2 November 2011

The Kuban Cossack Choir, this season celebrating its 200th anniversary, has recently returned from Serbia, where, with the support of the Krasnodar Krai administration, Basic Element and Oleg Deripaska’s Volnoe Delo Foundation, it had held a series of extremely well-receivedl concerts.

The Kuban Cossack Choir’s anniversary tour in Serbia, according to choir director Anatoly Aref'eva, did not happen simply by chance. The route is connected with a dramatic page from the history of the Choir, when, during the post-revolutionary years of the 20th century, three and a half thousand Kuban Cossacks were forced to emigrate from Russia - and found shelter in Serbia.

Many Serbs still remember how the Cossacks built a road, the so called “Russian route”, constucted in difficult conditions in the mountainous areas by the Krasnodar Cossack Army. The performers were approached by people presenting materials connected with the Cossack Army’s stay in Serbia - including their singing chorus. In the city of Nis, the regent of one of the Orthodox churches presented the Choir with a book of recollections of the singing chorus, who, along with the rest of the army, lived and worked in Serbia from 1925 to 1939. Many notes and personal belonging of the performers have been preserved, and the Serbs promise to soon donate them to the Kuban Cossack Choir museum.

The concert in Belgrade was attended by Serbian artists from the Song and Dance Ensemble "Kolo", which the Choir has worked with in the past and to whom the choir leader Zakharchenko had at one time given master classes.

The Serbian side prepared a photo exhibition entitled "The Cossacks in Serbia," and the performers from Kuban were surprised to find materials they had previously not been aware of. Next year the photo exhibition and texts will be transferred to Krasnodar Krai, where, with the support of the Department of Culture, an exhibition will be organized for the residents of Kuban.

And today, inspired by the warm welcome they’ve received, the chorus performers are making plans for concerts in Serbia next year. The tour already has a name: "Kuban Choir Returns”.