FIVE RUSSIAN CHOIRS TO PRESENT BENEFIT CONCERT FOR SAN FRANCISCO CHARITY - Russian American Community Services - OCTOBER 29, 2023
The program will include a wide range of Russian, Ukrainian and Eastern European sacred music.
Choirs participating will include the following:
The Holy Virgin Cathedral Pontifical Choir sings at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the same name.. The fifty-voice choir consists primarily of Russian singers whose parents immigrated to the United States from Russia, China, and various European countries. Formed over many years into a well-tuned instrument by the artistry of Mikhail S. Konstantinov, it is now led by his former student Vladimir Krassovsky, who has kept prominent the high quality of singing and artistry within the chorus.
The Diakonia Choir was organized in 2003 by singers living in San Francisco and the Bay Area who are devoted to church music, and in 2004 12 singers presented their first concert in the Russian Orthodox Church of Christ the Saviour. This was the beginning of the Diakonia Choir. The choir now numbers 22–25 singers, including 4 members of the original group. The singers are enthusiastically devoted to and engaged in church music, primarily the compositions of its director Sergei Riabtchenko, and they have produced three well received CD’s.
The Choir of the Russian Orthodox Church of All Russian Saints in Burlingame has steadily expanded its repertoire since its founding in 1952. Members of the early-era parish choir were largely World War II-era émigrés. Today, choir members are a combination of “second wave” émigré’s children and grandchildren, more recently “third wave” émigrés and their children, and non-Russians who have converted to Orthodoxy. Under the directorship of Andrei Roudenko from 2001 to 2021, they gave regular concerts and produced several CD’s. They are now directed by Irina Shachneva.
The Choir of St. Lawrence Orthodox Church, Felton CA is 20 - 30 singers strong, depending on the season. The choir participates in various performances and choral groups around the Bay Area. Under the leadership of their director Anne Schoepp and her Seraphim Six project with Alice Hughes, they are dedicated to making quality recordings of Orthodox liturgical music in English and to advancing the development of liturgical singing through publishing and training as well.
Slavyanka Chorus is an a cappella chorus based in San Francisco whose mission is to bring music from the varied choral traditions of Russia and Eastern Europe to American audiences; to share the cultural history behind these traditions; and to contribute to intercultural understanding between East and West through the special language of choral music. Since their founding in 1979, they have given many hundreds of concerts in the Bay Area and California; have toured five times to Russia and Eastern Europe; have put out 12 CD’s; and have coordinated with other Bay Area choirs to produce several successful festivals of Russian choral music. Under their current director Irina Shachneva, they recently sang the American premier of Konstantin Shvedov’s Liturgy, a work by a contemporary of Rachmaninoff that remained hidden and unperformed for over 60 years.
The Russian American Community Services Association (RACS) is dedicated to improving the lives of seniors and adults with disabilities in San Francisco. Their mission is to provide food and social services to this community, with a focus on serving Eastern European Americans.
RACS was founded in 1977 by Alexandra Michailovna Glazunova, who emigrated to America from Harbin, China in 1936. Started by Mrs.Glazunova's dedication and hard work, it has grown from a small soup kitchen to what it is today - a non-profit organization that provides hundreds of congregate and home delivered meals daily for seniors and adults with disabilities, and community services to its clients.