The Dmitry Pokrovsky Ensemble was founded by prominest musician, scientist and researcher of Russian national culture Dmitry Pokrovsky(1944-1996) in Moscow, Russia as a living laboratory in 1973. The Pokrovsky Ensemble was the first professional musical ensemble to perform in authentic village style wearing in real village dress. Ensemble united Russian national culture traditions with contemporary musical culture.

It is difficult to find another collective of singers that can conquer the audience with their original interpretation of classic and avant-garde musical compositions, having a large repertoire of Russian village music of different traditions and styles. Ensemble also reveals the totally lost layer of pious spiritual songs and verses that were sung outside of church, thus recreating a variety of folk oral traditions; monastery styles and early forms of Russian church polyphony.

The variety of the ensemble’s interests is seen in their constant collaboration with different musicians, contemporary composers, theatrical directors and filmmakers..

Les noces (The Wedding) by Stravinsky, in many things, was the turning-point of the Ensemble. By the way Pokrovsky had avoided the image of an only folklore group style and much more like an ethnographical. The Ensemble had been performing modern music, working together with many modern composers and at the same time having classical compositions in its repertoire. Really though those were first steps, try-outs in absolutely new development hiding in itself great possibilities.

Now the ensemble applies the principles and technology of tradition singing in modern music.Each modern piece for the Dmitry Pokrovsky ensemble is a part of traditional musical culture of style and genre attitude.

The ensemble has recorded six CDs produces by Russia, USA and Europe labels, and has successfully toured in Russia and abroad: USA, Australia, Japan, Canada, Israel, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Finland ,Netherlands,etc.

Having introduced western audiences to Russian traditional and modern music, the ensemble has become a figure of music culture.

Dmitry Pokrovsky died in 1996 but his ensemble continued to perform and develop his innovative vision.

The Dmitry Pokrovsky Ensemble was founded by Dmitry Pokrovsky (1944-1996)* in 1973 in Moscow as a «living laboratory» for the study of Russian folk traditions. Pokrovsky’s goal was to preserve and transmit to a new generation of performers and audiences the vitality that he found in authentic village music, dance, theater, and religious rituals . Dmitry was the one of the first musicians in Russia who felt the need to bridge the gap between the old and new musical vocabulary.

From their base in Moscow, Pokrovsky ensemble traveled the length and breadth of rural Russia, documenting and learning to perform themselves the traditions they encountered. In Soviet Russia, the work of conserving and revitalizing artistic traditions linked to archaic practices and beliefs was paradoxically viewed as a form of avant-gardism.

The Pokrovsky Ensemble has grown to encompass more than 1000 songs, including medieval Russian village music, religious music of the country’s old and new faiths, and modern works of Russian composers.

The Russian nation has many different ethnic groups separated by geographical regions. Each small group has its own customs, traditions and lifestile. This is reflected in their songs, which are in an oral improvisational tradition handed down from generation to generation. To learn the essence of the village music, members of the Ensemble became a part of the village, experiencing the relationships, rituals, life, nature and music of the villagers. The Ensemble gathered a wealth of information, which it now shares in live performances.

Pokrovsky Ensemble , wearing traditional Russian village costumes and performing on ancient instruments, brings the authentic folklore of Russia back to life. Some of their lively recreations of village songs, dances and pagan rituals are more than 2000 years old.

Since its founding, the Ensemble has been featured on the Paul Winter Consort’ Earthbeat tour (USA,), gave performances at various festivals, like, for example, the Making Music Together Festival in Boston (1988), Tokyo Summer Festival (2001), WOMAD,SFINKS, has performed at both the Russian and American White Houses, BAM, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera,Vienna,Tokyo,and Berlin Philharmonia, etc. The Pokrovsky Ensemble has toured in the United States, Germany, Austria, England, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Netherlands , Israel, Finland, Japan,Italy and the former USSR..

The Ensemble’s recordings include “Faces of Russia” ( Trikont label, USA)“Wild Field “,a survey of Russian folk music released by Peter Gabriel’s Real World label, “Earthbeat”, an artistic collaboration with the Paul Winter Consort (Living Music,USA ),Igor Stravinsky’s ”Les Noces “( Electra-Nonesuch ,USA) ,”Night in Galicia” ( CCn‘C Records,Germany), «Mother Russia” ( Fivepro.Rec,Russia), “Voices of Frozen Land ”of Alexander Raskatov ( NBELIVE,Netherlands).

Following Pokrovsky’s untimely death in 1996, his Ensemble continued his work. The variety of the ensemble’s interests is seen in their constant collaboration with contemporary composers, theatrical directors and filmmakers. Pokrovsky Ensemble united Russian national culture traditions with contemporary musical culture. It is difficult to find another collective of singers that can conquer the audience with their original interpretation of classic and avant-garde musical compositions, having a large repertoire of Russian village music of different traditions and styles.

In the early 1970s, Dmitry Pokrovsky was a student of conducting at Moscow’s Gnessin Pedagogical Institute of Music. Frustrated with the current musical scene, he felt the need to discover something fresh and different, something that would break all the old patterns and rules. He found it in a remote village in Russia, embedded within the oldest of traditions. In the strange sound made by a group of old women singing, Pokrovsky head songs passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. The songs were extraordinary, complicated, dense in form, and unknown in towns and cities. These were the Russian folk songs.

Dmitry Pokrovsky lectured at America’s Smithsonian Institute, Princeton University and the Omega Institute, and was a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College, USA .Directing his Ensemble, Pokrovsky wrote numerous scores for films and was an active musical director in Russian theatre. In 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev honoured Pokrovsky with the Government Award, the Soviet Union’s highest recognition for artistic excellence, a testament to the scholarship, musicianship and vitality with which he and the Ensemble had preserved Russian tradition , culture and customs.

“…We began as collectors of folk songs. We traveled all over Russia , principally to the small villages and rural farming areas where songs and customs have remained the same for many, many years. We were to form a living library as well as a cultural laboratory.