Sergei Taneyev – Сantata “Ioann Damaskin”
Russian and Belarusian composers’ works
To the 100th anniversary of People’s Artist of the USSR Professor Viktor Rovdo
and towards the 90th anniversary of the Belarusian State Academy of Music
“CHORUS AS FATE”
Student Choir of the Belarusian State Academy of Music
Conductor – Inessa Bodyako
Honored Collective of the Republic of Belarus
Academic Choir of Belteleradiocompany
Conductor – Andrey Savritsky
Chorus of boys and youths named after I.A.Zhuravlenko of the Republican Music College of the Belarusian State Academy of Music
Conductor – Semyon Klimanov
The soloists of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus
Honored Artist of the Republic of Belarus
Stanislav Trifonov baritone
Anastasia Khrapitskaya soprano
Alexander Mikhnyuk tenor
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus
Chief Conductor – People’s Artist of the Republic of Belarus
Alexander Anissimov
Conductor – Alexander Anissimov
The author of the project is Inessa Bodyako
On November 21, 2021 in the Belarusian State Philharmonic Society will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Viktor Vladimirovich Rovdo.
In the long history of Belarusian choral music, there are only a few names that have become truly iconic. One of such symbols, undoubtedly, is the name of Viktor Vladimirovich Rovdo, an outstanding choirmaster who laid down his own traditions of performance and created a special culture of choral sound, which is carefully preserved by subsequent generations. Having received a musical education at the Lithuanian Conservatory, as well as having graduated from the theological seminary and the medical faculty of Vilnius University with a specialty “surgeon”, the maestro has repeatedly admitted that he is a doctor, a priest and an artist in one person. During his postgraduate studies at the Moscow Conservatory with the famous choral conductor Alexander Vasilyevich Sveshnikov, Viktor Rovdo led leading Russian choral groups, and since 1956 – almost all the major choirs of Belarus: the State Academic Choral Chapel of Belarus, the concert choir of the Belarusian State Academy of Music, the choir of Belarusian Television and Radio. Viktor Rovdo made spiritual music the property of the secular public, published numerous collections of choral scores, performed and recorded on the radio all the song folklore collected by the great gatherer Grigory Schirma.
In 1975, Viktor Vladimirovich Rovdo became the artistic director of the Conservatory Concert Choir and over the years has trained more than 800 choirmasters. “Every person is accountable to God, to himself, to society, and he should at least from time to time ask the question: who I am on this earth, what I am doing, what is my soul filled with?” – said the professor. Rovdo served the choral cause and saw in this service the meaning of his life.
The concert, the author of the idea of which was the current head of the student choir of the Belarusian State Academy of Music Inessa Bodyako, will feature the Academic Choir of the Belteleradiocompany (conductor – Andrei Savritsky), the Student Choir of the Belarusian State Academy of Music (conductor – Inessa Bodyako), the Choir of boys and youths named after I.A.Zhuravlenko of the Republican Music College under Belarusian State Academy of Music (conductor – Semyon Klimanov). Russian and Belarusian composers’ works will be performed in memory of the Maestro together with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus under the baton of People's Artist of Belarus Alexander Anissimov, the program will be based on the “Russian requiem” – lyric and philosophical cantata by Sergei Taneyev “Ioann Damaskin”. The anniversary concert will be attended by the soloists of the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus – laureates of international competitions Anastasia Khrapitskaya (soprano) and Alexander Mikhnyuk (tenor) and Honored Artist of the Republic of Belarus Stanislav Trifonov (baritone).
