MEPhI Male Choir

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The MEPhI Male Choir is a Russian men's chorus (Russian: Мужской хор МИФИ) made up exclusively of students, graduates and members of stuff of National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute).

The choir was founded in October 16, 1956 by Moscow Conservatory graduate Esther Rivkina (1912—1991), who led the choir during the following 30 years...

Artistic director

Nadezhda Malyavina, a former student of Moscow Conservatory professor Klavdy Ptitsa, has been the choir’s artistic director since 1987. By then, she had worked in the MEPhI Male Choir already for 10 years, during which time she also gained valuable choirmaster experience in the Moscow State Choir directed by another patriarch of Russian choral school, professor Vladislav Sokolov. Thanks to her talent and creative activity, the choir not only survived in the early 1990s (the hard times for many amateur choirs in Russia) but also received acknowledgement in the international field and among professional musicians.

Repertoire

The repertoire of the MEPhI Male Choir includes secular and spiritual Russian and Western choral classics, opera choruses; Russian folk songs; works by modern authors; popular songs of the Soviet period.

Since 1990s, despite its amateur status, the MEPhI Male Choir has been invited to perform together with leading Russian orchestras and conductors (Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yuri Simonov, Pavel Kogan and others) in productions such as:

• Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture (version with male chorus)
• Brahms, Alto Rhapsody (for alto, male chorus and orchestra);
• Rimsky-Korsakov, cantata Poem about Alexei, Man of God;
• Schumann, oratorio Paradise and the Peri;
• Franck, oratorio Les Béatitudes;
• Beethoven, Choral Fantasy (for piano, chorus, and orchestra);
• Beethoven, Symphony No. 9;
• Liszt, Faust Symphony;
• Sviridov, Oratorio Pathetique;
• Shostakovich, Symphony No. 13 (for bass soloist, bass chorus and orchestra)

International career

In the early 1990s — when the Soviet era was over and when MEPhI's students and members of the staff finally had the opportunity to go abroad without restrictions — the MEPhI Male Choir got places in some international competitions:

• the 1st place in the folk category in Riga (1992);
• the 1st place and the Grand-Prix in Valletta (1993);
• the 3d place in the equal voices category (1st and 2nd prizes were not awarded) of the Florilège Vocal de Tours (1994).

Those victories kick-started the choir’s international career: invitations from all over the world rolled in, and since then the choir has repeatedly gone on tour in countries of the near and relatively far abroad — in Estonia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain, Israel.

The choir's international mission in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is worth special mentioning. As a member of Russia's National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” delegation, the MEPhI Male Choir had the honour to sing at the openings of three sessions of the IAEA General Conference: the 47th in 2003, the 50th anniversary session in 2006, and the 56th in 2012

Participation in the World Choir Games

In July, 2016, MEPhI Male Choir became a champion of 9th World Choir Games (in Sochi) in Category C14 Male Choirs (gold medal, 82.75 points) and win a gold medal in Category C27 Folklore a cappella (88.63 points; the second result among the members of the category)

External links

• youtube.com/MEPHIchoir
• facebook.com/choirMEPHI

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