Attending the lessons of Viktor Tvardovsky, a well-known vocal teacher in Russia, he was able to tune his voice. Then the hieromonk studied independently according to the method of a well-known teacher.
Already in 2013, Vitaly Mochalov decided to take part in the Voice talent show. After submitting an application, he was invited to take part in the second season of the TV project. But the guy did not dare to ask for the Metropolitan's blessing and refused to participate in the popular show.
In 2015, he sent the application again and again received an invitation. The editors of Channel One wrote to the metropolitan with a request to release the monk to participate in the competition. He gave permission, and the guy went to Moscow.
Voice-4
The clergy had never taken part in this project before. Fotiy was a debutant and at a blind audition he performed the composition - "Lensky's Aria". The guy got into the team of Grigory Leps, although he expected to get to Alexander Gradsky.
Despite the non-standard occupation of the contestant, the jury members reacted very favorably to him. He confidently passed all the steps of the competition and reached the final. During the show, he carefully chose the repertoire, sang Russian romances, classical compositions and foreign hits.
In the final, he performed the song "Per te" and won this competition. Photius is grateful for the support of his mentors in the monastery - Father Vlasy and Metropolitan Borovkiy and Kaluga, as well as all his brothers in the monastery.
Even the All-Russian Patriarch Kirill congratulated the hieromonk and reminded him of his duties as a monk. Photius received a lot of votes from the audience and some argue that it was this "holiness" and spiritual cassock that led him to victory. Therefore, some are waiting for the hieromonk to begin a "star disease" and he will change for the worse.
Personal life
Service in the church and spiritual life - this is the personal life of any clergyman. His comrades in the monastery claim that Photius is a monk with a strong spirit.
Another page of his biography is the call to the army, but due to vision problems, he did not pass the medical examination. Now after the operation, Vitaly no longer wears glasses.
Interests and hobbies
In addition to music, Vitaly is fond of foreign languages, publishing, photography and video editing. A good sense of humor and closeness to ordinary people make him so popular.
prospects
In early 2016, the singer's fans learned that the clergy were against his musical career. This issue was indeed decided by the higher clergy. The clergy were worried about the popularity of Photius and the considerable capital that he managed to earn with music.
Patriarch Kirill himself was able to solve the problem, who allowed Fotiy Mochalov to sing, as this attracts attention and popularizes the Orthodox Church, making it closer to ordinary people.
Social media
Fotiy Mochalov has a personal page in Odnoklassniki - https://ok.ru/profile/586708815916. Here he has not posted photos and posts for a long time.
Fotiy Mochalov in Vkontakte - https://vk.com/limai. On the wall you can see fresh photos and a poster of his solo concert. Here he has almost 10 thousand friends and 6 thousand subscribers.
Photius also has in VKontakte official group - https://vk.com/fotij. 18 thousand participants watch events from his work and life.
Hieromonk's Twitter - https://twitter.com/photymochalov. Here he uploads the latest photos from his life.
Fotiy Mochalov also has Facebook personal page - https://www.facebook.com/Hieromonk-Fotiy-Vitaly-Mochalov-930265530384654/. The singer does not show much activity here.
Fotiy Mochalov On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/photymochalov/- also uploads photos from travels, life and from concerts. Here he is followed by 30 thousand readers.
Hieromonk Photius regularly tours the cities of Russia, and his last performance, on June 7 in Moscow, testifies to great success and popularity.
Member Name: Vitaly Mochalov
Age (birthday): 1.01.1987
Job: priest, resident (inhabitant) of St. Pafnutiev Borovsky Monastery, hieromonk
Family: single, no children
Mentor: Grigory Leps
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Reading this article:
Vitaly Mochalov has been studying music since his school years. He attended school in vocal and piano playing, sang in the choir from the school, was a soloist.
From an early age, he dreamed of becoming a composer, writing music and songs. At that moment, when his voice “broke down” in adolescence, he began to attend church school, where he immediately became a member of the church choir.
