Don Kosaken Chor was a group of former officers of the Russian Imperial Army, discovered singing in Istanbul, where they had fled after the defeat of their army unit in the Crimea. They made their formal concert debut in Vienna in 1923, led by their founder, conductor and composer, Serge Jaroff. Fifty years of the Don Cossack Choir, 50 years of undiminished popularity, 50 years of world success! This means absolute dedication to the highest standards of performance, to power, greatness, but also a huge expenditure of energy and artistic effort, to remain on the lonely heights of fame with youthful vigour for half a century. The choir, founded in 1921 in the Turkish barracks of Chilingir near Istanbul, with Serge Jaroff always leading it as conductor and arranger, is something unique in concert history. Who is this Serge Jaroff, who exercises such a compulsive fascination when he conducts his choir? Cossack cadet leading a squadron of cavalry in the Russian civil war? World-famous conductor of a unique choir? Pupil and friend of contemporary Russian composers, himself the creator of considerable compositions? Serge Jaroff is all this and much more. Choral singing is his empire, and he controls all the registers of this organ of human voices with virtuoso skill. Serge Jaroff was born in a small town in the district of Kostroma in north-east Russia. At the age of five he already sang in the local church choir. His father, a merchant, sent him to school at the age of seven. At ten he passed the entrance examination of the Synodal Music School in Moscow. In this most famous conservatory for church music and choir conducting Serge Jaroff studied for eleven years, due to a scholarship for extraordinary musicianship, and had brilliant results in the final examination. These must have been the best years of his life. He sang in the church choir of the Aspensky cathedral in the Kremlin. He often thinks sadly of the wonderful Easter services they had. Everything is now so long ago and far away! Each year the Synodal Music School prepared a new Mass for Russia's greatest church, partly to honour the composers with their interpretation. He had plentiful opportunities to take part in performances of the works of leading composers. Katalsky was for years director of the Synodal School and among the teachers were Tchaikovsky, Tchesnokov, Rachmaninov and Gretchaninov. After the final examinations, his formal education came to an end on 20th March 1917. Then Serge Jaroff went to the Alexander Military Academy and was promoted to Lieutenant. The revolution smouldered menacingly, and Lieutenant Jaroff went to the front to fight against the Bolsheviks. Special units of cadets and officers were formed and with one of these Jaroff went to Romania and from there back to Moscow, where the Civil War was raging. He fought on the White Russian side in a brigade of Don Cossacks against the Red North. After the victory of the Reds against the White Army the loyalist troops cut their way through to the Crimea, where a large part of the White Russian navy lay. They escaped in the Russian ships, covered by English and French cruisers, to Turkey, where most of the Russian troops were interned at Chilingir. In this prison camp Serge Jaroff formed the Don Cossack Choir. Good fortune brought the choir to Austria, where their first concert was performed in the ceremonial hall of the "Hofburg" of Vienna. A new period of life started. In 1924 the Don Cossacks performed their first concerts in Germany, in Munich, Hamburg and other cities, then moved on to Belgium, Holland, England, and in 1926 to France. Their 100th concert was given in Budapest in 1928. And so the world's most famous choir travelled from continent to continent until 1939, when the Second World War broke out. All the members succeeded in escaping in good time to America, where they all became resident and received US citizenship. The choir then travelled in Mexico, Cuba, South and Central America. In Hollywood they featured in several movies. In 1945, immediately after the war, the choir revisited Germany with a concert at Frankfurt on Main. From longing for their second home, the cradle of their success, the choir undertook a tour to sing for the American army of occupation, including the headquarters of General Eisenhower. Before some of the crowned heads were robbed of their thrones, the Don Cossack Choir performed concerts in royal palaces: at first for King Boris of Bulgaria in the period from 1921 to 1923, then for King George of Greece in 1924. They sang before King George V in 1925 and again in 1928, and before King Christian of Denmark and King Gustav of Sweden in 1927 as well as before the last Queen of Rumania in the same year. In 1956 the Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff travelled for the first time to Japan for a seven-week tour. They