The Gorky Boys’ Choir Chapel

The Gorky Boys’ Choir Chapel was founded in 1946. In the 15 years of its existence the Chapel has become a choral educational institution and a fully fledged musical collective.

The choir school was created to give orphaned children, pupils of children’s homes who had lost their parents during the Great Patriotic War, the chance to develop their musical abilities, and to train future choir conductors and singers who from childhood could go through a good school of choral singing.

Children’s choir schools are a long-standing tradition of Russian choral culture. The oldest Russian professional choirs, which deservedly enjoyed world fame, sang without women’s voices, replacing them with the voices of boys.

When the choir school was organised in Gorky, it was envisaged that it might later be developed into a ten-year music school or a choir college. In the conditions of 1946 this could not be achieved, so it was decided to open a children’s boys’ choir school on the basis of a seven-year music school.

V. P. Malyshev – the first director and artistic director of the Chapel

The organisation of the choir chapel was undertaken by a man with a sensitive and responsive heart, a Communist and talented choral conductor, Vasily Pavlovich Malyshev.

For the first five years the Chapel was staffed largely by pupils from children’s homes. Many of them were from Leningrad. These children found in the Chapel their own family.

The first intake took place in November 1946, the second in September 1947. At first 20–30 boys aged 9–10 were admitted; in later years boys no older than nine were taken. Nowadays children of seven are admitted. From 1961 the course at the Chapel will be eight years, as in all music schools.

The Chapel’s curriculum is notable for the variety and breadth of its musical and specialist subjects. Besides choral classes, the pupils study elementary music theory and solfège and music literature, and attend piano and voice-training classes. Optional violin lessons have been introduced. Graduates study conducting technique. It has become a good tradition for each graduate to conduct one work that he learns independently with the boys’ choir.

At the Chapel the children study only subjects of the musical and choral cycle; general education subjects are taken at an ordinary school.

The homeland cares for the pupils like a father. A boarding school has been set up at the Chapel. All the pupils, teachers and staff work with great enthusiasm. Among the teachers we should mention M. M. Sitskaya and V. I. Ivanov, who began their teaching careers at the Chapel on the day it was founded.

A piano lesson in M. M. Sitskaya’s class

A great deal of work is done in selecting the boys. At first the teachers travelled round all the children’s homes of the Gorky region and neighbouring districts of other regions, and these trips were then repeated. In all, over the 15 years of the Chapel’s existence more than 40,000 children have been auditioned.

In 15 years 68 boys have graduated from the Chapel, the vast majority of whom continued their studies at a music college and completed it successfully. Many pupils work as teachers in music schools in the city of Gorky and the region, in the Moscow region and in the city of Magadan.

The Chapel is rightly proud of its best pupils who have graduated from conservatories.

L. K. Sivukhin – artistic director of the Chapel

Lev Sivukhin graduated from the Gorky Conservatory and works as the Chapel’s artistic director. German Komrakov graduated from the music-theory department of the Moscow Conservatory and works at the Yakut music college. Kirill Shaleny graduated from the Gorky Conservatory and works as a teacher at the Novgorod college. Vladimir Izyumenko graduated from the Gorky Conservatory and works as head of studies at the Kostroma music college. Igor Lebedev also graduated from the Gorky Conservatory and works as a teacher in the city of Ussuriysk. At present 15 pupils of the Chapel are studying at the Gorky Conservatory, two at the Moscow Conservatory and one at the Leningrad Conservatory. Anatoly Ezhov and Nikolai Balykov, students of the Gorky Conservatory, work as teachers at the Chapel.

Over the years of its existence the boys’ choir chapel has given more than 400 concerts. Performing in the workshops of plants and factories, in the concert halls of Gorky, in the working and rural districts of the city and the region, at polling stations and in holiday concerts, the young singers always meet with a warm and cordial reception. In 1960 the first tour was undertaken, to the city of Kirov, where the young singers gave six concerts and appeared on television. A group of the Chapel’s choir toured in Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Kuibyshev, Stalingrad and the pioneer camp “Artek”.

