The Festive Choir of the Danilov Monastery Visits Samarkand

On 24 December 2018, members of the Festive Choir of the Danilov Monastery visited our ancient city.

The unique choir of the Danilov Monastery was first mentioned in ancient chronicles. Later, in publications of the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, outstanding figures of Russian choral culture, Pavel Grigoryevich Chesnokov, Dmitry Vasilyevich Allemanov and Alexander Dmitrievich Kastalsky, published their reviews and articles about the monastery choir. Through its art the choir won the love and respect of both ordinary people and the Russian nobility.

After the revolution, when many monasteries and churches had been closed, the vicar of the monastery and rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, Bishop Feodor (Pozdeevsky), invited well-known singers from various choirs to the Danilov Monastery. In this way the "golden line-up" of the Festive Choir was assembled, and despite a very difficult time for the country, the choir was at its height. The ensemble took part in divine services until 1930 and was disbanded when the monastery was closed.
The Festive Choir was revived in 1989 under the direction of a remarkable precentor, Hegumen Tobias (Glazyrin). He gave the ensemble a special status by inviting professional singers into it, as had been the pre-revolutionary tradition of the Danilov Monastery, and led it to its first success in 1991: the Grand Prix at the International Competition of Church Music in Budapest. Afterwards the ensemble performed many times at various international festivals of sacred music, where it became a prize-winner.

In 1994, Georgy Safonov, a graduate of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, became artistic director and permanent chief precentor of the Festive Choir of the Danilov Monastery. The main task of the new precentor and inspirer of the ensemble was to continue the work of bringing it back to the beautiful and powerful sound it had before the revolution.

The choir dates its new history from the moment when, at the beginning of 1995, Archdeacon Roman Tamberg first invited the ensemble to take part in a concert of choral and diaconal art within the International Festival of Sacred Music in Moscow, held with great success in the Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The performance caused a great stir, and the choir gained admirers not only in Moscow but also in other cities of Russia. The choir began to be invited to concerts, solemn events and festivals of sacred music abroad. In 1997 the choir made its first tours of Siberia and Transbaikalia and visited Germany, France and Italy.

Great support for the developing ensemble came from the Trekhgornaya Manufaktura company and personally from the Chairman of its Board of Directors, Lolita Vladimirovna Danilina. Thanks to its patrons, the choir was invited to the Christmas and Easter festivals in St. Petersburg and visited Greece, America and Australia. For the first time, the ensemble took part in an Easter concert in the famous Grand Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic, on whose stage such great masters as Yevgeny Mravinsky, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein and many others performed. Received with great warmth by the audience and the management of the hall, the choir became a constant and welcome guest of the northern capital.
The choir took a long time to reach the point of performing large concert programmes before Moscow audiences. Its first concert took place in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory at the beginning of 2000. Later the ensemble performed in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Small Hall and the Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and the concert hall of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music.

Since 2009 the Festive Choir of the Danilov Monastery has worked actively with the Moscow International House of Music (MMDM), where the ensemble gives as many as seven concerts a year. This collaboration has inspired creative exploration and given the choir strength to move forward.

The choir attaches particular importance to its collaboration with Professor Anatoly Viktorovich Konotop, who promotes the art of Old Russian chant in Europe and works actively on deciphering and arranging ancient manuscripts. Thanks to this partnership, the choir of the Danilov Monastery visits the ancient monasteries of Macedonia and the Supraśl Lavra in Poland, and studies and records ancient chants.

The choir has visited many holy places, among them the Kiev Caves Lavra, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the Pskov-Caves, Verkhoturye, Raifa, Svir, Tolga and St. Elisabeth monasteries, and the monasteries of the Moscow region. One of its most significant journeys was to the Italian city of Bari, where the relics of St. Nicholas rest. At the invitation of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, the ensemble twice visited Syria, singing in the most ancient Syrian monasteries connected with the lives of the Holy Apostle Paul, St. Thecla and the Holy Apostle Luke.

Today the Festive Choir of the Danilov Monastery is one of the world's leading ensembles performing sacred music. The choir has 30 professional singers with higher education in vocal and choral performance. It is a regular participant in international conferences and festivals of church music in Russia and abroad, and in various charity and youth festivals. The geography of the choir's concert activity is constantly expanding. The ensemble tours actively across the cities of Russia, from the southern regions to the Far East. Thanks to its unique repertoire, warmth, sincerity and inimitable manner of performance, the choir of the Danilov Monastery has won the love of audiences in many countries of the world. "The Singers of St. Daniel of Moscow" are well known in Ukraine, the Baltic states, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Greece, France, Germany, England, Holland, America, Australia and New Zealand.
Cooperation with public organizations and foundations enables the ensemble to take part in cultural and educational work. Thanks to the National Foundation for the Development of Culture "New Peredvizhniki," the choir has toured almost all the closed cities in Russia, introducing audiences to the traditions of Russian choral culture. Warm and friendly relations link the choir with the Interregional Public Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called, and the ensemble has repeatedly taken part in festivals and concert programmes organized by the foundation. During one of its trips to Greece, the choir of the Danilov Monastery had the honour of singing at the opening and closing ceremonies of the World Public Forum "Dialogue of Civilizations" on the island of Rhodes and of taking part in divine services.
A large place in the ensemble's creative work is occupied by its regular annual collaboration with the Academy of Early Music in St. Petersburg, where members of the Danilov Monastery choir share their experience of performing chant manuscripts with the Academy's guests from various countries of the world.

An important part of the choir's life is its constant contact with the monastery brotherhood, and especially with the vicar of the Danilov Monastery, Archimandrite Alexy (Polikarpov), under whose skilful guidance the choir has grown as a liturgical ensemble. This was recognized by the highest leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church: in 2003 His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II granted the choir "patriarchal" status. Today the choir continues to sing at services on Sundays and feast days at the Danilov Monastery. On great feasts the choir sings at solemn festive services led by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. On 12 September 2014, in recognition of his labours for the good of the Church and on the occasion of his 50th birthday, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill awarded Georgy Safonov, precentor of the Danilov Monastery choir, the Order of the Holy Right-Believing Prince Daniel of Moscow, 3rd class.