The Khreschatyk Academic Chamber Choir has been a regular participant of the Kyiv Music Fest since its inception and is an ardent advocate of Ukrainian contemporary academic music. “As part of each festival, we have 2-3 concerts, where the world premieres of the national school of composers are heard – both famous artists and the young generation,” says Pavlo Struts, its permanent director.

“The choral marathon is an opportunity to break the blockade caused by the pandemic and bring the leading original choirs to one stage, to show the best works of modern Ukrainian composers and the latest stylistic trends in the vocal and choral genre.” According to Pavlo Struts, the Khreschatyk Choir has put choral art and performance on a new stage of development – often combining the choral genre with theatrical art, choreography, etc. Creating our own programs and productions has become the credo of our choir, and as a result – sold out on all the author’s programs of the choir and the delight of conductors, choirs at music forums in Western Europe and in China and Latin America.

The concert performance of our choir (which took place at 15:00 on September 29, 2020) featured many high-quality works, most of which were performed for the first time! I would especially like to single out Lesya Dychko’s choral triptych “Dumka” in the words of Volodymyr Kolomiyets. Incredibly beautiful music with non-standard compositional solutions, as well as a work by Mykhailo Shved – “Pryydit, pryymit, sebo svit vichnyy “, written and stylized in the Byzantine style. There was, as always, bright and extraordinary Viktor Tymozhynsky – Two choirs to the words of Lesya Ukrainka and extremely insightful “Prayer to Maria to the words of Taras Shevchenko – Alexander Yakovchuk.