Our own Mudcatter Charlie Baum is a member of the Alumni of the Yale (Men's) Russian Chorus, and mentioned at the Getaway this year that he was going to be in Durham with them for a performance at Duke Chapel.

They were magnificent!   The first set consisted for the most part of sacred Russian music. I assume Russian Orthodox.They are a rather large a capella men's chorus. The accoustics in Duke Chapel are marvelous for choral singing (though terrible for the simple spoken word. The main conductor, Denis Mickiewicz, addressed the audience at length on two occasions, and most of us have no idea what he said or was talking about.) Several of these songs set chills running down my spine in some places, and had me floating up with the angels in others. "Blessed is the Man" (Blazhen muzh), with wave after wave of antiphonic Alleluias was so transporting that I literally lost awareness of everything but the music as it unfolded.

The second set consisted of Russian folk songs, some traditional, some arising as recently as World War II. The soloists were marvelous as was the entire chorus.

If you get a chance to hear them, do not pass it up.