The Red Army Choir

The Red Army Choir, (after the fall of the USSR called the Alexandrov Ensemble after its first director Alexander Alexandrov), is the official choir of the Russian Armed forces. It started out around 1928 as a small group of vocalists, which grew to 300 performers by 1933, including dancers and an orchestra. After Alexandrov died, the group was taken over by his son Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov. The choir became so well disciplined that he could sometimes leave stage for up to a half hour, with the choir performing perfectly despite his absence. For their discipline, and the generally stellar quality of their musical performance, the group became world renowned.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, the group continued on, only with the renaming of the group.

I found out about this group from a youtube video of a performance by the choir in 1992, in the Tchaikovsky Hall, in Moscow. I listened to the first part and just couldn’t stop. The vocals are supremely beautiful and the dancing is really quite interesting (the dancers all maintain a distinctive Russian folk-style dress, and dance with an obvious ballet influence.)

I have linked the video below; it is well worth your time to watch it! 

Have a great Winter break, happy holidays, and a great new year. See you all in class next semester!