“Joy for All Is One”

In the photo: L. K. Sivukhin among his pupils Photo by R. Bogdanov

The good fame of the Gorky boys from the choir chapel and of their remarkable leader Lev Konstantinovich Sivukhin has travelled far beyond the city. This is shown by the collective’s ever-growing performing mastery and the equally growing activity of its work. At home we have grown so used to the Chapel’s constant participation in almost all the interesting and significant events of the city’s cultural life that we treat it as something ordinary and self-evident. That is not bad, of course — to get used to what is good. But we should not forget that the successes of a children’s collective that has reached a high professional level are the result of the enormous, skilful and inspired work of an experienced team of teachers and its leaders. And it would do us no harm to feel pride more often in the little people of Gorky who constantly uphold the reputation of their native city beyond its borders.

Many times our Chapel boys have sung superbly in various cities of the RSFSR. Recently they returned from a very interesting tour to the capital of the Lithuanian SSR, Vilnius. There their concerts took place with great creative inspiration at the Union of Composers of Lithuania (where mostly works by Gorky composers were performed), in the great cathedral (now a permanently operating picture gallery and concert hall with an organ) and on Lithuanian television. The programme of the performances included, alongside contemporary music and children’s repertoire, complex works of classical art of the 16th–17th centuries.

But it is not only these indisputable artistic gains that are dear to us. Our boys found good friends in Vilnius — also boys, from the choir “Dubok”, at whose invitation they went to Lithuania. This collective is led by a wonderful organiser and musician, Honoured Art Worker of the Lithuanian SSR Herman Godovich Perelshtein, who long ago appreciated the merits of our Chapel. After the concert guests and hosts held a wonderful friendly gathering that will remain in memory forever.

In these spring days there is a lively, joyful mood at the Chapel; it is expecting numerous guests from different cities of the country for its 30th anniversary celebration. But not only to guests — to their native city too the boys, their teachers and leaders want to show once more their art and their successes, and to share with everyone the joy of creativity.

The Gorky boys’ choir chapel came into being, like many other artistic collectives in the country, immediately after the victorious end of the Great Patriotic War. At that time the Chapel was headed by very experienced choirmasters V. P. Malyshev and M. V. Kiselev. In 30 years the Chapel has trained 165 very strong professional choirmasters. Many of them later graduated from higher music institutions, and several now work as teachers in their native Chapel.

The boys’ choir chapel is a special music school and at the same time a performing collective. The Chapel’s repertoire now numbers 500 works of various styles and eras. The Chapel now has 100 pupils. Recently great attention has been paid to the very youngest singers in the preparatory class. This has become necessary because boys’ voices now change earlier. The collective of this remarkable Chapel is doing a great and good work.

Valentina Blinova. Newspaper “Leninskaya Smena”, 7.04.1976