About us

The Male Choir of the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute (MEPhI) was found in October 1956 by two talented musicians and charming ladies, Esther Ryvkina and Raisa Barskaya. The Male Choir of the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute (MEPhI) was

found in October 1956 by two talented musicians and charming ladies,

Esther Ryvkina

and Raisa

Barskaya. Since that time it is a firm tradition for the choir to be

guided and conducted by the female professionals only.

In 1965 the choir was honored with a title of the People's

Artistic Group. Hard work and high professional scills of choirmasters

resulted in numerous awards of All-Union choral contests and festivals.

In 1977 the choir got the Lenin Prize of the Youth League COMSOMOL, the

highest award for the youth artistic groups.

In 1987 Nadezhda Malyavina

- a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory -took over the choir's

guidance. Being successfull in following the best of Russian choral

music tradition, she managed - together with choirmasters Frida

Starobinets, Lia Obshadko and Irina Timokhina

- to put the choir to a new level of performing art.Twice, in 1989 and

1991,the choir became a laureate of the International Contest "Rigas

Gailis"(Riga, Latvia).The year of 1993 brought the Grand PrixoftheSth

International Choir Festival on Malta.

Further, at the International contest in Tours (France) - one of most

prestigious European vocal contests - the choir was the best in the

Equal Voices category. Three concert tours in Germany (1992, 1994,

1996), the concerts in France (1994) and Great Britain (1995) extended

choir's international publicity. The MEPhI choir has an amateur status

- all of its members are either students or graduates of the MEPhI.

Despite this the choir is often invited to take part in professional

events. During last five years the choir has performed solo concerts in

the Great, Minor and Rachmaninov's Halls of Moscow Conservatory,

Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, participated in several concerts of the

Tchaikovsky Large Symphonic Orchestra conducted by V.Fedoseev.

The repertoire of the MEPhI choir includes music of various

ages and styles, which covers Western and Russian classical music,

contemporary pieces and arranged folk songs. The choir made several

records on audio cassettes, CD's and video.