Don Cossacks Bring Memories Of The Great White Army.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17865, 5 June 1926, Page 22 (Supplement)

Don Cossacks Bring Memories Of The Great White Army.

This year E. J. Carroll is bringing to this country the Don Cossacks, the' historic Russian Choir. They are one of the wonders of the world. The Don Cossack Choir consists of 36 men, and is a product of the Great War, in which all members have taken part from beginning to the end. When the Bolshevik rule threw the Russian Empire into an abyss of misery* and distress, they entered the ranks of the “White Army*,” full of pat-

riotism, and wishing to free their land from the oppressors. Thev were fighting under Denikin and Wrangel until the breakdown of the offensive so gloriously begun, and were shipped with the rest of the Wrangel Arrav to be transported to the Isle of Lemnos. Thence they came via Constantinople to Sofia, where they formed a Church Choir, and became a part of the services of the Orthodox Cathedral, working at the same time as workmen in the factories in order to earn a living. Thus two years passed. The terms of employment became worse and worse, and our Church signers were forced to leave in order to look f c

new means of existence abroad, eventually deciding to give up everything else in order to devote themselves to their art. In July, 1923, in Zagreb (Serbia), they had their first big success, although it was in Vienna their destiny was finally decided. Their first performance was a great success—although even this was surpassed later —and before very long the rumour of their great art spread from Vienna all

over Austria and the Czecho-Slovakian Republic. Guided by their conductor. Serge Jarov, then 25 years of age, and an expupil of the famous Church Music Academy of the Holy Synod of Moscow, the Choir gave many concerts in Austrian and Czecho-Slovakian towns, proceeding later on to Switzerland and Italy. The concerts are of an exceptional 1 * high standard, owing to the iron discipline prevailing in the Choir, and arising out of the iron school of war, and their modest and serious appearance invariably gains them the sympathy of their audience.