Kyiv children’s choir "Shchedryk"

The children’s choir "Shchedryk" was founded in April 1971 by a well-known Choirmaster Iryna Mykolayivna Sablina. According to her idea, this group was intended to cultivate excellent musical taste instead of following the existing children’s choir tradition directed towards poetizing a happy Soviet childhood. Thus, it has succeeded to open the world of classical music for many children.
The main idea that was taken by Iryna Mykolayivna to form the basis of artistic activity of the Choir was the idea of performing the best examples of world choral music of different styles and epochs in the original language. Such an approach to repertoire demands acquiring various performance techniques which allows revealing the artistic potential of the children in its full measure. While expanding their view of the world, this also contributes to cultivating an interest and respect to different world cultures, allows feeling yourself as a participant of the world musical process. From the very first moment of joining the choir the children learn how to develop a rich vocal palette to effectively reveal a musical image.
"Shchedryk" has always distinguished itself by its crystal-pure, "flying", so-called "branded" sound. The Choir’s repertoire impresses professionals with its absence of any insuperable "barriers of complexity" of the performed pieces. The distinctive feature of the Choir is also an exceptional sincerity and depth of childlike feelings realized in performance, which are not to be estimated professionally.
Ideological changes have never affected the Choir’s devotion to the great art, though a life of the collective, its formation and development depends much on national ideology. While having started its own musical "euro-integration" as far back as Soviet times, "Shchedryk" succeeded in becoming "a choir which travels abroad" much later than other child collectives. However, broad artistic contacts with different USSR chorus groups made concert life of the Choir really vibrant and interesting.
In the 90’ "Shchedryk" discovered the world for itself while not even imaging that it would become a real discovery for the whole world...
information, photo from official site: http://www.shchedryk.kiev.ua/eng/