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Dear
Slavyanka alum,
Nearly a
quarter century ago, Paul Andrews and a few Bay Area friends came together to
sing some Russian songs. The rest is
history -- our history, as Slavyanka has grown and matured to become the finest
male Slavic ensemble in North America.
Each of us has grown and matured too -- 25 years’ worth. Along the way, children were born, friends
have come and gone and a few have passed away.
We’ve sung with Paul. Alexei and Grigori. We’ve been to Russia and the Caucasus a few times, made tapes,
CD’s and a couple of movie soundtracks.
Now it’s
time to start planning our celebration of this amazing journey. Next May, Slavyanka choristers, past and
present, will come together to create a memorable series of 25th
anniversary events. Many of your
Slavyanka friends will be there, along with others from different eras whom you
may meet for the first time. We’ll sing
together, trade stories and photos, have some parties, and maybe even crack
open a bottle of vodka or two!
We hope you
will join us for this special event.
The concert will take place on Saturday evening, May 8, 2004, at St.
Mark’s Church in Berkeley. There will
be a rehearsal the preceding night (Friday) at our original location (St.
Ignatius Church in San Francisco) and another on Saturday. There will be a party after the concert and
a celebratory picnic on Sunday at Dave Metcalf’s home.
The current
Slavyanka group will perform the first half of the concert. Please contact Grigori as soon as possible
about re-joining Slavyanka if you’d like to sing the full concert! The second half will feature the “Slavyanka
Anniversary Chorus” – i.e., alumni who have rehearsed Friday and Saturday plus
current chorus members who want to participate, conducted by Paul, Alexei (we
hope) and Grigori. We hope ALL alumni
will at least join us onstage for Mnogaya Lyeta at the end of the concert, and
of course at the parties!
So…please
start collecting your old Slavyanka photos, videos, programs, and other
memorabilia, as well as a brief bio about yourself and stories to share, which
we plan to collate into an anniversary scrapbook on CD-ROM. You can check out the evolving 25th
Anniversary web pages at www.slavyanka.org/25th.
Please take
a moment to fill out the form at our website whether or not you can join us for this
celebration. We’ll keep you posted as details develop, including music scores
to prepare well in advance of the concert date (for tentative program, see our
web site www.slavyanka.org/25th.
It will be
another 25 years before we have another Slavyanka celebration of this
magnitude. Or goal is to have at least
50 singers on stage next May. We hope
you will come and sing again with us then!
The
Slavyanka 25th Anniversary Committee, John McCarthy Clerk
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