Melodiya presents a programme of Christmas songs performed by the Children’s Choir of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia.

The Children’s Choir of the Bolshoi Theatre was founded about a hundred years ago and has taken part in numerous opera and ballet productions, successfully combining theatre performances with its own concert activities. The unique sound of the voices of the Bolshoi’s young artists has been heard at many venues of Moscow, Russia and other countries – Germany, Italy, Estonia, Japan and South Korea.

The choir has collaborated with well-known Russian orchestras such as the Russian National Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky Big Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra Russian Philharmonia and the Osipov National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments. Many of the former artists and soloists of the choir have been prize winners of vocal competitions and sing in the leading opera houses of this country and abroad.

Yulia Molchanova, a graduate of the choral conducting faculty of the Moscow Conservatory where she studied under professor Boris Kulikov, started her career in the Children’s Choir of the Bolshoi Theatre. She has been at the helm of the collective since 2004.

The featured programme comprising Christmas carols from different countries has been performed by the Children’s Choir of the Bolshoi Theatre led by Yulia Molchanova at the venues of Moscow and other Russian cities on a number of occasions. Benjamin Britten’s cycle A Ceremony of Carols for children’s choir and harp is perhaps of greatest interest here. The listeners will also find popular Christmas tunes like Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Stille Nacht, as well as Mozart’s Alleluja and the Italian song Funiculi, funiculà.