Moscow State Academic Chamber Choir

The Moscow State Academic Chamber Choir was founded in 1972 by Artistic Manager and Chief Conductor, People’s Artist of the USSR, USSR State Prize Laureate, Professor Vladimir Minin who is at the head of the Choir up till now.

The Choir was born as antipode to official formal execution. There created a group capable to be collective “EGO” in its intercourse with audience, that is able to talk as outstanding personality while recounting about own feelings, events endured by the People, about its dreams and ideals, about concealed and significant matters.

Absolute feeling of harmony and dynamism of the modern world are peculiar to artistic temper of the Group.

World-wide known singers—Obraztcova, Arkhipova, Vedernikov, Sotkilava, Nesterenko appear with the Choir. The best Russian conductors—Fedoseyev, Spivakov, Pletnev, Sondetckys perform with the Group.

There are no composers in Russian choral music whose things wouldn’t be performed by the Choir. The repertoire of the Choir is very diverse. It consists of Russian classic music things (Rakhmaninov, Tchaikovskiy, Musorgskiy), Western-European classic (Bach, Mozart, Brams, Vivaldy), Russian folklore. Except a’capella things the Choir performs big-form works with an orchestra accompaniment as well as takes part in the opera productions—“Masked-Ball” by Verdy, “Iolanta” by Tchaikovskiy, “Bohemia” by Putchinni.

The spirit of the Group is not only in original and irreproachable manner of execution but also in fact that this particular Choir was the first during “the great stagnation” period revived the music of “prohibited composers” such as Chesnokov, Strumskiy, Grechaninov. The touring route of the Group ran through many countries and continents. Only for the last past years the Choir went on a tour to the USA, Switzerland (Zurich, Berne, Basel, Lucerne), Austria (Vena, Bregentze), Germany (Berlin, Kassel, Munich, Frankfurt, Potsdam), China (Pekin, Shanghai), Japan, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Italy.

For the time of creative work the Group was awarded many prizes including the title “Academic”. In 1999 Moscow and All Rus’ Patriarch Alexiy II for great creative merits and highest spirituality awarded V.N.Minin in honor of his 70th anniversary with sculpture of Holy Grand Duke Vladimir.

For the past years the Choir recorded 8 compact disks at such big Recording Companies as “Deutche Gramophone”, “Mazur Media”, “Eurodisk”, “Melodia”, and English Company NVC issued video cassettes with recording of Russian Church Music in the execution of The Moscow State Academic Chamber Choir.

The artistic director and the main conductor of the Moscow State Chamber Choir — National Artist of the USSR, the winner of the State premium, Professor Vladimir Minin is one of the brightest musicians of our country. He is invited by both Russian and foreign collectives for preparation of the programs and realisation of “the foreman of classes.”

Vladimir Minin was born on January 10, 1929 in Leningrad. He graduated from the Leningrad choral school and in 1945 has got in the Moscow Conservatoire, where his creative activity has began in 1949, when A.V.Sveshnikov has invited Vladimir as a choirmaster in the State Academic Russian choir.

In January 1951 Vladimir Minin was nominated the artistic director and the main conductor of the Ensemble of songs and dances of the Soviet army in Poland, and in 1954 has got in the post graduate program of the Moscow Conservatoire.

From 1958 to 1963 V.Minin was the director of the State capella of Moldova “Doyna” and from 1965 to 1967 he was the artistic director and the main conductor of the Leningrad academic Russian choral “Glinka capella”.

In 1972 under Vladimir Minin’s initiative, working in that time as the rector of State musical-pedagogical Gnesin's institute, from the students and high school teachers was created a chamber choir, transformed in 1973 into a professional collective—the Moscow State Chamber Choir.

This is when his rare artistic gift with the special brightness and completeness was revealed. For rather short period of time, the Moscow Chamber Choir became one of conducting art collectives of the country.

The power of the genuine art under a person is boundless. Really funny makes you to laugh, authentic grief—to cry, resolution—to act, the truth—to believe. The genuine art ennobles a man, and it is impossible to oppose to such strength. Everybody who used to visit concerts of E.Mravinskiy, S.Rikchter is familiar with a sensation (feeling) when incomprehensible becomes clear, the mysterious appears, and you begin to feel yourself as a sounding and significant part (fraction) of the lofty and wise world harmony, when spirit of goodness is set in the hall and there arises the most important that the art may give—the brotherhood effect.

Exactly such atmosphere reigns at the concerts of V.Minin’s Choir. It is this particular aura which is necessary for life of the Group and its’ Conductor. They create such aura by their creative work. And the good arises the good.

Vladimir Minin is really Russian creator. The main in his creative work is ethic principle. He is the prominent creator who wields with the traditional instrument of his profession perfectly but also possesses with lots of secrets of his craft. For that in home press he is called “magician”, “wizard”, “sorcerer”. Creator stunning with breadth of sound recording, who has already invented a lot of unprecedented things, he never the less is always in the process of permanent search.