were the first western artists who were allowed to sing in the imperial palace and to perform a concert for the Emperor himself. The same tour brought the choir to Australia. The Original Don Cossacks Choir is probably the most famous choir of the world, and Serge Jaroff, its conductor und founder, the guarantor for a constantly maintained musical standard, is the spirit of the choir, which he conducts by slight gestures and controls completely. Slightly built but full of dynamic energy, he knows to fuse the voices of his Cossacks into one sound. And despite the astonishing harmony, the plurality of voices, each that of a soloist, is never lost. Each year the choir comes for a complete concert season to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain and Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In spring and summer the long-planned concert tours go through the countries on the other side of the globe. In this way the choir is practically always en route. Greater distances often have to be travelled by air so as to reach the next concert in time. Today this world-famous choir visits your town and Serge Jaroff conducts a magnificent Jubilee concert. They were immensely popular in American and international tours in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The men, dressed as Cossacks, sang a cappella in a repertory of Russian sacred and operatic music, army songs and folk songs. Cossack dancing was eventually added to their programs. It is the year 1920. In Russia the civil war is raging. Troops from the Don region are interned in Turkey, in Chilingir, a village many hours from Istanbul. Christmas is approaching. The men suffer from hunger, cold and loneliness - many die from cholera. From the former regimental choirs the best remaining singers join together, among them a young Cossack officer, Serge Jaroff. In two rows the men stand in a semicircle, in their dark blue uniforms, the trousers with a broad, dark red lateral stripe, a leather belt slung round the loose shirt. Their eyes look forward at a small, unprepossessing Cossack lieutenant. A tall, loose-limbed young Cossack, Sasha, takes two steps forward: »Tovarishchi«, he says with trembling voice, »we will start by singing >Save, Oh God, Thy People<.« The slim hands of Seriosha move almost imperceptibly, and immediately the voices come softly to life. With sad faces the Cossacks listen to the hymn. Would they ever again see their homeland on the river Don? Who could have foreseen that this little group of tired und emaciated Cossacks from the river Don would captivate the world with their songs? In spring 1921, what was left of the Cossack regiments was moved to a Greek island, Lemnos. A village let them use a little church, where they could hold services by the Russian rites - the Cossack choir was always there. At Easter the men sang together with the Greek choir of Lemnos - and were enthusiastically applauded by the island people. In open-air performances they entertained the French and English, under whose protection they were, with their merry Cossack songs. In Spring 1921, the survivors of the former Don Cossack regiments were shipped to a Greek island, Lemnos, or Lomonos as the men called it. A village gave them the use of a small church, where they held services according to the Russian rites, always with the participation of their choir. At Easter the men sang together with the Greek choir of Lemnos, to great applause from the congregation. At open-air concerts they also entertained the occupying French and English forces with their merry Cossack songs. In 1923 the Cossacks arrived in Bulgaria, at the port of Burgas (Brusa), where they saw more bread than for a very long time. Then there was a period of quarantine, reorganization of sections into working parties, the building of railway lines, work in factories and steel mills. Prison camp life and banishment were finally at an end. In order to earn some money, the men gave their first proper concert in the harbour town of Burgas. They painted giant advertising posters and displayed them all over the town. With takings of 2 dollars and 8 marks, their appearance in Burgas was their first success. At that time the famous Russian dancer Tamara Karsavina was residing in Sofia. She was deeply impressed by the choir, which she heard singing in a concert at the Russian legation. La Karsavina had a wide acquaintanceship and arranged many invitations for the choir to perform at diplomatic receptions, in the Spanish, American and French embassies. In order to gain their livelihood, members of the choir took on all possible forms of employment. Jaroff, having graduated from the Synodal Choral School in Moscow, was not suited to bottle-washing jobs, but soon found employment as a singing master at the municipal high school. In Summer the choir was invited