Moscow Boys Choir |

Moscow Boys Choir

The Moscow Boys’ Choir was founded in 1957 by Vadim Sudakov with the participation of teachers and musicians from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. From 1972 to 2002 Ninel Kamburg led the chapel. From 2002 to 2011, her student, Leonid Baklushin, led the chapel. The current artistic director is Victoria Smirnova.

Today, the chapel is one of the few children’s musical groups in Russia that trains boys aged 6 to 14 in the best traditions of Russian classical choral art.

The chapel team is a laureate and diploma winner of many prestigious international and domestic festivals and competitions. Soloists of the chapel took part in productions of operas: Carmen by Bizet, La bohème by Puccini, Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky, Boyar Morozova by Shchedrin, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The ensemble’s repertoire includes more than 100 works of Russian, American and European classics, works by contemporary Russian composers, sacred music, and Russian folk songs.

The boys’ chapel has repeatedly participated in the performance of such major musical works as: J. S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, W. A. ​​Mozart’s Requiem (as revised by R. Levin and F. Süssmeier), L. van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, “Little Solemn mass” by G. Rossini, Requiem by G. Fauré, Stabat Mater by G. Pergolesi, Symphony XNUMX by G. Mahler, Symphony of Psalms by I. Stravinsky, “Hymns of Love” from the Scandinavian Triad by K. Nielsen and others.

For half a century, the choir has gained a reputation as a highly professional team both in Russia and abroad. The choir has toured in Belgium, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Poland, France, South Korea, and Japan. In 1985, the chapel performed before the members of the Royal Family of Great Britain in London’s Albert Hall, in 1999 – in the White House in front of the US President with a Christmas concert and was awarded an audience.

The program “Christmas around the World”, which since 1993 has been performed annually in the American states on the eve of Christmas, has gained the greatest fame and popularity.

Source: Moscow Philharmonic website