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SERGE JAROFF’S

DON COSSACK CHOIR:

A TREASURE FROM

THE RUSSIAN DIASPORA

DONNA ARNOLD

erge Jaroff’s Don Cossack Choir was a unique
phenomenon in the history of twentieth-century
Schoral music. Its original members were Cossack

refugees from Russia’s Don River region. Expelled from
their country in 1920 after losing the Russian Civil War
to the Bolsheviks, they were transported to a bleak con-

centration camp in Turkey. Serge Jaroff (1896–1985), a
detainee with a choir school education, founded a choir
there and transformed it into a world-class a cappella en-

semble, which, once freed, established a professional ca-
reer and went on to achieve widespread and long-lasting

international renown.

Donna Arnold
Music Reference/Research Librarian
and Liaison to the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
University of North Texas Music Library
donna.arnold@unt.edu

24 CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7