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SERGE JAROFF’S DON COSSACK CHOIR:

2, 1931, 40. virtuosos.
14 Katharina Kucher, “Vom Flüchtlingslager in die Kon- 32 Steven West and Wassilj Flustikoff, “The Original Don Cos-
zertsäle der Welt; Die Geschichte des Don Kosaken sacks and the Music of the Don, an Interview with Serge
Chores,” Osteuropa 57:5, May 2007, 62. Jaroff.” Etude LXI: 11, November 1943: 706, 758–59.
15 Irina Minsky, Vierzig Don Kosaken, 102. 33 Editha K. Webster, “Don Cossack Chorus Thrills 2,300
16 Gospodi pomilui video, with Magnificent Performance of Concert Season
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAPZ-ZVuBhQ Here,” Sioux City Journal, October 29, 1937: 14.
17 Monotonously Rings the Little Bell video, https://www. 34 Marika Kuzma, “Bortnyans’ky [Bortniansky, Dmytro Ste-
youtube.com/watch?v=E-FdNrYYDuM panovych],” Grove Music Online, 2001.
18 “Don Cossack Choir Presents an Organ of Human Voices,” 35 Vladimir Morosan, One Thousand Years of Russian Church Mu-
Albuquerque Journal, November 7, 1934, 5. sic (Musica Russica, 1991), liv-lv.
19 Sterling Sorensen, “1,500 Acclaim Magnificent Singing of 36 Irina Minsky, Vierzig Don Kosaken, 38.
Cossack Chorus,” Capital Times [Washington, D.C.], No- 37 Vladimir Morosan, Choral Performance in Pre-Revolutionary Rus-
vember 14, 1934, 2. sia (Musica Russica, 1994), 234.
20 “Cossack Program Termed Inspiring,” Albuquerque Journal, 38 Irina Minsky, Vierzig Don Kosaken, 38.
November 23, 1950, 8. The choir is said to be “living up 39 How Glorious Is Our Lord In Zion video https://www.
to its long-standing reputation of perfection…” youtube.com/watch?v=mtKX2cC2sfU
21 “World’s Finest,” Globe-Gazette [Maron City, Iowa], Septem- 40 Meadowland video
ber 23, 1939, 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLTFJV9HWBw
22 Herbert von Karajan and Richard Osborne, Conversations 41 Ataman Platoff video
with Karajan (Harper & Row, 1989), 48-49. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfBKNBkiOiI
23 “Russian Chorus First Fine Arts Number at T.C.,” October 42 www.don-kosaken-chor.de/don-kosaken-chor-englisch/
23, 1939, Denton Record Chronicle, 3, tells how officials tried 43 Image of score for “Volga Boatmen” [folk song] https://
to get them back to their town for five years, but they www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=712562284216586&
were too busy. set=a.470218165117667 Image of score for “Gospody
24 Richard W. Insley, “Bollofine [sic], Don Cossack Singer, pomilui” by Grigori Lvovsky [liturgical song] https://
Lauds America and Its Box Office Receipts,” Trinity Tri- www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=712561994216615&s
pod XXXV:4, October 18, 1938, 1–3. et=a.470218165117667
25 Irina Minsky, Vierzig Don Kosaken, 70. 44 Assur interview.
26 “Cossack Singers Are Preparing To Take Citizenship Pa- 45 www.russian-records.com/search.php?search_
pers,” Kokomo Tribune, October 31, 1939, 12. keywords=Jaroff
27 Their immigration records are on Ancestry.com. 46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CS9C82IhPE
28 Richard Irl Kegerreis, “History of the High School A Cap- 47 “Serge Jaroff,” New York Times, October 8, 1985, A24.
pella Choir” (doctoral diss., University of Michigan, 48 Irina Minsky, Vierzig Don Kosaken, 96.
1964), 74–75.
29 Ivan Assur, Interview by Svetlana Zvereva, “About the Don
Cossack Choir under the direction of S. A. Zharov,” Slo-
vo.
30 Irina Minsky, Vierzig Don Kosaken, 42.
31 Although falsettists and countertenors are technically not
the same, this writer maintains that we would use the
term countertenors for the singers Jaroff called falsettists.
An early article supports this: “Jaroff Cossacks Demon-
strate Art,” The Gazette [Montreal], October 7, 1947, 10,
states that “the counter-tenors and deep basses” were

32 CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7