The Choir ACADEMIA

The Choir ACADEMIA was founded in 1980. Originally the Choir consisted of the research workers from many Institutes of Belarusian Academy of Sciences. Later the teachers and students of Belarusian Academy of Music and University of Culture, teachers of music from the schools of the town of Minsk have joined the Choir. The conductor of the Choir from the first days of its activity till now - Tamara SLABODCHIKOVA. She has graduated from Belarusian Academy of Music and then studied in Moscow State Conservatoire as a post-graduate. Since 1979 she is a assistant professor at Choir Conducting Department of Belarusian Academy of Music. Many of her students works as choir conductors in musical schools and colleges of the Republic of Belarus and other countries of Europe.

The repertoire of the Choir ACADEMIA includes mainly classic music of European, Russian and Belarusian composers. The singers also like to perform the contemporary music of national, European and American composers. The best arrangements of Belarusian folk songs were always in the programs of the Choirs concerts. A special part of the repertoire is the Russian and Belarusian church music. The Choir was awarded the Diploma of the Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow) for popularisation of Russian classic music.

The Choir ACADEMIA makes many performances both in Republic of Belarus and abroad. It took part in International Music Competitions in Limburg (Germany, 1993), they won the Silver Diplomas in the International Choral Competition in Riva del Garda (Italy, 1994), in International Choral Music Festival in Darmstadt (Germany, 1995) and in International Festival of Academic Choirs in Pardubice (Check Republic, 1996). In 1999 and 2005 the Choir was again invited to take part in International Choir competition in Limburg(Germany) and took the Bronze medals. In 2002 the choir took part in the First International Choral Festival in Randers (Denmark).

The Choir has a good tradition of creative meetings with other amateur choirs. The Choir has friendly contacts with many choirs of the republics of the former USSR and Europe. In 1997 the Choir visited England and made some performances in Bath and Windsor. English choirs Royal Free Singers and Silver Ring Choir of Bath visited Minsk and friendly choirs performed a great programs in concerts halls of Belarus.

The main event of Autumn of 2005 was the trip to Saint-Petersburg for the creative meetings with the colleagues of Russian Academy of Sciences and concerts in Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics and Physic-Engineering Institute named after Ioffe.

In 2007 the choir ACADEMY participated in International Choral Festival in Cote dArray (France). In January 2008 several concerts of the choir were performed in Belarus under the conducting of Italian conductor Salvatore La Rosa.In July 2008 the choir took part in two festivals in Spain International Musical Festival, Contonigros, and 54th International Choral Festival Habanera and Polyphony, Torrevieja. In June 2009 the choir performed in the Saviour Transfiguration Valaam monastery on the way to Finland during pilgrimage trip; and took part in Competition concert on the Tampere Musical Festival (Finland).