to give a religious concert in the cathedral of Sofia, attended by many Russian émigrés. These first successes encouraged Jaroff to find ways of enabling his singers, numbering 32, to earn their livings through concerts. The League of Nations representative in Sofia was a great admirer of the choir and wanted to help them to leave the Balkans and establish themselves in western Europe. He it was who brought them into contact with a factory-owner from France. This was the first time that the choir heard the name of Montargie, a small French town where the factory was located and had a brass band. It was proposed that the singers should work there as the company choir. The negotiations were held in their native language as the factory-owner's wife was Russian. Travelling expenses were gathered with the aid of the League of Nations, the church and a donation from Tamara Karsavina. After a farewell church service, the choir left Sofia on 23 June 1923 with a visa for France, but could not afford rail travel further than Belgrade and had to take a river-boat. There they overcame their reticence and entertained passengers with Russian folk songs. The money-box began to fill up again. Vienna, summer 1923. Well-kept streets, large and beautiful houses, well-dressed people, everywhere contented faces in love with life. It seemed as though there had never been a war. It was once more a representative of the League of Nations who helped the choir by introducing them to a concert manager. On the 4th of July the choir were to give a concert in the »Hofburg«. The French village of Montargie, whose name the singers could now pronouce correctly, was to remain an unattainable dream for the time being. Jaroff assembled the singers. He could hardly believe that in a few minutes they would be standing on one of the biggest stages in Europe. »Will we succeed, Herr Director?«, Jaroff asked uncertainly, translated by an interpreter. »You will, young man«, replied the concert manager, »be patient and have courage.« The singers looked wretched, like tramps, in their old patched uniforms, some with puttees, others with boots. The better dressed were positioned in front, so far as was compatible with the distribution of the voices. The voices of the choir swelled like an organ. Never before had the men sung so well, never with such feeling, never had Jaroff conducted like this. The applause thundered. And again Jaroff conducted the choir - again roaring applause - for the Cossacks from the death camp of Chilingir. The concert manager was waiting in the dressing-room. »Herr Jaroff«, he said, »not once again will you sing together with your choir, but a thousand times.« Paris - it is the year 1979. In two rows the men stand in a semicircle, in their dark blue uniforms, the trousers with a broad, dark red lateral stripe, their eyes looking forward, at a small, unprepossessing elderly Cossack lieutenant. A tall, loose-limbed Cossack, Sasha, takes two steps forward. »My friends«, he says with trembling voice, »we will finish by singing >I Pray To The Power Of Love<.« The slim hands of Seriosha move almost imperceptibly, and at once the voices come softly to life. With sad faces people listen to the hymn, for this was the last time they would hear the Don Cossack Chorus Serge Jaroff. More than 9000 concerts had been performed all over the world, but the men had never arrived in Montargie and they had never seen their homeland on the Don again. Both were members of the world famous DON COSSAK CHOIR SERGE JAROFF until his dissolution in the year 1979. Serge Jaroff began to study in Moscow church hymns and especially sacral music. These expressive liturgical hymns are cultivated by the present ensemble in a special manner. The choir performs not only sacral hymns of the Russian Orthodox Church but also famous russian folklores and classic church songs in the original arrangements. The DON COSSAK CHOIR WANJA HLIBKA disposes a great spectrum of sound coloures, starting with a light instrumental assistance of a solopart, ending in a powerfull orchestral unique sound. The repertoire is almost comparable to the Original Choir. The hymns are exclusively partitures of Serge Jaroff out of his privat musical library which is now in the hands of his in America living son Alexej. In the meantime the DON COSSAK CHOIR WANJA HLIBKA became one of the best a capella choirs. Without the assistance of technical equipment the choir performs live in great concert halls e.g Musikhalle Hamburg, Messehalle Frankfurt/M, Gewandhaus Leipzig. In more than 10 years the choir travelled under the leadership of Wanja Hlibka through Europa having performances each year in 250 cathedrals and concert halls. Also TV-Performances in ZDF, SAT 1, WDR1, ORF, MDR, ORB, RBB or RTL increases the choir's popularity. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.