The Optina Pustyn Male Choir was founded in 1996 by Alexander Semyonov with the blessing of hegumen Rostislav Yakubovsky the Abbot of the Priory of Optina Pustyn Monastery in St Petersburg. This liturgical choir has been called to revive the lost tradition of ancient monastic singing. Thus, a lot of ancient singing (liturgical music) manuscripts consigned to oblivion and kept in monasteries and academic libraries, have found a new life at the divine services in the Priory church and subsequently became the part of the concert repertoire of the choir.
The concert programmes such as ‘Millennium of Russian ecclesiastical singing’, ‘Saintly love’, ‘Chants of the Russian monasteries’, ‘Early Russian Polyphonic Singing’, ‘Ancient Church Music’ were performed during concerts tours in Russia, China, Colombia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine.
The Optina Pustyn Male Choir has recorded 11 CDs. The choir has also participated in joint concerts and recordings with the chamber orchestra ‘I Solisti Veneti’ in Padua and Verona. In 2009 a recording of the new program ‘Church Music of Russian Composers’ is being planned.
