Turetsky Choir Art Group
The Turetsky Men's Chorus | |
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From left to right: Oleg Blyahorchuk, Evgeny Tulinov, Vyacheslav Fresh, Konstantin Kabo, Mikhail Kuznetsov, Mikhaill Turetsky, Alex Alexandrov, Boris Goryachev, Evgeny Kulmis and Igor Zverev, performing at the Green Theater (Moscow), 2011. | |
Background information | |
Origin | Moscow, Russia |
Genres | Vocal, Crossover, A cappella |
Years active | 1989 | - present
Labels | Nikitin |
Website | http://www.arthor.ru/ |
Members | Mikhail Turetsky, Evgeny Tulinov, Mikhail Kuznetsov, Alex Alexandrov, Evgeny Kulmis, Boris Goryachev, Oleg Blyahorchuk, Igor Zverev, Konstantin Kabo, Vyacheslav Fresh |
Past members | Arthur Keish, Valentin Suhodolets |
Turetsky Choir (Russian: Хор Турецкого) (art group) is a Russian men's a cappella ensemble and musical collective under the direction of Mikhail Turetsky. Their voices range from tenore contraltino to basso profundo.
Background
The Turetsky Men's Choir was established at the Moscow Choral Synagogue. The chorus made its debut in 1990 with Jewish liturgical and folk music in the philharmonic halls of Tallinn and Kaliningrad. Their repertoire has grown since to include opera, spiritual, folk and pop music in 10 different languages.
In his blog "Teruah Jewish Music" Jack Zaientz wrote, "I don't know if any of the choir members, including Turetsky, are Jewish or what being Jewish might mean to them... And I'm not sure how much it matters. Seeing a bunch of seriously good male vocalists singing Jewish music to a huge crowd of Russians, in the face of the centuries of discrimination that Russian Jews have faced, does my heart proud."[1]
"Very few people were interested in that kind of music at the time, and no one at all in the post-Soviet countries… … … So when I got an opportunity, I did some research in libraries in New York and Jerusalem and discovered this profound, diverse, and very stylish kind of music that was accessible at a basic human level… … … We understood that we had to have a broader scope and began to include secular material in our programs… … … Today, our repertoire contains music from the last four centuries – from Handel to Soviet pop hits, chanson, and the best examples of contemporary pop culture…"
The Milestones of The Turetsky Choir
- 1989 — Chorus formation by Mikhail Turetsky (founder and conductor) the Moscow Choral Synagogue
- 1990 — Thanks to the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the Choir made its official debut at the Moscow Choral Synagogue in 1990 and ever since, has been a vehicle throughout Russia for renewed interest in Jewish heritage. Music which was near extinction since 1917 was able to be heard again and is now a staple throughout Russia's synagogues. The Choir made its first concerts in Kaliningrad, Tallinn, Chisinau, Kiev, Leningrad, Moscow and other cities.
- 1991-1992 — Performances in the USA. The Choir sang in Washington, D.C. for Congress at the Chanukah celebration, the Park East Synagogue in New York, at Carnegie and Merkin Halls. They were invited to sing in Spain at the event, commemorating the 500th year since the Spanish expulsion of the Jews (participation in "Por Me Espiritu" festival together with Plácido Domingo, Isaak Stern, Zubin Meta's Orchestra). The event was attended by representatives of Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Morocco and China.
- 1993-1994 — Tours in England, Israel, USA, Poland. In 1993, the American Cantor Association awarded Mikhail Turetsky with the Golden Crown of the Cantors of the World Award. This award has been given to only eight people in the world.
- 1995-1996 — The Choir splits into two parts. One part stays in Moscow, the other goes to Miami, FL to work at the Temple Emmanu-El Synagogue. The "American" soloists become "honored Citizens of Miami. The Choir performs together with Julio Iglesias. The repertoire of the Choir grows to include folk songs, opera arias, Broadway classics, jazz pieces . When the group returned to Moscow in 1996 they caught the attention of Yuri Lujkov, the Mayor of Moscow, who named the group Moscow's official Jewish Choir of the government.
