Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Nikolai Kornev, Honoured Artist of Russia

 

St Petersburg Chamber Chorus under Nikolai Kornev
 

The St Petersburg Chamber Chorus was founded in February 1977 by Nikolai Kornev, senior lecturer at the St Petersburg Conservatoire. From literally its very first performances, the ensemble drew the attention of the public and critics alike. The group's inherent purity and freshness of sound, its emotionality and precise reading of choral scores cannot but affect even the most exacting listeners.

In 1979, the chorus performed to great acclaim at the widely renowned festival Leningrad Musical Spring. It was at this time that the ensemble's intense activities began to take off. The chorus has won international competitions in Debrecen (Hungary), Marktoberdorf (Germany) and Arezzo (Italy). The St Petersburg Chamber Chorus is also an organiser of the St Petersburg International Festival of Choral Music, which has already been held four times. Over the years, this festival has won many friends and admirers, and has entered the catalogues published in the United Kingdom and in Germany listing Europe's most important music festivals.

The repertoire of the St Petersburg Chamber Chorus includes over three hundred concert programmes of works ranging from the Renaissance to the present day. It was the St Petersburg Chamber Chorus which first performed such works as Carissimi's Jephtha, Schubert's Stabat Mater, Purcell's King Arthur and Grechaninov's Ecumenical Mass for Russian audiences.

The chorus performs at concerts with the St Petersburg Philharmonic and the Capella and is emerging as a frequent participant at music festivals in Russia, recording music for theatre performances and films (among them Professor Dowell's Head, Neptune's Holiday, The Fountain, The Life of Klim Samgin, How to Become a Star and Rescue and Save to name but a few).
The St Petersburg Chamber Chorus has worked with many outstanding conductors, such as Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Valery Gergiev, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Ashkenazi and Georg Solti.
Currently, the ensemble is a frequent participant at the Stars of the White Nights festival, directed by Valery Gergiev.

 

  

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