Vladimir Minin whatever he executed—from Monterverdy to Gershvin and Ravel, from famous singings to Stravinskiy and Sviridov—he never regards as of paramount importance the incredible technical mastership of his Group although such mastership by itself would constituted name and fame of its’ leader.

Paraphrasing the expression of famous Russian scientist one may say that Minin works for art and creates for people. His delicate intuition, feeling of epoch, style, temperament, indefatigable imagination, knowledge, culture—everything is given up to search of truth and goodness, to cognition of harmony. Namely such search for Russian painters was and remains the principal vital task. And Vladimir Minin settles the matter without trying to adjust the correct answer.

He is not only the choir master but also the pedagogical innovator whose training system is grounded on paradoxical for the Choir foundation—entire individual freedom of singing voice. Undoubtedly there will be written theoretical research on this subject and practical results could be seen already.

Chamber Choir—is a Group of Soloists, at that some of them transform to bright individuals. There is no stiffness, artificiality in sound—making that is so peculiar to most academic choruses. There is artistry, lightness, simplicity and there seems absolute unavailability of obstacles in overcoming the difficulties both proposed by a composer and brought forward by the Maestro. Somewhere in perspective one may dream about Choral Theater, birth of new genres and forms of choral musicmaking.

Minin’s Choir—is lively and militant art, new and strong sucker of life-tree capable to hold out in any fights for the right to serve people. And it is a great occasion for everybody who is in a position to appreciate the excellence to know about availability of such strength in our musical art. And Minin may also appreciate the excellence. That is why he and like-minded persons are in the state of permanent work. Plans, search, and tireless toil—today, tomorrow, always and up to exhaustion.

Alexander Ghindin has been unanimously acclaimed by critics and music lovers as one of the most talented and original pianists of the present day. 

Born in 1977 in Moscow. Before entering the Conservatoire in 1994, at the age of seventeen he became the youngest-ever laureate of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and is quickly establishing himself as one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation. Later he gained in Second prize at the International Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in Brussels in 1999. These successes assisted the start of the pianist’s extremely intensive recital activities. In 2007 he was a First prize-winner at the International Piano Competition in Cleveland (USA) and was engaged for over fifty concerts in the USA. In July 2010 Alexander Ghindin won First prize at the International Piano Competition of Santa Catarina (Florianópolis, Brazil).

In 2001 Ondine records has released the world première recording of the original version of Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 1 and 4 performed by Alexander Ghindin together with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. In 2006, Alexander Ghindin was named Honoured Artist of Russia. Alexander Ghindin is a frequent jury member of such competition as the Nutcracker Young Performers’ International TV Competition (2004, 2006, 2009 and 2011); First Russian Music Competition (Moscow, 2010); International Piano Competition in Cleveland (USA, 2011) and others. 

Alexander Ghindin is also an International Artistic Co-Director of Swedish Royal Festival and Artistic Director and conductor of Soloists Ensemble Hermitage and Kaluga Youth Symphony Orchestra. Alexander Ghindin tours successfully throughout Russia and abroad. 

The pianist has performed with such major Russian and international orchestras as the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Russian National Orchestra, the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Virtuosi, the St Petersburg Camerata Orchestra of the State Hermitage, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de Belgique, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Camerata Salzburg, Philharmonic Orchestras of London, Helsinki, Luxemburg, Liège, Freiburg, Rotterdam, Monte Carlo and Munich, Japan’s Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and the New Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra to name but a few. 

Conductors the pianist has worked with include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Vladimir Spivakov, Vladimir Minin, Arnold Katz, Yurij Simonov, Dmitry Kitayenko, Fuat Mansurov, Vasily Sinaisky, Alexander Lazarev, Saulus Sondeckis, Alan Gilbert, Krzysztof Penderecki, Paavo Järvi, James DePreist, Leonard Slatkin, Louis Langrée, Eliahu Inbal, Arthur Fagen, David Shallon, Juozas Domarkas and others. 

Alexander Ghindin is a constant participant at international music festivals. He has appeared at the Russian festivals Russian Winter, Stars at the Kremlin, The New Century of Russian Piano Music, Vladimir Spivakov Invites, The Musical Kremlin and the International Sakharov Arts Festival as well as the Swedish Royal Festival in Stockholm, the Robert Casadesus International Piano Encounters in Lille, the Vladimir Spivakov Festival in Colmar, the Radio France Festival, Folle journee (France), Bad Kissengen Sommer (Germany), the Rising Stars festival (Poland), Days of Russian Culture in Moravia (Czech Republic), the Ruhr Piano Festival (Germany) and festivals in Echternach, La Roque d’Anthéron, Brussels, Limoges, Lille, Cracow, Rome, Sintra and Sicily. 

The musician has made numerous recordings on television and radio in Russia, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxemburg, Poland and Japan. He has released 28 CDs with leading recording companies in Russia, France, Great Britain, Germany, Finland and Japan including Decca, Capriccio, Ondine, Tri-M Classics, Russian Season, DML, CD Accord and Naxos among others.