- 1997 — The group took part in over 100 concerts in Iosif Kobzon's Russian farewell tour. "The Turetsky Choir" was recognized as a "state choir".
- 1998-1999 — The Choir tours the CIS, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, and the USA. During the Choir's stay in the US, February 6 is announced the "Day of the Moscow Jewish Choir".
- 2000-2001 — Joint tour with Iosif Kobzon. Performances in Israel, the USA, Australia, Germany, the CIS. The Choir performs on the stage of the Moscow State Variety Theatre.
- 2002 — Mikhail Turetsky receives the title "Honored Artist of the Russian Federation" for his achievements in art.[3]
- 2002-2003 — Touring the USA and Europe.
- January 2004 — The first solo performance of the "Turetsky Choir Art Group." The Program «The Ten Voices that Overwhelmed the World" brought Mikhail the title of the Man of the Year 2004 in the nomination "Cultural Event of the Year" of the national "The Man of the Year Award."
- December 2004 — The Turetsky Choir presents the program "When Men Are Singing" in the State Kremlin Palace with participation of Emma Chaplin and Gloria Gaynor.
- January 2005 — Performing at the best concert halls of the USA in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlantic City, Boston, Chicago.
- 2005-2006 — Turetsky Choir's Anniversary Tour "Born to Sing" in more than 100 cities of Russia and the CIS.
- 2006-2007 — Turetsky Choir tours 70 cities of Russia and the CIS with the program "Music of All Times and Peoples"
- 2007 — Turetsky Choir receives the Russian Music Award "Record 2007" for the best classical album of the year (the Collector's edition of the "Great Music" ), the Choir is recognized for the children's charity concert "Be Kind-Hearted Today!". The concert of the group for children at the main platform of the country in the State Kremlin Palace which passed in March the 27-th with support of the Moscow’s Government and the Committee of Culture of the Moscow-city became the bright beginning of the action. More than 5,000 children (gifted and talented children, children from socially unprotected and having many children families, children-invalids) have visited the concert. Turetsky Choir gets a Yearly National "Emotion" Award in the category "Respect".[4]
"Our action is an unique possibility to address to enormous audience with call to create good, - Mikhail Turetsky considers, - after all it is not a secret that the language of the music is popular and clear for each of us, as no another. The storm of applause, sea of flowerers, enthusiastic children’s faces, fire in their eyes, all of this is indicative that purpose put by us was reached"
- 2007-2008 — "Hallelujah to Love" Tour around Russia and the CIS. The Choir gives a record-breaking number of concerts in Moscow. The «Turetsky Choir» performs 4 times at the Kremlin Palace, and have one additional concert at State Concert Hall "Rossiya" (ru: ГЦКЗ "Россия"), in Luzhniki.
- 2008-2009 — Touring Russia, the CIS, and the USA with the new program "And the Show Goes On..."
- 2010-2011 — anniversary tour "20 years: 10 voices"
- 2011 — tour "The beginning" starts.
Soloists
Soloist | Started to sing in the choir |
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Mikhail Turetsky — tenor, National Artist of the Russian Federation, founder and the leader of the "Turetsky Choir" Art Group.
Mikhail was born in Moscow in 1962. He received a degree in «Choir Conducting» from the Gnesins' Academy of Music. Following an internship as a symphonic conductor, he conducted at the Children's Chapel, the Political Song Ensemble and the choir of the Yuri Sherling Theater. Since 1990 he is the organizer, conductor and art-project director (choirmaster) of the male choir of the Moscow Choral Synagogue. Now it is well known as the Choir of Mikhail Turetsky (Turetsky's Choir). "I can't even imagine myself being in another field of activity but music… It is absolutely impossible to perform complicated compositions without a conductor. While conducting the choir, I try at the same time to involve the whole auditorium into our musical dialogue. The 21st century might be by right called the age of information and professionalism. When I hear a splendid harmonic sound, see a real stage direction and set design, I can then realize that we deal with a group of true professionals" Mikhail Turetsky[5]
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1989 |
Alex Alexandrov — dramatic baritone
He is one of the Choir's youngest soloists as well as the most veteran. Alex is also an assistant choreographer. Many of the dance pieces in our concerts were staged with his help. He perfectly covers the voices of other pop stars like Toto Cutugno and Boris Moiseev. Born in Moscow in 1972. He graduated from the Choral Singing College named after Sveshnikov and The Gnesins' Academy of Music. "The Turetsky Choir is my whole life, or at least a major part of it. Here I grew up, and formed my personality. I cannot imagine my life without the Choir. The Maestro is not just a leader and the founder of the choir, but a second father to me… I believe in myself. I have something to aim for, and I just have a pleasure of living." Alex Alexandrov[5]
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1990 |
Evgeny Kulmis - bass-profondo, director of the choir in the past, poet.
