The Kaliningrad region choir

The Kaliningrad region choir was founded as a chamber choir in 1991 by Sergey Makeev, a graduate of Gnesins State Music College, who was later on its leader for 10 years. Since 1998 the choir’s art leader is Konstantin Belonogov, a graduate of the conservatoire in Nizhniy Novgorod. He is famous not only as a talented band-master, but also as a composer, an author of a number of folk songs’ remakes. During the years of its existence the choir took part in International contests and festivals, and as a representative of the Russian choir art it demonstrated its skill in Poland, Lithuania, France, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Ireland and Sweden. In the opinion of musical critics and the audience the choir was recognized as a decoration of many International festivals of choir music. The choir’s first compact disk was released in 1996 and was recorded in France. The repertoire of the choir covers all styles and epochs: from the austere and high style of old masters to the Russian folklore. The programmes consist of sacred music of Russian and foreign composers; Russian choir music of Rakhmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Bortnyansky, Tchesnokov, Sviridov, Shchedrin, etc; compositions of modern foreign musicians; Russian folk songs including remakes in K.Belonogov’s original style. Lately the activity of the choir is closely associated with the Kaliningrad region musical theatre. The result of this cooperation is new choruses in the repertoire of the choir. By the 60-year anniversary of the Victory a new solo programme was prepared; it included wartime songs. A lot of attention is also paid to compositions in other languages: German, Italian, French, and Latin. The flexibility of the repertoire policy makes the work of the choir mobile and efficient, as tastes and interests of the audience and events, to which the choir is invited, are taken into consideration.