“Good evening, generous evening!”

A Christmas meeting was held in the Christian Social Center for the members of the community “Samaritan” and the Social Volunteer Club with the participation of the famous musician and guslar Ales Chumakov and the “Pilgrims” choir of the Minsk parish of St. Olga. The audience, thanks to the musicians, got to know carols from different countries of the world and in different languages, and also witnessed an impromptu collaborative performance by Ales Chumakov and the “Pilgrims” choir.

After the performance, Ales Chumakov shared his impressions with us:

“It was very nice to play today. All guests were open, direct, actively participated and sang along: “Christmas, Christmas!” It was wonderful, very hearty and sincere.

Today I performed Christmas and New Year’s songs from different countries of the world. I really liked the audience’s reaction to the Welsh New Year’s song “Frosts crack in the mountains”. The reaction to the song from Venezuela about a donkey was pleasant too. Some people even started dancing from the very first notes. That’s what the composer created, as laid down in this song, that it is impossible to sit still, you have to dance. And the fact that “Pilgrims” and I agreed on a joint performance in one minute, we have known each other for a long time and have a lot of common repertoires, we even sometimes had to perform together.”

The head of the “Pilgrims” choir, candidate of Art History, Lyubov Shpakovskaya also noted the pleasure of an unplanned collaborative performance:

“Mr. Ales is both our competitor and our friend. We compete – who will learn more carols, who will sing better, who will perform more concerts. This is a healthy competition. And it’s wonderful that there is an opportunity for such a creative competition.

Our choir performed the program “Christmas Journey” today. We compiled it last year, in 2021, when we released a songbook with notes. It was called “Christmas Journey”. About 20 carols from different countries of the world are collected in the publication: Native American, French, German, English, American. But, of course, first of all – Belarusians. Every year we expand our creative range. This year we added new songs: German, American, Polish carols and the classic of Ukrainian choral music “Shchodryk” by Mikolay Leontovich.

One of the hits of our repertoire is a Native American carol from the Huron tribe, translated into Belarusian and suggested to be sung by Natalya Vasilevich.

This concert became a festive gift for our audience-listeners. We are just starting the performance season, because the Orthodox Christmas is still ahead. The concert season will last almost the whole of January, and I am very pleased that its beginning turned out to be so wonderful and fun.”

You can see all photos in the album “Christmas meeting 29.12.2022”

For the organization of such events, creative meetings and workshops we will be grateful for voluntary donations, which can be transferred to the following account:

Bank details:

р/а BY63UNBS30151611900000001933

JSC «BSB Bank», SWIFT: UNBSBY2X,

TIN: 807000069