Slavyanka Chorus: "Russia's Choral Treasures", October 4 at 2 PM in Wellesley

On Sunday, October 4th, San Francisco’s acclaimed Slavyanka Chorus presents “Russia’s Choral Treasures” – an a cappella concert of Russian choral music. The concert takes place at 2 PM at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 79 Denton Road, Wellesley. The program draws on the many rich traditions of Russian choral music, much of it unknown in the West, including ancient religious chants and liturgical and classical music by many of the great Russian composers including Bortniansky, Tchaikovsky, Chesnokov, Archangelsky, Rachmaninov, Taneev, and Sviridov. A special feature of the concert will be a wide variety of traditional music for men’s choir, including Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Macedonian, Georgian, Armenian and Cossack songs. This concert is part of ArtWeek Boston, an award-winning creative festival for all.

For this concert, Slavyanka Men’s Chorus is joined by Slavyanka Women Singers and alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus. Soloists include Elena Gurevich, soprano; Don Reinhardt and Tom Warrington, tenors; and Alexander Prokhorov and Paul Tavernier, bass. The ensemble is led by Irina Shachneva, Artistic Director and Conductor, and Paul Andrews, Assistant Conductor, with assistance from Olga France, Choirmaster.

Tickets for this concert are $18 in advance through Slavyanka and $20 at the door on the day of the concert. Students 16 years of age and younger admitted FREE (ticket required). For further information, please visit Slavyanka’s web pages.

Based in San Francisco, Slavyanka is an internationally recognized a cappella chorus specializing in Russian and Eastern European choral music. It takes its name from the old Russian name for Northern California’s Russian River. The chorus was formed in 1979 by a group of former Yale Russian Chorus members and others interested in singing Russian music. For 34 years, the Chorus was composed only of male singers who were joined on occasion by female soloists and women’s ensembles. In 2013, however, the Slavyanka family officially expanded into one choir comprising male and female singers. While several performance pieces are still men-only, the inclusion of women’s voices in Slavyanka allows the chorus to now explore a far wider range of repertoire. In addition to its extensive repertoire of Russian historical and liturgical music, Slavyanka has also premiered works of contemporary Russian composers. Slavyanka toured the former Soviet Union and Russia in 1986, 1989, and 1999, and was the first American chorus ever invited to sing in Leningrad’s (now St. Petersburg’s) historic M.I. Glinka Kapella Hall. During Slavyanka’s second tour the chorus performed sold-out concerts in Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, and Vladimir. The group also participated in a wide variety of “people to people” and “choral exchange” concerts with choruses from the Soviet Union, and performed for then-President Mikhail Gorbachev in San Francisco in 1990.

Slavyanka’s Artistic Director Irina Shachneva has been a conductor, teacher, performer and manager for 30 years, and has led Slavyanka since June 2012. She founded and was the first Artistic Director of the Municipal Choral School, Rhapsodie, which has since become one of the largest children’s choral music schools in greater Moscow. Shachneva toured with her choirs in France, Bulgaria, Poland and Russia, and recorded a CD with them. After coming to the United States, she studied conducting with Tamara Brooks at the New England Conservatory of Music. Shachneva established the Boston Russian Chorus, and has been a guest conductor of the New England Conservatory Chorus, the Jordan Hall Festival Chorus, and the Plymouth Festival Chorus. In 2010, Shachneva founded and became the Artistic Director of the International Rachmaninoff Russian Music Festival in Boston. Its success led to a prestigious invitation to Russia, where she led the Festival Choir at an International Choral Festival celebrating the 450th anniversary of St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square. In 2012 she also led the Second International Rachmaninoff Russian Music Festival in Boston. She became Slavyanka’s artistic director in June 2012, and programmed and conducted the Bay Area’s first International Russian Choral Music Festival in 2014.