The Award Is Presented

Director of the Gorky Boys’ Choir Chapel V. Popov

Last October (1978, author’s note) the Gorky Boys’ Choir Chapel was awarded a high honour, the Lenin Komsomol Prize. The diploma and the Laureate’s medal were solemnly presented to the collective.

In the Kremlin Concert Hall, in the presence of representatives of the public, numerous admirers of the art of our young singers, the Chapel’s teachers and a concert group of boys, the high award was presented to the Chapel’s director V. A. Popov by T. S. Ogorodova, deputy head of the culture department of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. She said that the Gorky boys’ chapel enjoys well-deserved fame in the country and is also known in other countries. The mastery of choral singing of the Gorky boys, the Chapel’s broad repertoire, its active concert activity and its participation in promoting Soviet music and in the aesthetic education of the rising generation were the grounds for awarding the collective the Lenin Komsomol Prize. Congratulating the young singers and teachers on the high award, T. S. Ogorodova wished them further success.

A kind of creative report by the Chapel was the concert, which opened with V. Muradeli’s song to words by A. Prishelets, “Glory to You, Komsomol!”

The well-composed and varied concert programme demonstrated the many-sidedness of choral performing art. Folk songs and the pioneer song “Potatoes” were heard, as well as high choral classics (“Let There Be Peace!” by O. Vecchi and Rachmaninoff’s “Quiet Melody”) and varied works by Gorky composers: A. Nesterov, G. Komrakov, B. Getselev and L. Sivukhin.

The youngest also took part in the concert (choir leader V. Bagrov).

The concert’s logical conclusion was the stirring song “Fatherland” by the Gorky composer S. Strazov to words by A. Prokofiev. The piano part was played by the accompanist N. Balykov; the Chapel’s artistic director, Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR L. Sivukhin, conducted.

In the photo: V. Popov accepts the award

V. Blinova, 5.03.1979