LYRA-Performing at Saint John's on April 20 at 7:00 pm

LYRA is a community of professional musicians most of whom are students or graduates of the St.Petersburg Conservatory and sing in churches and musical theaters throughout that city. Though members of LYRA represent different musical professions: choral conductors, opera singers, instrumentalists, music teachers, it is their passion for ensemble singing that unites them.

The choral community LYRA includes 25 people, but due to the logistics of international touring, they perform in smaller groups of soloists. Their Spring 2012 tour will bring an ensemble of 2 women and 3 men to 7 states - TX, LU, FL, GA, NC, SC, TN - where they will present over 30 concerts in April - May.

LYRA's main goal is exploring and popularizing Russian choral music from the ancient songs of the Orthodox Church to works of little-known, but remarkable composers of the 18th-20th centuries. The well-known masters: Bortniansky, Tchesnokov, Gretchaninov and Tchaikovsky are well represented. Folk songs of lyric, dancing and ritual nature are performed not only in the composer's original arrangements, but those of LYRA's as well. Secular songs of Russian classical composers Taneev, Tchaikovsky, and Rakhmaninov represent yet another side of LYRA's creative activity.

The ensemble first appeared in concert in I994 under the name NEVA. Since 1999 they perform under the name LYRA. In recent years they have been touring not only in Russia but regularly all around Western Europe, Scandinavian Countries and The United States. Through their tours, they introduce the enormous musical heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as traditions of Russian folk music to people having an interest in Russian history and culture.