“In the Middle of Winter, a Gift of Summer”

The end of 1998 turned out to be an extraordinary time in every respect for the boys of the Nizhny Novgorod Choir School. It is no joke: to board a plane and find yourself in Spain, to spend a full ten days in summer in the most beautiful places, where medieval castles stand beside modern architecture. But the main thing is the people: passionate, kind and cheerful.

In Madrid there is a branch of the Russian Pushkin Foundation, which maintains ties with Russian culture and invited our young choristers, headed by L. K. Sivukhin. There they had formed an idea of our Chapel’s art from cassette recordings.

In eight days the Chapel gave 11 concerts. They performed in schools, universities, churches and the embassy, and everywhere to full halls, a warm reception and sincere interest in our country, culture and music. The young Nizhny Novgorodians performed, according to the audience, classical music, foreign and our own, choruses by the Nizhny Novgorod composers Kasyanov, Nesterov and Sivukhin, and many Russian folk songs.

As a gift they sang specially, in the original language, several Spanish songs in L. Sivukhin’s arrangements for boys’ choir. Everywhere both adults and children listened wonderfully. There were special concerts for children from Russia adopted by Spanish families, and at the embassy for compatriots. This last performance and the reception at the embassy ended the Nizhny Novgorodians’ tour.

Besides the concerts, the boys went every day on interesting excursions with an excellent guide. The impressions were unforgettable. They brought home mountains of gifts as souvenirs. And it is hard to say what predominated on this trip, benefit or pleasure. And does it really matter?

“Nizhegorodskaya Pravda”, 1998

Column: Happy Meetings, Valentina BLINOVA

You can watch the video here