For the 40th Anniversary of the Collective

The Boys’ Choir Chapel was created in Gorky in 1946. Its organiser and first director was the talented choral figure V. P. Malyshev.

From the very first days of the collective’s existence the basis of its teaching has been work in the choral class. The Chapel is a music school of a special type and at the same time a choral performing collective constantly engaged in concert activity.

Listeners in many cities of the country are familiar with the art of the young Gorky singers. The voices of the Gorky boys have sounded in Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Kirov, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Chișinău, Yalta, Krasnodar, the cities of the Volga region, and the pioneer camps “Artek” and “Orlyonok”.

In 1981 the collective took part in the festival of boys’ choirs in Tartu. In the same year, on assignment from the Central Committee of the Komsomol, the Chapel went to Yakutia to organise a boys’ choir in Yakutsk. In spring 1983 another major event took place in the life of the collective: it took part in the International Festival of Boys’ Choirs in Olomouc (Czechoslovakia).

The choir’s extensive repertoire includes large-scale works and choral miniatures \nby Russian, Soviet and foreign composers, and folk songs. A special place in it is occupied by works by Gorky authors, often created specially for the boys’ choir. In 1976 the publishing house “Sovetsky Kompozitor” issued the collection “Boys”, based on songs from the repertoire of the Boys’ Choir Chapel.

The “Melodiya” company has issued two records of the Gorky Boys’ Choir Chapel on which works by Gorky composers can be heard. The Chapel took part in plenums of the Unions of Composers of the USSR and the RSFSR and in the “Contemporary Music” festivals. For many years the boys’ choir has taken part in the choral subscriptions of the Gorky Philharmonic; it often prepares concert programmes together with adult choral collectives, chamber ensembles and the philharmonic symphony orchestra, and takes part in the cycle of television programmes “The Voice of Epochs” with programmes that include masterpieces of choral music of different trends and styles.

In 1973 and 1976 the collective twice received prizes for the best performance of works at the patriotic music competitions in Ivanovo. USSR People’s Artist, Professor V. G. Sokolov said of the boys’ choir: “I am sincerely delighted by the mastery of the boys of the Chapel who, despite their young age, show great art of choral singing.”

The collective of the Boys’ Choir Chapel is entered in the Book of Honour of the pioneer organisation of the Gorky region; in 1974 it was awarded the title of laureate of the Gorky Komsomol Prize, and in October 1978 it was awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize.

The Gorky boys’ chapel is proud of its graduates, who worthily carry the banner of choral art: V. V. Vasiliev, laureate of the Glinka State Prize and chief choirmaster of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre; G. P. Muratov, Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR and chief choirmaster of the Gorky Opera and Ballet Theatre; S. V. Kalagin, Honoured Artist of the Tatar ASSR and conductor of the symphony orchestra of the Kazan Philharmonic; V. V. Mochalov, Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR and artistic director of the Siberian Folk Choir; N. E. Shapiro, K. A. Shaleny and V. M. Izyumenko, Honoured Workers of Culture of the RSFSR; G. N. Komrakov, composer and Honoured Art Worker of the Yakut ASSR; E. B. Fertelmeister, composer and head of the music department of the Gorky Youth Theatre; and A. M. Skulsky, conductor of the symphony orchestra of the Gorky Philharmonic.

Our people carefully preserve their ancient history, folk traditions, monuments of painting and architecture, protecting and restoring them. Admiring them, we are imbued with the spirit of the epoch in which our great ancestors created. Masterpieces of music and of ancient choral writing come to life \nonly in live performance. Most of them were written precisely for male voices and boys’ choir. It is no accident that for 30 years the Boys’ Choir Chapel has had a men’s section made up of its former pupils and youths whose voices are changing.

The Chapel now has 104 pupils. Its former graduates work here: director of the Chapel V. A. Bagrov, artistic director RSFSR People’s Artist L. K. Sivukhin, and teachers V. V. Barinov, B. V. Mokeev, N. I. Balykov, E. E. Makarov and V. V. Sapozhnikov.

From the visitors’ book of honoured guests: \n“My ties with the whole collective of the Chapel, lasting since the day it was founded, will remain for me the most vital and musical memories…” \nUSSR People’s Artist A. A. Kasyanov

“Dear people of the Volga! You sing very well! And what is surprising in that? Here, in the very heart of the Russian land, only the beautiful soul of our people can sound, in all its boundless breadth. Health to you, happiness and much, much joy in the great life of Soviet art…” \nUSSR People’s Artist K. B. Ptitsa