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Male choir of the “Valaam” Institute of Choral Arts

(before 1994 the choir of the St. Petersburg office of the Valaam Monastery)

The choir sings several songs and hymns from museum’s scope quite well. This small corner of the choir repertoire is fully represented in the museum. Most of these songs are available in two slightly different versions recorded in different years.
Records available here as MP3 256—320 kbps.

  Male choir of the "Valaam" Institute of Choral Arts. Photograph taken in the Georgievsky Hall of the Moscow Kremlin in June 2005

Title Listen to record made in the year...
God Save the Tsar     1995 1:54   1991 1:55
Molitva russkikh (The Prayer of Russians) 1997 2:58        
Preobrajensky March (“Znayut turki...”) 1997 1:34       1991 2:17
Grom pobedy (Thunder of Victory) 1997 5:30       1991 6:11
Kol slaven 1997 5:01       1991 3:51
Choir “Glory” 1997 1:29       1991 1:25
“Hey, Slavs” in Russian 1997 1:35        

All songs have been arranged for male voices choir by I. Ushakov.

You can listen to some more records by this choir on the “Songs of Russian Resurrection” site. CDs are available in many Russian music shops and, via on-line stores (e.g. this one), worldwide.

Choir rehearsing in recording studio (2004)
Choir in recording studio (2004)
Choir in recording studio (2004)		  
 Igor Ushakov (2004)
Igor Ushakov
Igor Ushakov gives directions to the choir in recording studio (2004)

About the choir

The choir was founded in 1990 at the St. Petersburg office (i.e. church-in-town) of the Valaam Monastery. Like many new church choirs at the time, it sang at services, participated in some events and gave few concerts. However, the choir gradually developed its own unique singing style based on the traditional singing styles of the two northermost old Russian monasteries, the Valaam monastery and Solovki monastery. The chour repertoire initially consisted mostly of monastery chants.

During the first years, the choir artistic director and conductor Igor Ushakov formed the collective that included graduates of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, lead singers of St. Petersburg opera houses and the Academic Capella. Since then, they strive for renaissance of intrinsically Russian art of singing.

In 1994, the choir reorganized under the new name of “Valaam” Institute of Choral Arts and began intense publishing activity that continues through the present time. From 1994 till 2005, about forty CDs have been released. Today the choir repertoire includes more than six hundred songs: Orthodox hymns and chants, songs of the Russian Imperial Army, and a recent addition of Soviet patriotic and wartime songs.

Many CDs published by the choir are not just collections of songs, but historical concerts that take us through the Russian history and serve an educational and patriotic purpose.

A longer article about the choir, as well as discography, can be found on the Russian version of this page.

Recording new albums being choir’s primary objective, they rarely sing in public today. The performances usually occur on special occasions and theme concerts, like this one in the Georgievsky Hall of the Moscow Kremlin in June 2005, of which we have a few pictures:
Performance in the Georgievsky Hall of the Moscow Kremlin (June 2005) image 1/4  Performance in the Georgievsky Hall of the Moscow Kremlin (June 2005) image 2/4  Performance in the Georgievsky Hall of the Moscow Kremlin (June 2005) image 3/4  Performance in the Georgievsky Hall of the Moscow Kremlin (June 2005) image 4/4 - Igor Ushakov 

Contact info for Igor Ushakov: tel. +7 812 4672917, ushakov_igor@mail.ru
Photographs from this page can be used to illustrate articles about the choir.

Vadim Makarov
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