Yale Russian Chorus

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Yale Russian Chorus
YRC Moscow 2019-30.jpg
Members of the Yale Russian Chorus in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral during its 2019 Russia tour.
Background information
Origin Yale University
Genres Choral
Years active1953–present
Members
  • Daniel Fried, Music Director
  • Abraham Payne, President
  • Andrey Sokolov, Business Manager
Website http://yalerussianchorus.org

The Yale Russian Chorus is a tenor-bass choral ensemble at Yale University, established in 1953 by Denis Mickiewicz, a student at the Yale Music School, and George Litton, president of the Yale Russian Club. [1] The group sings a variety of secular and sacred Slavic choral pieces (and non-Slavic pieces from the former USSR and neighboring regions), from the 12th century onward, including folk songs of Russia and Eastern Europe. The current musical director is Daniel Fried.

Contents

The YRC was the first American group to visit the Soviet Union as a private initiative, touring the country in 1958 following the signing of the Lacy-Zarubin Agreement on cultural exchange. [2] The YRC made 16 tours to the USSR before the union dissolved in 1991. The ensemble tours domestically every spring.

The chorus rehearses for two and a half hours every week, holds concerts in and around New Haven throughout the academic year, and goes on an annual spring tour. Although the majority of its members are Yale undergraduate students, auditions are open to the entire New Haven community. As a tenor-bass chorus, membership is primarily male, but the chorus has also admitted women to sing in the tenor section.

The chorus has performed at many venues in Russia and Ukraine, and also many places in the United States, most notably: [3]

The Alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus have formed a performing group in their own right to preserve the Mickiewicz tradition and presented a 60th Anniversary concert at Yale in November 2013. In November 2014 the Alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus performed at Rockport Music in Rockport, Massachusetts, at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in a shared performance with the Yale Slavic Chorus. [5] The Yale Russian Chorus Alumni sang a full-length concert in April 2015 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, on the UPenn campus. [6] [7] Musical examples from a YRC alumni concert at Duke University in November 2009 include Akh ty step shirokaya (Ах, ты степь широкая) ("O thou steppe so wide"), Blazhen Muzh (Блажен муж) ("Blessed is the man"), Borodino (Бородино) ("Borodino" [a poem by M.Yu.Lermontov commemorating the battle against Napoleon's armies in the village outside Moscow]), Kas Tie Tadi (Who Are They), and Zhilo dvenadtsat razboinikov (Жило двенадцать разбойников) ("There were 12 robbers").

In 1978, following the YRC's 25th anniversary concert in Carnegie Hall, alumni Paul Andrews, John McCarthy, and Peter Gleick volunteered to help organize concerts for the group in the San Francisco Bay Area. This led to the founding of Slavyanka in 1979. [8]

Foreign tours

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References

  1. "Welcome to the Alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus" . Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  2. Scherer, Barrymore L. "The Yale Russian Chorus, Diplomats of Song." The Wall Street Journal 23 Oct. 2003 <http://www.yrcalums.org/2003_Wall_St_Journal.pdf>
  3. "The History of the Yale Russian Chorus" . Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-21. Retrieved 2014-10-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Recent Concerts and Events for the Alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus" . Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  6. "Welcome to the Alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus" . Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  7. "Yale Russian Chorus - 60th Anniversary" . Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  8. "Our Beginning 1979 to 1993". Slavyanka Homepage.