The Chapel’s creative life has been closely connected with local composers — at first A. A. Kasyanov, then A. A. Nesterov and B. B. Blagovidov. Many works by Gorky composers were performed by the Chapel for the first time and were born in the course of serious rehearsal work. The pupils of the Chapel are bound by close friendship with People’s Artist of the RSFSR, Professor A. A. Kasyanov. His best choruses — “Autumn”, “The Sea Is Not Foaming”, “Two Rams”, “The Flywheel and the Cog” and many others — are well known not only to the people of Gorky. A. A. Kasyanov wrote “A Family Song” for the Chapel. The Chapel was the first to perform A. A. Kasyanov’s cantata “Valery Chkalov”. The Chapel’s collaboration with the composer A. A. Nesterov has been fruitful. His songs “Lenin”, “Maple”, “Lyoshenka” and others have become firmly established in the Chapel’s repertoire.

The Chapel took part in all the reviews of the work of Gorky composers and in the concerts of the visiting plenum of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR devoted to the work of composers of the Volga cities.

The Chapel is under the patronage of the Glinka Gorky State Conservatory. Many masters of Soviet choral art who visited the city of Gorky got to know the Chapel and gave good assessments of its work. Among them were Professor A. V. Sveshnikov, USSR People’s Artist Shirma, Stepanov, chief choirmaster of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Opera Theatre, Kudryavtseva, conductor of the Glinka Leningrad State Academic Chapel, and USSR People’s Artist Professor V. G. Sokolov, artistic director of the State Moscow Choir.

The Chapel’s true friends are the composers M. Koval, V. Shebalin and A. Novikov, who had a great influence on the formation of the Chapel’s repertoire.

As the choral collective grew, its repertoire became more complex. More than 300 works by Russian, Soviet and foreign composers have been learned. The repertoire includes many folk, school and pioneer songs. Among the large works performed by the Chapel are Kasyanov’s cantata about Chkalov, Shostakovich’s oratorio “Song of the Forests”, Tchaikovsky’s cantata “Moscow”, Kabalevsky’s cantata “Song of the Morning, Spring and Peace”, Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” (performed twice at the Gorky Conservatory with chamber orchestra and organ) and Blagovidov’s cantata “Pioneer Bonfire”.

A violin lesson in V. I. Ivanov’s class

A men’s group of the choir has existed at the Chapel for seven years. Having a mixed choir makes it possible to use the existing repertoire more actively and to work on large and varied pieces.

The Chapel takes part in productions of the Pushkin Gorky Opera and Ballet Theatre: “Boris Godunov”, “The Queen of Spades”, “The Oprichnik”, “Carmen” and “Tosca”.

In the Chapel’s creative work a cappella singing predominates. Great attention is paid to expressiveness of performance. All the works in the Chapel’s repertoire sound varied and unlike one another. Many choruses are distinguished by sincerity and warmth: Kasyanov’s “Autumn” and Schumann’s “The Little Owl”. The choir also succeeds with lively humorous songs: Kasyanov’s “Two Rams” and “The Flywheel and the Cog” and Nesterov’s “Lyoshenka”. The Russian folk song “Ah, It Is Not Only One Road in the Field” sounds very colourful in the Chapel’s performance. The choir constantly improves its performing technique, as the performance of Haydn’s four-part fugue “Spring Has Come” shows. In its work the Chapel draws on the traditions of the Russian choral school.

V. P. Malyshev, the founder of the Chapel, an experienced teacher and great master of choral art, sang in the choir under the outstanding Soviet choral conductor Danilin. This “Danilin spirit” has left its mark on the interpretation of many works performed by the Chapel.

A voice lesson in V. S. Slavyanskaya’s class

The remarkable voice teacher V. S. Slavyanskaya passes on to the children the rich experience of her fruitful work in the famous Slavyansky Chapel.

The Chapel’s artistic director Lev Sivukhin, a pupil of the Chapel and V. P. Malyshev’s favourite student, is a worthy successor to his teacher. He continues the Chapel’s traditions, leaving the imprint of his young talent on many works.

For the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union the Chapel has prepared its modest gift. It has learned and performs the cantata “Pioneer Bonfire” by the Gorky composer Boris Blagovidov and another work by the same composer, “The Light of Lenin’s Truth”. A large and varied concert programme has been prepared. The Chapel takes an active part in providing concerts for the workers of the city’s enterprises.