November 27, 2020 at the Kyiv Secondary Specialized Lysenko Music School had an extraordinary event – a concert of the Khreschatyk Academic Chamber Choir under the iconic name “Returning to Alma Mater”. This name is not accidental, because most of the choristers, as well as the artistic director and chief conductor of the choir – Pavlo Struts, are graduates of this school.

The school’s director, Serhiy Volkov, greeted the staff at the institution and noted the importance of such events for both the world-famous choir and the school’s students, who may soon be standing next to their senior colleagues. According to Pavlo Strutz: “Khreschatyk Choir is a group that tries to create new directions and genres in choral art, taking all the best that is in the world practice of choral art, combining many different styles and directions.” The choir works a lot in the classical style, but the main achievement of the team is the creation of author’s programs, which are presented both in Ukraine and abroad. Evidence of this is the diverse program of today’s concert, which includes arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs in a modern arrangement, works of world classics, African-American spirituals and works by contemporary composers. Each member of the Khreschatyk choir is not just a chorister, but a soloist who can be a solo performer if necessary. According to P. Strutz, this is one of the selection criteria for this well-known team.

The concert was held in an extremely warm and homely atmosphere. At the end of the performance, the head of the conducting and choir department of Lysenko Music School – Iryna Tikhonova, congratulated the team with an extremely bright performance and expressed gratitude from all present. Due to the global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, this concert was held in compliance with all anti-epidemic measures, but a limited number of listeners were able to attend it live.