June 2, 2012
Boston, MA:
2nd International Rachmaninoff Russian Music Festival

In order to hear real Russian music, sometimes you need to travel to America. On Sunday, May 27, Russian music enthusiasts had an opportunity to attend a spiritual music festival "Russia’s Musical Treasure" in Boston, MA. The Rachmaninoff Festival Choir of America (RFCA), a collection of about sixty church musicians from throughout North America, gathered in Boston on Memorial Day Weekend, 2012, for the culmination of the 2nd International Rachmaninoff Russian Music Festival: a Gala Concert at the New England Conservatory’s famed Jordan Hall.

The concert featured many prominent vocalists, the instrumental ensemble Juventas plus a Festival Orchestra that included church bells on loan from the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church (Bulgarian Patriarchate in Allston, MA), and a glorious 95-voice Russian choir, combining RFCA and 30 singers from the visiting Moscow chorus, Elegia.

The choir’s performance was the final event of an eight-performance series of musical offerings in greater Boston from May 20-27, including an operatic production, instrumental recitals, and a choral concert featuring Elegia and quintet from Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY.

The Rachmaninoff Choir was founded with the goal of uniting singers from across the Russian Diaspora in North America, and preserving its spiritual and music heritage. About 60 singers of various ethnicities, ages, and level of musical talent participate in the choir: among their number are no fewer than 15 choir directors, and well as youth, students, and choral enthusiasts from across America. They are all united by vocal talent, marvelous voices, and their unconditional love for Russian spiritual music, the singing of which requires them to regularly put aside other cares and fly to rehearsals, that together they might create something wonderful.

RFCA singers arrived in Boston by Friday, May 25, and, prior to the concert on Sunday evening, participated in two intensive rehearsals. The program included Maxim Berezovsky’s sacred cantata "Turn Not Away from Me in My Old Age," the difficult "Blessed art Thou, O Lord" section from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s beloved All-Night Vigil, several folk songs and other a cappella works, and two pieces for chorus and orchestra: Rachmaninoff’s "Three Russian Songs" and the finale, "Glory, Rus’," from Mikhail Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar.

In addition to the concert, several of the singers agreed to sing at the Sunday services in St. John the Wonderworker parish in Framingham. Under the direction of Synodal choir director Peter Fekula and his son Adrian, guest singers Christina Burbelo, Irene Gan, Rostislav Gan, Ksenia Kurtow, Elizabeth Ledkovsky, Alexis and Katherine Lukianov, and Irina Papkova joined a few local choir members at the evening and morning services.

On Saturday evening, Archpriest Andre Papkov (dean of Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral in Chicago, IL) led the Vigil, co-served by the rector, Archpriest Yaroslav Belikow, and Protodeacon Vadim Gan (cleric of Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral in Chicago). The following morning, the Divine Liturgy, celebrated by Fr. Yaroslav, co-served by the Protodeacon, was adorned by the Rachmaninoff Choir.

After both services, in gratitude for their marvelous singing, the sisterhood, headed by Matushka Larissa Belikow, invited the guests to a festal luncheon.


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