After completing 9 classes of secondary school, he went to study at a music school at the department of musical theory. But he studied there for only a year, because, together with his family, he had to move to a permanent place of residence in the city of Kaiserslautern (Germany). But even in a foreign country, he continued to study music, learning to play the organ.
Three years later he returned to Russia, where he entered the service of a monastery. He took tonsure and became Hieromonk Photius. But he still remained indifferent to music.
Fotiy studied with Viktor Tvardovsky, he took his author's course and was able to tune his voice.
As for his personal life, Photius serves in the church every day.. His associates claim that he has a very complex character.
While in the monastery, he had to make a decision about serving in the army. Fotiy decided to go to the service, but this did not happen, since he has problems with his eyesight.
He is fluent in English and German. Performs songs in Italian, Serbian, Georgian, Japanese.
He noted that he came to the show to pass a special test for himself, however, the mentors did not quite understand what to do with the hieromonk if he won.
Grigory Leps turned out to be right when he turned to Photius, he chose him for his team and led him to victory. Fotiy admitted that he initially wanted to go to Gradsky, since he is closer to academic performance.
Hieromonk Fotiy did not sing jazz, rock, fast compositions at the project. Despite this, he managed to gain a large number of audience votes.
Photos from Photius
Fotiy constantly uploads photos from tours and travels. Photographed with fans and their gifts. Often takes selfies.
The secret is that Fotiy Mochalov, whose Periscope often hits the top, became a member of an absolutely mundane TV project - the musical show "Voice". And what's more, he won. This quite shocked the public.
In general, the hieromonk is a very talented person. He not only sings well and is the regent of the monastery choir, but also does layout work at the church publishing house, has proven himself in computer design, video editing, photography, and broadcasts on Periscope. He is fluent in foreign languages.
Father online: Fotij Mochalov
Periscope is an actively developing social network. And this modern priest simply could not get around it. After all, live video broadcasts are a great way to communicate with fans and parishioners. The fact that the page is really popular is confirmed not only by requests like “Hieromonk Photius in Periscope, watch all issues”, but also by the number of subscribers and hearts. The hieromonk already has about 8 thousand subscribers, which is more than many show business figures who do not shun the most ugly and immoral PR. Often getting into the top "Periscope", Fotiy Molchanov, however, is always modest and restrained on video. This behavior appeals to adequate viewers: all videos, including the last one, together have already scored almost 800 thousand hearts.
You can watch “Periscope” by Father Photius both from a smartphone and on a computer (read more detailed instructions on our website). Through the search in the application, you can find the channel by entering the nickname - photy. Direct link for PC owners: www-periscope-tv/photy (dots should be used instead of hyphens).
What is the hieromonk talking about?
The priest manifests himself in broadcasts as a versatile person. Still, he is an artist. That is why he talks about his future concerts, performances, shares his impressions of the past. For example, about how emotions remained with him after a performance in Perm. On his channel, you can watch online videos from the bed with chatter on various questions, and quite serious broadcasts with answers from Father Photius to questions from people interested in religion.
Periscope pages of popular people almost always contain interesting content. They allow you to look at the life of stars from the other side. You can read about many of these accounts on the pro-periscope-ru website.
Account: photymochalov
Occupation: priest, musician
Despite his dignity, Fotiy Mochalov leads Instagram regularly, posting photos of everything that delights him.
Photiy Mochalov's Instagram is characterized by restraint and simplicity, in which the soul of a clergyman is revealed.
He uploads his photos in everyday life, on trips and at performances. In all the photos, Fotiy looks very calm and serious, as befits a person with his family.
activities.
There are in his account and posters of his future performances, photos from concerts and rehearsals.
The clergyman also shares photos from meetings with famous people as part of participation in various TV shows, meetings with charitable foundations, etc.
But still, most of the account is occupied by photos of the nature of Russia and other countries that the priest managed to visit. Among them are often landscapes with churches and temples, fields and flowers.
Fotiy Mochalov, whose Instagram photo is very pacifying, does not always sign the photo, but sometimes uses emoticons.
Biography of Photius Mochalova
It is worth noting that Fotiy Mochalov whose biography has become very interesting in the light of recent events, grew up in a non-religious family. The desire to connect his life with religion came later.
Fotiy Mochalov was born in 1985 in Nizhny Novgorod. It should be noted that in the world his name sounds like Vitaly.
Since childhood, the boy dreamed of becoming a composer, was fond of music, played the piano. After school, Fotiy entered a music school.
- 2001 - interrupted his studies at the school, as he moved with his parents to Germany, where he played the organ at services in cathedrals, gave concerts.
- 2005 - returned to Russia, deciding to devote himself to the monastic life. He continued to develop his voice under the guidance of experienced mentors.
- 2010 - took monastic vows.
- 2013 - received the rank of hieromonk. Then he decided to take part in the show "Voice", but did not apply for a blessing to participate.
- 2015 - applied again, after which the First Channel itself asked permission from the Metropolitan for Fr. Photius to participate in the competition. The priest won the competition and received numerous congratulations.
- 2016 - it became known that the hierarchy did not allow Father Photius to continue his official concert activity.
The biography of Photius Mochalov is very unusual, since this person combined the strict life of a monk and a worldly performance at the competition. At first glance, this seems impossible and even strange, but Fotiy proved the opposite by winning the competition.
Hieromonk Fotiy - organizing a concert, ordering artists on the official website of the agency. To organize performances, tours, invitations to corporate holidays, call +7-499-343-53-23, +7-964-647-20-40
Welcome to the official website of the agent of Hieromonk Photius, a priest who became famous for his victory in the fourth season of the musical project "Voice". The tenor, who before his tonsure bore the name Vitaly Mochalov, was born on November 11, 1985 in Nizhny Novgorod. The future monk studied piano and vocals at the city music school. As a child, Vitaly sang in the school and church choir, dreamed of being a professional composer.
Creative achievements
At the age of 15, the guy entered the Nizhny Novgorod Music College, but studied there for only a year, as he moved to Germany with his family. Living in Kaiserslautern, Mochalov continued to study music: he sang, mastered playing the organ. At the age of 20, the young man decided to become an Orthodox priest. To this end, in the middle of the 2000s, he returned to Russia. The place of service of Vitaly was the St. Pafnutiev Borovsky Monastery, located in the Kaluga region.
After the tonsure, the servant of the monastery was named Photius. Despite the rejection of everything worldly, the order for music lessons did not disappear in the life of a monk. For some time, the priest was taught vocal skills by Viktor Tvardovsky, a Moscow teacher and soloist of opera houses. Further, Fotiy continued to study on his own, adopting the unique methodology of the former teacher. Over time, he became the best monastic chorister, and then the regent (leader) of the church choir.
In September 2015, Hieromonk Photius made his first appearance on television as part of the Voice program. The question of the participation of the priest in the show was controversial, but in the end the church organization gave the go-ahead. At the blind audition, the monk performed an excerpt from the opera "Eugene Onegin" (Lensky's aria) and got into the team of producer Grigory Leps. In the final of the musical competition, three-quarters of the viewers voted for Fotiy. Thus, the hieromonk became the winner of the Voice-4 project. Patriarch Kirill himself called the result of the participation of an Orthodox priest in the competition positive.
Nowadays
At the beginning of 2016, all the finalists of the project took part in the All-Russian tour. Fotiy also received a blessing for touring. The first concert with the participation of the hieromonk took place on February 21 in Krasnodar. Now Vitaly Mochalov performs a lot, giving the proceeds to the construction of temples. More information about the work of Hieromonk Photius can be found on his official website.
Hieromonk Fotiy ordering concerts, contacts, organization of performances by artists. Invite a star to a wedding, corporate party, anniversary - you can contact us by phone in Moscow +7-499-343-53-23, +7-964-647-20-40, on the official website of the agent, write to the mail, in contacts menu.
