Darbazi hosts the Yale Russian Chorus

Tickets: $20/$10 (students)

The Yale Russian Chorus (YRC), led by renowned Slavic music expert, Mark Bailey, is a repertory tenor-bass ensemble dedicated to learning and performing sacred and secular choral music from Slavic and related traditions. The repertoire extends from Byzantine and Znamenny chant to Ukrainian carols, from Russian patriotic anthems to Georgian toasting songs. The YRC has performed extensively for enthusiastic audiences at venues such Carnegie Hall, The White House and well-known churches and auditoriums throughout the country. Recent tours have included the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, Florida, and Quebec. The YRC is excited to be approaching its 60th anniversary concert at Woolsey Hall in November, 2013.

The YRC will share the stage with Darbazi, Toronto's Georgian vocal ensemble. Darbazi performs music illustrating the diverse range of distinct regional styles within Georgia, including chants from western Georgian and eastern Georgian schools of sacred music as well as work songs, lullabies, patriotic songs, dance songs and love songs.

Founded by members of the Kartuli Ensemble, which was itself an off-shoot of the YRC, Darbazi is a kind of grandchild of the YRC and certainly owes its existence in large part to the trips that the YRC took to the former Soviet Union, including Georgia, from the '60s through the '80s.