The Highland Council welcomes the Russian male voice Valaam Ensemble from Lake Ladoga to Inverness Town House on 23 May 2006 at 8pm.

The Ensemble was formed in 1993 by five enthusiastic professional male singers as a professional choir for the monastery on Valaam Island, Lake Ladoga, near St Petersburg. They are not monks. The members of “Valaam” graduated from the Glinka choir college and the Rimsky-Korsakov music high school in St Petersburg as conductors and vocalists.

The group aims to present to the audience the rich and distinct tradition of Russian Church and folk singing. The concerts feature the rich voices of the singers, without any instrumental accompaniment. Their repertoire consists of liturgical singing, including hundreds of Kievan chants as well as Russian polyphonic music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, masterpieces of Greek, Serbian and Georgian church music as well as many Russian folk songs.

The singers spend almost the whole summer on Valaam singing at the Monastery services and performing to many thousands of pilgrims, tourists and guests including President Vladimir Putin .They take part in ceremonial services led by His Holiness Patriarch Alexey II, the hierohegumen of the monastery. At other times they sing in the churches of St Petersburg and give public concerts, as well as travel around the world. The ensemble has produced several CDs.

This is the first such visit to Inverness Town House and promises to be a special evening.

Further info: www.venues.spb.ru/valaam/singers

The concert is presented by Education, Culture & Sport with the support of The Scottish Arts Council National Lottery.

Tickets £8/5/3 (under 18s) 01463 724261 www.thebooth.co.uk