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SERGE JAROFF’S DON COSSACK CHOIR: A TREASURE FROM THE RUSSIAN DIASPORA

The Don Cossacks were popular in the United rope. These supporters set them up as a resident choir
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States for many years, and from 1943 on were Ameri- at a factory in France and provided financial support
can citizens. Although they are still revered in Western for their travel. On their way, however, they ran out of
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Europe, especially in Germany, in the United States money in Vienna. They abandoned the plans for France
they largely faded from public awareness after Jaroff’s and held a concert at Vienna’s elegant Hofburg Palace
death in October 1985 at the age of eighty-nine. on July 4, 1923. A large audience attended, mainly
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Interest in Russian choirs has grown considerably out of curiosity. Dressed in their ragged uniforms, the
since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. This has men opened with Rachmaninov’s “Тебе поем” [Tebe
brought renewed attention to the Don Cossacks in poem], known in English as “We Sing to Thee.” Ini-
Europe, but as yet they have received little attention tially there was silence, but soon the audience erupted
in America. Thanks to recent efforts in Germany and into thunderous applause and enthusiastic cheers. Of-
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the Netherlands, reissues of their recorded and filmed fers poured in from many other cities and countries,
legacy have become readily accessible on the Internet. and they began touring widely in the non-Soviet world
The following narrative explores the choir’s history, the with spectacular success. New recruits, mostly from the
nature of its music, and Jaroff’s life. émigré community, enabled them to continue touring
for nearly sixty years. They eventually gave over ten
thousand concerts. Countless newspaper reviews from
Founding the Choir the United States and Europe document their brilliant
The Cossacks were a cultural group known and career. 8
feared for their military prowess who had served the
Tsar for centuries. They joined the White Army, which
opposed the Red Army of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Serge Jaroff: Background
Civil War, and surprisingly, were decisively defeated in Unknown to the choir’s fans, Jaroff was not born a
Crimea. They were forced into exile in late 1920, and Cossack. He was born March 20, 1896, to an ordinary
thousands were transported to a concentration camp in merchant family in the small town of Makariev, a few
the village of Çilingir near Istanbul, Turkey. 1 hundred miles from Moscow, which is nowhere near
Against all odds, it was there that the Don Cossack the Don River. His father planned to send him to a
Choir was born. When a cholera epidemic broke out business school, but at age ten the musically gifted boy
in the camp and despair deepened, the commanding won a scholarship to study at the Synodal School of
officer ordered that a choir be formed to raise morale Church Singing in Moscow, the main center of teach-
by singing for Russian Orthodox services. Serge Ja- ing for Russian Orthodox Church Music at that time. 9
roff, a graduate of Moscow’s famous Synodal School As a member of its famous choir, Jaroff participated
of Church Singing, was the only professional musician in many performances in Russia and abroad. He was
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there and thus was ordered to conduct it. 2 undoubtedly given an excellent music and general ed-
Jaroff assembled thirty-six of the best singers from ucation there, but reports indicate that he had been a
the Cossack regimental choirs. He provided reper- poor student. 11
toire for them from memory because no scores were After graduation in 1917, he attended a Moscow
available, held rigorous rehearsals, and in a matter of military school just as the Russian Revolution was
months polished them to a high level of artistry. Even- underway. Eventually he joined a Cossack unit in the
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tually liberated in Bulgaria, the men stayed together civil war even though he looked nothing like the typ-
and became the resident (although unpaid) choir at the ical formidable Cossack warrior. He had a youthful
Russian embassy’s small church in Sofia, where their appearance, was thin, and was of very short stature,
beautiful singing attracted large crowds. being only 4 feet 10.5 inches tall. Nevertheless, he was
Influential supporters encouraged the impoverished commissioned a lieutenant and served valiantly in a
men to undertake a professional career in western Eu- Cossack machine gun corps. 12

26 CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7