Yale Chorus to Give Concert of Slavic Music

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 30, 2001–The Yale Slavic Chorus will hold a concert on Saturday, May 5 at 7 p.m. in Goodrich Hall on the Williams campus. The women’s choir, composed of women from Yale University and the New Haven community, is only one of many choruses at Yale, where singing is a long-standing tradition.

Founded in 1969 by a group of women who wanted to sing folk songs from countries other than Russia, as the Yale Russian Chorus does, the Yale Slavic Chorus’s repertoire includes songs from all Slavic countries, including Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Russia, and Ukraine. Many of the songs tell stories of love, work, war, country life, happiness, and sorrow. The women try to maintain the unique Slavic musical traditions of dissonant harmonies and unusual rhythms. Their authenticity is enhanced by their costumes, which consist of long skirts and embroidered Slavic peasant blouses.

The Chorus sponsors yearly choral festivals as well as a fundraiser with singing Valentines, and they released an album in 1998. In addition, Slav alumnae hold informal Slavic folk song “singalongs” regularly in the New York City area and are always looking for more singers and guests. The Chorus is also planning to tour and give concerts in Bulgaria this summer.

The concert is sponsored by the Department of German and Russian and the Center for Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

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Published April 30, 2001