Русская Версия

June 11, 2010
Boston, MA: Singers from the Eastern American Diocese will participate in the International Rachmaninoff Russian Music Festival

The International Rachmaninoff Russian Music Festival will take place June 13-20, 2010 in the greater Boston area. The Festival features unique performances, including the men’s a cappella group "Blagovest," founded in 1991 for the purpose of singing services as a male choir at Nizhny Novgorod’s Annunciation Monastery under the direction of L.G. Pankratov. They perpetuated the spiritual and missionary traditions of the St. John of Damascus church-singing brotherhood, which existed from 1912 to 1917. They will perform on June 16, 17, and 20.

The grand finale and pinnacle performance of the Festival will take place on June 20th. On the initiative of the Boston Russian Chorus, artistic director Irina Shachneva, with the invaluable assistance of the Eastern American Diocesan Music Committee, the Festival called experienced singers throughout North America to come to Boston in order to form the Festival Russian Chorus.

The concert will feature these singers, together with the Boston Russian Chorus and the Russian male choir "Blagovest," all of whom will meld into a single festival chorus. They will sing with all their might for the glory of our God by performing the best musical compositions of a Russian son in his new homeland of America – Sergei Rachmaninoff – selections from "Vespers" (the All-Night Vigil), "Liturgy," and a choral concerto, "The Theotokos, Ever-Vigilant in Prayer." The festival chorus will perform this with the strength of True Faith, which is unachievable by even the best American choirs, who frequently perform this music.

For more information visit the official website of the festival: www.russianmusicfest.com

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese