Memorial Day

LEV KONSTANTINOVICH SIVUKHIN, Russian choral conductor, Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR, People’s Artist of the RSFSR, composer, conductor, teacher and artistic director of the renowned Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) Boys’ Choir Chapel / Nizhny Novgorod Choir School (College), would have been 88 years old.

BRIGHT BE HIS MEMORY!

For more than 40 years L. K. Sivukhin headed the choir chapel and then the Nizhny Novgorod Choir School, created the municipal choir “Nizhny Novgorod” and for many years headed the Department of Choral Conducting at the Conservatory.

The Ministry of Culture recommended the Nizhny Novgorod boys’ choir for performances abroad as the only collective with an impeccable creative reputation. The Chapel toured in Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Italy, Bulgaria, Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia and the USA.

“We never sang vulgarity, cheap hits. We never had that in our repertoire and never will. Inner culture is cultivated through music. We went to America for a festival and saw that we are an organism performing the most serious music, affecting the minds and souls of the listeners in the hall, making them rejoice or weep. And awareness of this has a positive effect on the boys. I do not know what they will become when they grow up, but that they will listen with understanding to classical music, and that through it they will somehow educate themselves inwardly, is a certainty,” said L. K. Sivukhin.

Lev Konstantinovich was a member of the Union of Composers of Russia. He is the author of many bright and original works for children’s and mixed choirs, a cappella as well as with piano or orchestral accompaniment. The publishing house “Sovetsky Kompozitor” issued a collection of L. K. Sivukhin’s works, “As Long as My Blood Boils”, to poems by A. Lyukin, many pieces from which are performed by the chamber choir “Nizhny Novgorod”.

Many of Lev Konstantinovich’s works enrich the repertoire of choral collectives in Russia. All the choirs of the L. K. Sivukhin College perform his works such as “Children of the War”, “Tell Us, Young Sailor” and “Men’s Brotherhood” to words by V. Shamshurin, “To a Fallen Friend” and “As Long as My Blood Boils” to poems by A. Lyukin, as well as the Russian folk songs in L. K. Sivukhin’s arrangements “Zakhar Plowed the Vegetable Garden” and “Oh, Along the Volga”, vocal pieces for younger children, “Rain”, “Plim”, “Summer Downpour” and many others.

“In everything connected with rehearsals I feel no difficulty. The boys do their job. And they do it quite seriously. He stood there, sang and suddenly fell, and you have to be quick to catch him! He gave everything, gave all of himself, and had no strength left even to stay on his feet. After a concert the boys can neither eat nor sleep properly for a long time. They are excited, they have given everything… Children, if they have come to believe in you, are devoted to you completely. Then you can mould them into whatever you want, especially if there is already some technical equipment and they already know the repertoire. And what a tenacious memory they have, in the best sense! And, coming back after 40 years, they suddenly fall into their places and straight away sing each his own part, the one he once sang, for example the second treble!” said L. K. Sivukhin in his last interview.

Ilya Gavrilov, a 1985 graduate of the boys’ chapel, says: “For me Lev Konstantinovich’s name is one of the dearest; I carefully keep his memory and often tell my children about him. For me Lev Konstantinovich is a model of how one should treat music and one’s beloved work. Extremely high demands on himself and at the same time kindness and sensitivity to others.”

9 May 2023, Mikhail Dvoynenkov