OUR History
About the Choir
Cantus Alba Rutheniae – the choir of soloists – functions as a creative workshop of the National Academy of Sciences, and it’s repertoire is based on Belarusian music. It comprises the arrangements of Belarusian folk songs for an academic choir, chants, and Belarusian spiritual hymns, music by Belarusian composers of various historical periods and styles, etc. The group also performs Western European, American and Russian choral music of a wide stylistic range.
The timbre organization of the choir in line with the Eastern Slavic tradition, the individual performance of the voice, the conceptual Belarusian repertoire policy and the artistic level of performing interpretations lie in the heart of the active and successful concert activity of the group
Belarusian choral music
An interactive lecture concert “Choral music of Belarus: the artistic context of the epoch” by Cantus Alba Rutheniae took place at the National Library of the Republic of Belarus (April 10).
The author of the lecture, conductor and team leader, Ph.D. (Art History) Galina Tsmyg, talked about the context in which Belarusian choral music was created and the choir performed masterpieces of Western European and Eastern Slavic music as illustrations of the lecture. The audience listened to Belarusian music of different styles on sacred and secular texts.
Moreover the choir helped the audience to learn and perform Belarusian spiritual hymns and taught people how to meet and accompany the day with some special (traditional) songs, and how to worship and honour one of the Belarusian miraculous icons of the Mother of God in Belarusian language.
New Folklore Wave
27 March 2019 an interactive lecture concert “New Folklore Wave: belarussian folk song in the modern adaptation” took place in the National Library of Belarus. This concert was held as a part of a cooperative project of the National Library of Belarus and the National Academy of Sciences “Belarussian music on the world’s art space”.
The audience listened to traditional Belarussian folk songs, wich were reinterpreted by modern composers and rewritten for the academic choir. Furthermore they were able to listen to the extremely famous Belarussian duda (bagpipe) performed by the soloist of our choir Yauhen Salauyeu.
OUR History
About the conductor
Galina Tsmyg – Candidate of Art Criticism, conductor of the choir, teacher. Currently, Galina Tsmyg works in the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and has published about 50 scientific works on choral music. She received her education at the Mogilev Musical College, the Belarusian State Conservatory, and the Graduate School of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. In addition, she completed an internship at the Rotterdam Conservatory and graduated from Kurt Thomas Course for professional conductors in the Netherlands.
For more than a third of the century, her groups have been performing not only in Belarus but also in many European countries. One of the directions of her creative activity is a choral cultural exchange with Western European choirs and conductors. She also serves as a guest conductor, conducts choral works (workshops, master classes, and concerts), and also reads author courses on the history of the world and Belarusian music, theory, and history of choral performance