Bass-profundo is a rear natural voice and no ordinary bass. It acquires very low notes, much lower than in a bass. This sound is more authentically cantorial. He was born near the city of Chelyabinsk in the Southern Urals in 1966. His rise in the musical world began as a pianist. He graduated Gnessins Russian Music Academy, and then became a postgraduate specializing in Musicology (the Department of Music History, Theory, and Composing). Evgeny Kulmis is the author of poems, translations of selected musical compositions, executed by the choir. For example, he wrote the text accompanying the original compositions in "Twilight" of the Electric Light Orchestra. "This is my something that I like and this is what I can do. Probably I shall die in the choir... I feel much more confident as a performer in the team.... My education is as a theorist and not training as a singer. But now singing has become my profession, my life." Evgeny Kulmis[5]
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1991 |
Evgeny Tulinov — dramatic operatic tenor, Distinguished Artist of the Russian Federation, assistant art director and a professional choir conductor.
Born in Moscow in 1964. He graduated from the Music College at the Moscow Conservatory and from The Gnesins' Academy of Music. In his first student years, Tulinov sang liturgy in the Church of Saint John the Warrior, conducted the choir at the Recreation Centre and worked in the "Male Chamber Choir" conducted by V. M. Rybin. "Singing in an operatic style is my greatest pleasure. I look at singing from an actor's point of view. I imagine how I would have acted the character with all the drama... We are all creative associates, we are like some substance that exists outside of the real world. We understand each other and speak the same language." Evgeny Tulinov[5]
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1991 |
Mikhail Kuznetsov — tenor altino, Distinguished Artist of the Russian Federation. Tenor altino is very rare natural voice. He can sing both male and female arias.
Born in Moscow in 1962, Kuznetsov graduated from The Gnesins' Academy of Music. Then he sang in the Moscow Chamber Choir conducted by Vladimir Minin and in the Male Choir of the publishing department of the "Moscow Patriarchy" magazine. "The choir for me is like home. Here I can feel my professional growth and satisfy my personal and professional ambitions. I feel the desire to live and to work more and more… Every time that I go on stage, I am trying to give the audience as much love and warmth as I can give." Mikhail Kuznetsov[5]
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1992 |
Oleg Blyahorchuk, lyric tenor, multi-instrumentalist (he plays the piano, guitar, accordion, melodica).
