A Week in Kyiv

A rally of boys’ choirs, dedicated to the International Year of the Child and the 325th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, took place in the capital of Ukraine.

Eight collectives met at this musical festival of friendship: 4 Ukrainian ones, others from Moscow, Brest and Tallinn, and the Gorky Boys’ Chapel headed by Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR L. K. Sivukhin.

The festival opened with a big concert of a combined choir of 450 boys’ voices on Glory Square in Victory Park (the leaders of all eight collectives conducted in turn). It was a true wreath of songs of the different peoples of our country, an expression of the fraternal unity of cultures.

During the week the little Gorky singers took part in six concerts, performing music by the Gorky composers A. Nesterov, G. Komrakov and L. Sivukhin, and Russian folk songs.

Particularly brilliant was the performance at the Palace of Congresses of the Ukrainian SSR in the presence of members of the Ukrainian government and foreign guests. They sang a great deal, beautifully, very professionally and with sincere spontaneity.

The leaders of the choirs discussed a number of practical and methodological questions that are very acute today in the great and important work of the aesthetic education of the rising generation. The conference and the final concert took place at the Kyiv Palace of Pioneers.

“GR”, V. Blinova