KONEVETS VOCAL QUARTET UK AUTUMN TOUR (OCTOBER 2003)
(SEE BELOW FOR CONCERT LISTINGS)
The Quartet, founded by its director and bass Igor Dmitriev, as boys, were trained at the Glinka
Capella School, and later went on to graduate from the St. Petersburg (previously Leningrad)
Municipal Conservatoire, after which they served in the Red Army for two years.    The Quartet
really started by singing at Konevets Monastery over a period of two years and thereafter was
released to tour internationally which they have been doing for the past eleven years.   The members
of the Quartet are not monks, although retain a special association both with Konevets Monastery and
with New Valaam Monastery in Finland to where many of the Konevets monks escaped at the height of
clerical persecution in the Soviet Union.   The Quartet presents internationally much of the great
Russian heritage of sacred and secular music.   The aim is to make it accessible to the public at
large and not just for those who are familiar with Orthodox traditions, in a similar way to such
choral groups as the Tallis Scholars and the Hilliard Ensemble.

The repertoire for the tour will be presented usually in two parts - Sacred (sung in Church
Slavonic) and Secular (Classical and National/Folk) in which all the singers have solos.   This
unique a capella Quartet specialises in hymns and chants from the Russian Orthodox liturgy, sung
unaccompanied in the polyphonic Russian tradition.   The secular part of the programme includes
beautiful romances, ballads, folk songs and imperial marches/hymns from Tsarist times.   The
repertoire is mainly drawn from 18th to 20th composers who include Bortnyansky, Chesnokov,
Grechaninov, Kastalsky, Kedrov. Taneyev, Trubachev, and with lyrics by Pushkin.

The international and celebrated theatre director, Peter Brook wrote following concerts in Paris at
La Sainte Chapelle and Les Bouffes du Nord:
  "At first, silence - pure silence and we wait.   Miracle: sound of equal purity.   Four

disembodied voices creating notes that seem to emanate from elsewhere.   The small

group of singers from St. Petersburg lead us into a space where sound and silence unite ."

KONEVETS UK AUTUMN TOUR 2003

OCTOBER
3 Friday          DUMFRIES - St. George's Church (C of S) - Concert - 1930
                                     Contact: Jill Hardy - tel: 01387 730297

4 Saturday      HELENSBURGH - Victoria Halls - Concert - 1945
                                             Contacts: Jean Carter - tel: 01436 672992
                                                             David Menzies - tel: 01436 671967

5 Sunday        GLASGOW - Killermont Parish Church, Rannoch Drive, Bearsden
                           Concert - 2000      Contact: Rev'd. Alan Hamilton -
                                                                                tel: 0141 942 0021
                          email: [log in to unmask]

6 Monday          GLASGOW - Glasgow University Club - 1900
        Contact: Tania Konn-Roberts
       tel: 0141 779 2497 (H); 330 6735 (W)

7 Tuesday     HAWICK - St. Mary & St. David Catholic Church
Concert - 1930    Contact: Owen Connelly - tel: 01450 378213

8 Wednesday     KELSO, St. Mary's Catholic Church - Concert - 1900

9 Thursday        HOLKER HALL, Holker (Cumbria) - Concert - 1930
                                            Contact: Elizabeth Warden - tel: 015395 58328

10 Friday          *CULLERCOATS (Northumberland) - St. George's Church
                                             Concert - 1930    Contact: Mrs June Leeming
                                            tel: 0191 2522 1516

11 Saturday         MINSTERACRES (Nr. Consett/Riding Mill) - free

12 Sunday                      Parish Church - 1030 Mass  Concert - 1930
                                     Contact: Fr. Mark White CP - tel: 01434 673248

13 Monday          HALL SCHOOL - Demo/Concert 1400
   (Nr. Minsteracres)            Contact: Marc Bryant - tel: 01661 842147

14 Tuesday          YORKSHIRE (private visit)   Broughton Hall

15 Wednesday     PRINKNASH ABBEY
                             Contact: Br. William (Guest Master) tel: 01452 812455
          Fr. Mark (Precentor)

16 Thursday      *TOPSHAM (Nr. Exeter) - St. Margaret's Parish Church
                                                            Concert - 1930         Contact: Myra
Green
                                                                                               tel:
01392 873059

17 Friday           *TUNBRIDGE WELLS - King Charles the Martyr Church
                                           Concert - 1930      Contact: Michael Holman
                                                                                      tel: 01892
523013

18 Saturday          LONDON - St. Mark's. Church, Myddleton Square, Angel
                             Concert - 2000  Contact: Simon Keys
                                                                    Mobile: 07968 440684  tel: 020 7
833 9615

19 Sunday            LONDON, Chiswick - Russian Cathedral, 57 Harvard Road, W4
                                 time to be confirmed (after Divine Liturgy)
                                 contact details via mobile: 07761 370219

*Charity Concerts                                        DR/26/9/03

THE KONEVETS VOCAL QUARTET
Dmitry Mednikov                   Tenor I
Alexander Nikanov               Tenor II
Mikhail Trifonov                      Baritone
Igor Dmitriev                         Bass (Director)

Recorded CDs:
Russian Orthodox Church Music - hymns and chants of the Konevets & Valaam Monasteries
Konevets Quartet - Russian Sacred Music of the XVIIth - XX centuries
Konevets Quartet - Russian Folk Songs
Songs from Mother Russia
The Christmas Liturgy
Russian Classical Songs
Russian Sacred Music - We Hymn Thee ( recorded at Konevets Monastery 2002)

For further information contact David Rees (Konevets Management) Tel/Fax: 020 8533 5577,
email:[log in to unmask]
Konevets Internet address: www.konevets.com