From Russia with faith

Michele Marr

“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, serve the Lord with gladness;

come before his presence with singing,” a psalmist wrote.

For centuries Orthodox Christians worldwide have been doing this

in their communal evening prayers and morning prayers, on Sunday

during the Divine Liturgy and at prayer on a multitude of other holy

days.

This evening four soloists -- Kirill Sokolov, bass; Aleksei

Vorobiev, tenor; Marina Tchikhatcheva, mezzo-soprano and Irina

Grinberg, soprano -- from Russicum, a 40-member group of touring

singers that is part of the St. Petersburg choir community, will

present a concert of 14 songs from the music of the Russian Orthodox

Church, as well as 14 Russian folk songs.

When they are not touring, the professionally-trained musicians

serve as soloists or choir conductors in parishes of the Russian

Orthodox Church, including the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan in

Nevsky Prospect of St. Petersburg. Tonight, St. Barnabas Antiochian

Orthodox Church in Costa Mesa will host their program.

The four- and five-member Russicum ensembles tour for a month or

two each year throughout the United States, the United Kingdom or

Europe -- to promote traditional and contemporary Russian religious

and folks songs. Its first tour of the U. S. was in 1998.

During the communist era, most churches in Russia were closed and

the music of the church was kept alive only in a few monasteries. The

survival and continuity of the church’s music is demonstrated by the

Russicum ensembles’ varied repertoire, which includes songs from the

early centuries through the present day.

In part, Russicum was founded in 1992 to encourage young singers

who enter the field of Christian music. The music is sung a capella.

“The great church fathers of [early] times reckoned that

instruments distracted people’s minds from the thoughts of God,

therefore only human voices were allowed to make music during the

services,” said Elena Smirnova, tour coordinator of Russicum.

The first singers of the religious songs were monks. Women were

not allowed to join church choirs until the beginning of the 20th

century.

“Our music has been sung for thousands of years. ‘Gladsome Light,’

for example, from vespers [evening prayer] was composed in about the

4th century. [The concert] shows that Orthodox music of the past is

still relevant to today’s worship,” said Ruth Rutledge, choir

director at St. Barnabas.

Some of the music will be familiar to members of her congregation,

she said.

“We use music that comes from the Russian tradition because

Antiochian [Orthodox churches] have tended to take music from

different sources. For a while [the Antiochian Church] had almost

stopped doing Byzantine chant, almost entirely doing Russian music.

Only recently have we started a revival of Byzantine music,” Rutledge

said.

Some church music is intended to teach and a large part of its

text comes from the Bible, while the primary purpose of other songs

is worship. Tonight, all of the music will be introduced in English

and sung in Russian.

Rutledge believes the concert has broad appeal. She sees it as a

rare opportunity for anyone who enjoys choral music to hear a

musically accomplished quartet perform a unique repertoire of music

in the appropriate setting of an Orthodox Church.

In the folk music segment of the program, “they are hilarious.

Even though the songs are in Russian, they make me laugh. It’s a

funny, spirited performance,” she said.

The concert is free, though donations in any amount are accepted.

The ensemble will perform at several other locations throughout

Orange County in early October.