Was born in 1966 in the city of Minsk in Belarus. He studied at Minsk Musical College. At his third year in college Oleg had his own vocal and instrumental group, in which he simultaneously was the leader, vocalist and keyboardist. After college, he entered the Minsk State Conservatoire in the specialty "choral conducting". He worked in the choir of the Belarus Radio and TV Company, where the main conductor was V.V. Rovdo, a student of People's Artist of the USSR A.V. Sveshnikov. Blyahorchuk then became a soloist of the concert orchestra of the Republic of Belarus under the leadership of Mikhail Finberg. "What I do think now about life and work? I am happy to be in demand as a musician. Not all of my classmates and friends are so lucky. The Choir is everything to me now - it is my work and my way of life, my way of earning my living altogether." Oleg Blyahorchuk[5]
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1996 |
Igor Zverev — bass
Born in 1968, in Moscow Region. He graduated from The Department of Choral Conducting of the Moscow Academy of Arts and Culture. He worked as a professional singer in the Academic Song and Dance Company of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation and then in the Polyansky's State Academic Symphonic Capella. "I understood that working with this group could give me, as an artist, a great opportunity for self-fulfillment and professional growth… Now I feel the energy of my own voice and I am more confident. It's like feeling your new self" Igor Zverev[5]
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2003 |
Boris Goryachev — lyric baritone
Born in Moscow, in 1971. Graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. Boris Goryachev worked in the Men's Chamber Choir "Akathist" under the management AV Malyutin. The team performed Russian spiritual music, which was then new and popular. In 1995 Goryachev joined the choir "Peresvet" as well as performing in his own quartet spiritual and Russian folk music. Boris and the "Turetsky Choir" met in 2003. "After a while you get used to the rapid pace. Now I cannot imagine my life without concerts and trips. Do you know what happiness is for a musician? When you feel confident in yourself, when you have a certain niche, when you see the grateful eyes of the audience, when you know that even that success does not fully reveal your voice capacity and that there is still much ahead..." Boris Goryachev[5]
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2003 |
Konstantin Kabo — baritone tenor
Born in Moscow in 1974. Graduated from Sveshnikov Musical College and The Russian University of Theatre Arts (GITIS). He sang in musicals including "Nord-Ost", "12 Chairs", "Romeo and Juliet", "Mama Mia". Simultaneously, he wrote the music for the program "The Circus on Ice". "I am pleased and happy. In the Choir I have found my "I". Work in the group gives me a huge charge of energy, which I gladly share with the public, as well as with people close to me" Konstantin Kabo[5]
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2007 |
Vyacheslav Fresh — counter-tenor (highest pitch of all male voices, which is equal to female contralto or mezzo-soprano).
Born in Moscow in 1982. He graduated from the Department of Music and Fine Arts of J. Gutenberg University in Mainz, (Germany). "I was not a professional singer. I can even say I was just a guy who had a good voice. There were millions of guys just like me… I recorded several songs from the repertoire of “Queen” and also some classical compositions and mailed all this to the Choir's office. Several months later I was invited for a live audition in Moscow. That was a miracle for me… Meeting and working with the Choir was one of the greatest good fortunes in my life. As a young musician it is an honor share the stage with professionals, to absorb their experience, their stage skills, their vocal skills, their acting skills. I will try to match the level of the group and to grow as a professional." Vyacheslav Fresh[5]
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2009 |
Discography
High Holidays (Jewish religious songs)
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Bravissimo
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Jewish Songs
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Star Duets (ru:Звёздные дуэты)
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Une vie d’amour (ru:Такая великая любовь)
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When the Men Sing (ru:Когда поют мужчины) (Concert in Haifa, DVD, 2004) (see the next DVD)- concert without Gloria Gaynor and Emma Chapplin. |
When the Men Sing (Concert in Moscow, DVD, 2004)
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Born to Sing (ru:Рожденные петь)
1st Part
2-nd Part
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Great Music (2 CD + DVD) (ru:Великая музыка)
Great Music DVD
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Moscow - Jerusalem (ru:Москва-Иерусалим) (2 CD + DVD)
Moscow - Jerusalem CD1
Moscow - Jerusalem CD2
Moscow - Jerusalem DVD
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Music of all times (ru:Музыка всех времен) (CD + 2 DVD)
CD: Music of all time
DVD 1: Music of all times (The Kremlin - 2006, Live)
DVD2:Hallelujah to Love (ru:Аллилуйя любви) / Kremlin Live DVD - 2008
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References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Choirs. |
- ↑ Zaientz, Jack (March 30, 2011). "The Turetsky Men's Choir - the Russian Jewish answer to Riverdance". Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ↑ http://www.rexus.lt/index.php/pageid/559
- ↑ http://graph.document.kremlin.ru/page.aspx?1;1290700
- ↑ http://www.emotionaward.ru/laureate2007.html
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 http://www.arthor.ru/ Official website
- Official website
- Passport Magazine about Mikhail Turetsky
- RJC-SPONSORED PROJECTS: MOSCOW JEWISH CHAMBER CHOIR
- Article about the choir in "Ogonyok" magazine ru: ТУРЕЦКИЙ НА МАРШЕ