Dimitri Pokrowski Ensemble
The Dimitri Pokrowski Ensemble is a Russian choir and dance formation. The ensemble has been preparing traditional Russian songs since 1973 and has since released numerous records and CDs.
biography
The ensemble was founded in 1973 by the Moscow musician and musicologist Dimitri Pokrowski. The reason for its creation was Pokrovski's observation that the traditional Russian songs with their numerous local variants were more and more in danger of being forgotten. Impressed by the unusual density and power of the old village music, he formed the Dimitri Pokrowski Ensemble together with young professional musicians and ethnologists. The aim of the ensemble was to preserve the old tradition and continue it on a contemporary level. The activities were multiform. On the one hand, Pokrowski and his colleagues carried out extensive field studies . The aim of these studies was to capture the different folkloric traditions as authentically as possible . For this purpose, musicians from the ensemble moved to the villages . Some of them lived temporarily in the corresponding village community. The main focus of the ensemble was rehearsing, playing and performing the music itself. In order to ensure the highest possible authenticity, the ensemble used the traditional costumes of the respective regions for performances and dance performances . Over the years, the repertoire has grown to more than 1000 songs: religious hymns, mocking and wedding songs, traditional dances, but also compositions by modern authors.
The ensemble received official recognition from Mikhail Gorbachev . After the work of the ensemble had remained relatively unnoticed during the Brezhnev era, it presented Dimitri Pokrowski and his ensemble with an award for the promotion of Russian culture in 1988. The ensemble enjoys an outstanding reputation in the international ethno music scene. The group performed numerous tours at home and abroad. She made numerous TV appearances and was a guest at festivals as well as in major concert halls such as New York's Carnegie Hall , Moscow 's Tchaikovsky Hall and the Berlin Philharmonic . Choir director Pokrowski gave lectures at the US Smithsonian Institute and Princeton University . In addition, he wrote templates for film scores and worked as a musical director in various theaters. Dimitri Pokrowski describes the background of his ensemble as follows: “We started out as collectors of folk songs. We traveled all over Russia, especially to the small villages and rural areas where the agriculture, songs and customs have remained the same as they have been for many, many years. On the one hand we became a living library, on the other hand we became a kind of cultural laboratory. The great 19th century Russian composer Mikhail Glinka said: 'Songs are the soul of the nation.' We would like to share these songs with you - as a kind of window into the Russian soul. "
Choir founder Dimitri Pokrowski died on June 29, 1996 in Moscow. The ensemble itself continued its work; In 2008 it made two appearances in Germany ( Hamburg and Kiel ). In 2011 the formation consisted of the following singers: Svetlana Dorokhova, Marina Cherkashina, Vladimir Korolev, Maria Nefedova, Andrey Samsonov, Irina Shishkina, Svetlana Sorokina-Subbotina, Mikhail Stepanich, Alexey Tabatchikov and Olga Yukecheva.
Discography (selection)
- 1978: Russian Polyphony (Melodija Records)
- 1988: Earthbeat (Living Music Records)
- 1990: Faces of Russia (Trikont)
- 1991: The Wild Field (Virgin Records)
- 1994: Stravinsksi: Les Noces (Elektra / Nonesuch Records)
- 1997: To Drive the Dark Away (Revels Records)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Biography ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Official website of the group, stated information status: 2011 (English)
- ↑ a b The Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble , world music website livingmusik.com, accessed August 3, 2011
- ↑ a b Pokrovsky Ensemble: Traditional Chants of Russia , biography entry on the website of the Engelhardt Promotions concert agency, March 24, 2011
- ↑ Dmitri Pokrovsky is dead , avantart.com, accessed August 3, 2011
literature
- Simone Broughton, Kim Burton, Mark Ellington, David Muddyman, Richard Trillo (Eds.): World Music. World Music Rough Guide . Chapter: Tatiana Didenko and Simon Broughton: Music from the People. The new Russia. JB Metzler, 2000, ISBN 3-476-01532-7 .