A unique opportunity for Stevens Point concertgoers will be provided when the Youth Chamber Choir of St. Petersburg, Russia, performs at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on Sunday, Jan. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Michelsen Hall of the Fine Arts Center.

The 27-member choir will visit Central Wisconsin in a special event sponsored by the UWSP Department of Music.

Cost of the concert will be $10 for general admission and $5 for students and senior citizens. Tickets are available at the Arts and Athletics Ticket Office in the lobby of Quandt Fieldhouse on Fourth Street or by calling (715) 346-4100 or (800) 838-3378. Visa, MasterCard or Discover cards are accepted. Tickets also will be available at the door if the concert is not sold out in advance.

Stevens Point Mayor Gary Wescott will welcome the young Russians to Stevens Point. Chancellor Thomas George will greet them on behalf of the university community as will Robert Kase, chair of the Department of Music. Robert Price, professor of Russian and Polish, will serve as translator.

Conducted by Julia Khutoretskaya since its founding in 1992, the choir regularly performs in the best concert halls of St Petersburg. The choir has toured internationally each year to venues including Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and Japan.

Soloist for the evening will be countertenor Oleg Bezinskikh. The choir sings a varied repertoire that includes Gregorian chorus music, Russian sacred music and folk songs. They often perform works by Bach, Handel and Rossini and songs by Russian composers such as Sviridov, Gavnilin and Smirnov.

In 1995 the choir became a laureate of the international competition in Neuchatel, Switzerland, and in 1997, it was named laureate of the international competition in Cantonigros, Barcelona, Spain. The group regularly participates in festivals in Russia including the Easter Festival, the Festival of Modern Music and "Virtusoses-2000," the festival of youths.

Khutoretskaya also is organist of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Petersburg. Since 1998 she has hosted the radio program, "Music Room," on the St. Petersburg Christian Radio Station. She has degrees from the City Music School and the musical college attached to the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory.

In 1995 the choir recorded a CD, "Russian Music of XIX-XX Centuries," and in 1998 they recorded "The Petersburg Album."

The ensemble will be one of the main attractions for the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association Convention in Appleton on January 18. Lucinda Thayer, associate professor of music at UWSP, is convention chair.

"This is a topnotch choir and I am anxious for the Stevens Point community to hear them," Thayer said.

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ky/vc/Russian youth choir