The Yale Russian Chorus is a tenor-bass choral ensemble at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, established in 1953 by Denis Mickiewicz, a student at the Yale Music School, and George Litton, president of the Yale Russian Club. The group sings a variety of secular and sacred Slavic choral pieces (and non-Slavic pieces from the former USSR and neighboring regions), from the 12th century onward, including folk songs of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

. The current musical director is Gabriel Mesa. The YRC was the first American group to visit the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

as a private initiative, touring the country in 1958 following the signing of the

Lacy-Zarubin Agreement The Lacy-Zarubin Agreement, also known as the Agreement Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Exchanges in Cultural, Technical, and Educational Fields, was a bilateral agreement between the United Stat ...

on cultural exchange. The YRC made 16 tours to the USSR before the union dissolved in 1991. The ensemble tours domestically every spring. The chorus rehearses for two and a half hours every week, holds concerts in and around New Haven throughout the academic year, and goes on an annual spring tour. Although the majority of its members are Yale undergraduate students, auditions are open to the entire

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

community. As a tenor-bass chorus, membership is primarily male, but the chorus has also admitted women to sing in the

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

section. The chorus has performed at many venues in

and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, and also many places in the United States, most notably: * Carnegie Hall in

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*The

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(for President

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) *The

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*The Russian Cultural Center in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

*The

Winter Garden Theatre The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre at 1634 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It opened in 1911 under designs by architect William Albert Swasey. The Winter Garden's current design dates to 1922, when ...

in Manhattan *The radio show '' A Prairie Home Companion'' The Alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus have formed a performing group in their own right to preserve the Mickiewicz tradition and presented a 60th Anniversary concert at Yale in November 2013. In November 2014 the Alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus performed at Rockport Music in Rockport, Massachusetts, at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in a shared performance with the Yale Slavic Chorus. The Yale Russian Chorus Alumni sang a full-length concert in April 2015 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, on the UPenn campus. Musical examples from a YRC alumni concert at Duke University in November 2009 includ
Akh ty step shirokaya (Ах, ты степь широкая)
("O thou steppe so wide")
Blazhen Muzh (Блажен муж)
("Blessed husband")
Borodino (Бородино)
("Borodino" M.Yu.Lermontov_commemorating_the_battle_against_Napoleon's_armies_in_the_village_outside_Moscow.html" ;"title="Mikhail_Lermontov.html" ;"title=" poem by Mikhail Lermontov">M.Yu.Lermontov commemorating the battle against Napoleon's armies in the village outside Moscow">Mikhail_Lermontov.html" ;"title=" poem by Mikhail Lermontov">M.Yu.Lermontov commemorating the battle against Napoleon's armies in the village outside Moscow
Kas Tie Tadi (Who Are They)
an
Zhilo dvenadtsat razboinikov (Жило двенадцать разбойников)
("There were 12 robbers").

Foreign tours

*USSR 1958 *USSR 1959 *USSR 1960 *Western Europe 1962 *Western Europe and USSR 1963 *Eastern Europe 1968 *USSR 1971 *USSR 1977 (including Leningrad, Moscow, Tbilisi, Kiev) *USSR 1979 *USSR 1982 *USSR, Poland and Western Europe 1984 *USSR and Western Europe 1987 *Russia, Ukraine, Georgia 1990 *Russia, Ukraine 1993 *Russia 1994 *

1995 *Russia 2004 (Alumni group) *Canada (Montreal/Quebec) 2009 *Russia 2019

References

External links

Official websiteAlumni websiteYRC Exhibit at the Sterling Memorial Library
{{authority control Collegiate a cappella groups Yale University musical groups, R Musical groups established in 1953 1953 establishments in Connecticut