This stunning CD of Russian religious music of 19th and 20th century is truly an example of why a cappella choral religious music are still being performed all over the world.
This is the first Kiev Chamber Choir CD and one of the first religious music CD released in Ukraine after USSR breakdown. Earlier it was impossibly to sing and record religious music in the communist and atheistic Soviet Union and unusual rendition of Sergey Rachmaninoff vesper "To Thee We Sing" (track #3) will remind us about those times. Kiev Chamber Choir sings this vesper without words. Yes, it was impossible to sing religious music in the communist Soviet Union, but it was possible to perform music by Rachmaninoff, ONLY without religious words. It was the times and thanks God they passed.
"The Kyiv chamber choir has only 20 singers, but what singers they are - big, marvelously focused voices, the kind that might easily hold their own on the opera stage but without the kind of operatic vibrato that can make an ensemble rattle, wrote Washington Post reviewer Joan Reinthaler following their performance at the George Mason Arts Center. "They can sing wonderfully clean unisons and the basses have low E's to die for," she added.
The Municipal Kyiv Chamber Choir was founded in December of 1990. Choir members include professional singers, graduates of conservatories and musical institutes throughout Ukraine.
The choir repertoire includes medieval, renaissance, baroque, praise and worship songs; classical, romantic and modern music.
The Kyiv camber choir major awards include:
Golden Diploma on the First Robert Schummann Competition in Zwikkau (Germany, 1992)
First Award at the Twelfth International Church Music Festival in Hajnуwka (Poland, 1993)
Grand Prix at the Sixth International Choral Festival in Sligo (Ireland, 1993)
Second Award at Langolen International Musical Eisteddfod (Wales, 1994)
Grand Prix at the XX International Church Music Festival in Hajnуwka (Poland, 1996, 2001)
The Kyiv camber choir has performed at:
I International Avant-garde Festival in Munich (Germany, 1993)
Festival of Classical Music in Rouen (France, 1994)
Cricklade Music Festival in Canterbury (England, 1995)
"Copenhagen Is a Cultural Capital of Europe'96'' Festival (Denmark, 1996)
32nd "Wratislavia Cantans'97" Festival of Music and Arts (Wroсław, 1997)
Days of Ukrainian culture in France (1999)
Osterfestival, Innsbruck (Austria, 2000)
Ecumenical divine service, Rome (Italy, 2000)
Days of Ukrainian culture in Poland (Sopot, 2000)
Expo 2000, Hanover (Germany, 2000)
International Congress "St. Luke Evangelist", Padova (Italy, 2000)
Days of Ukrainian culture in Germany (Berlin, Bonn, 2000)
Choir festival "Gold Domed Kyiv" (Ukraine, 1997-2003)
The Kyiv camber choir performed in Carnegie Hall (New York), the Washington National Cathedral, the Concert Hall of George Mason University; BBC St. John's Smith Square Concert Hall (London); Espace Pierre Cardin, Eglise Saint Roch (Paris); Notre Dame de Paris and Cathedrals in Rouen, Reims, Amien, Strasbourg, Charte, Nancy, Le Havre, Lille, Dieppe, Metz, Paris; in the Philharmonic Halls of Utrecht, Rotterdam, Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Berlin, Minsk, Kyiv; Berlin Dom; Long Gallery (Kilkenny); Tivoli Concert Hal, Marmorkirke and Domkirke (Kшbenhavn); opera theatres in Minsk and Kyiv; and the "Russia" Concert Hall (Moscow).
Reviews of Kyiv camber choir performances have appeared in "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "The Glasgow News", "Normlandie", "Nouvelles d'Alsacie", "Der Tages Spiegel Berlin", "Mьnchner Merkur", "Kristeligt Dagblad" (Denmark), "Holos Ukrainy"...
Concerts have been recorded and broadcasted at ВВС Radio-3 in Great Britain, "World BBC", Bavarian, Bremen, Kohln, Berlin, Norman, Polish, Danish radio from Tivoli Concert Hall to Sweden, Finland, Denmark; Ukrainian National
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