Concert: Slavyanka Men's Russian Chorus

Honoring the 200th Anniversary of Fort Ross

Slavyanka, the Bay Area Men’s Slavic Chorus, will present a rousing concert of sacred and secular choral music from Russia and Eastern Europe.  

Tickets are ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­$20 and $15 (seniors and students), and are available online through TicketWeb,  and at the door.

In 1979, two alumni of the award winning Yale Russian Chorus helped found Slavyanka, the San Francisco Bay Area Men’s Slavic Chorus. Slavyanka was the name that early 19th century Russian colonists gave to what Californians now call the Russian River – and each summer, Slavyanka returns to sing at the “Living History” day at that old Russian colony, now known as Fort Ross State Park, which this year celebrates the 200^th anniversary of its founding.

Slavyanka has given hundreds of concerts in the United States, Russia, Georgia and Armenia, sung in two movies, and released six commercial recordings.  In 1986, Slavyanka made its first tour to the Soviet Union, where they received a standing ovation in St. Petersburg's historic M.I. Glinka Kapella Hall from over 900 Soviet choral musicians. They met and sang with many well-known Russian and Georgian choirs, and even sang for the Catholicos (the head of the Armenian Church) at the oldest official Christian church in the world, near Yerevan, Armenia. Slavyanka returned on tour to Russia in 1989 and 2004.

“It’s particularly appropriate that this concert is going to take place in the San Francisco area,” said Slavyanka’s interim director, Paul Andrews. “This year we celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the very first Russian settlers coming to Fort Ross on the Sonoma Coast. Over those years, a large and wonderfully diverse Russian community has taken root in the Bay area. And not only that. Many Bay Area people don’t realize what a very active and constructive part San Francisco played in US-USSR cross-cultural diplomacy during the Cold War. Much of the very best work was based right here in the Bay Area. San Francisco has good reason to be proud of all that long and rich history.”

For over thirty years, Slavyanka has been an active and important part of that history -- earning the respect and affection of Russian and American audiences, and year after year, continuing to give Americans a deeper understanding of Russian history, Russian culture and the Russian people.

For more information, go to www.slavyanka.org/