Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir


Toronto Centre for the Arts, George Weston Recital Hall
Toronto

Toronto Centre for the Arts, George Weston Recital Hall

After its great success in the Notre Dam de Paris, UNESCO hall and the Vatican hall auditorium, the famous monk choir from the ancient Sretensky Monastery comes to North America for the first time to perform at the prestigious stages including Lincoln centre in New York, library of congress in Washington among others.

Choir will make one stop in Canada to perform at the acoustically perfect George Weston Recital Hall.

Sretensky Monastery is one of the most ancient monasteries in Moscow. It was founded in 1395 in honor of the city’s victory over Tartar invaders. In 1917, the brothers of the monastery were arrested by the Soviet authorities and exiled to prison camps.

In 1994 the monastery was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church, at which time the Sretensky Choir was organized. The Choir sings the Divine Services several days per week in the Monastery church, using ancient Byzantine and Russian chant. It frequently participates in the Services celebrated by the Patriarch of Russia in the Dormition Cathedral, located in the Moscow Kremlin.

Outside of its participation in the Divine Services, the Choir has an active concert life both in Russia and abroad, in which it performs folk songs and romances, dear to the heart of Russians both ancient and modern. It has performed in Notre Dame de Paris, UNESCO Hall, the Vatican Hall Auditorium, and the Russian House in Belgrade. It also participated in the First International Choir Festival in St. Petersburg, June, 2007.

The choir’s creative life is under the constant patronage of the monastery’s Abbot, Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov). Its members are an integral part of monastery community, a fact which influences the repertory and the style of its rendition. The choir’s artistic director and conductor is Nikon Zhila, a graduate of the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music.T

Tickets: $15, $20 and $30 – available at www.ticketmaster.ca,  416-870-8000 or in person at the theatre Box Office.