Slavyanka Chorus is an outstanding musical and cultural institution. Over its 40 year history, the choir has performed hundreds of concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area and California, produced eleven CD’s (including one by the world famous Harmonia Mundi label), and provided music for the soundtracks of four motion pictures. Honored twice by the American Choral Directors Association, in 2016 it was the only American choir invited to come to Moscow to join in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
In addition to its musical focus, the chorus has also worked for forty years as a goodwill ambassador, to increase understanding between the peoples of Russia and America. Founded in the latter part of the Cold War, Slavyanka has undertaken five tours to the Soviet Union, Russia and the Balkans; worked with the San Francisco Mayor’s Office to establish a Sister City relationship with Leningrad (now St. Petersburg); and at the request of the Mayor’s Office, welcomed Mikhail Gorbachev on his visit to San Francisco.
At its core, Slavyanka seeks to entertain, inform, excite and educate listeners in the haunting harmonies of the Orthodox Church and Eastern European cultures. This a capella chorus of men who gather every Tuesday evening to sing the sacred and secular music of Russia and Eastern Europe and the Balkans invariably finds "flow"** in the communal experience of voices in harmony. Founded in San Francisco in 1979 by two alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus, the group sings concerts, goes on periodic European tours and has recorded numerous CDs. --- slavyanka.org --- ** Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi --- http://qlrc.cgu.edu/mike.htm