Saturday, May 18, the University of Wisconsin Russian Folk Orchestra will present its 26th annual spring concert, ‘The Snowstorm’. The concert will feature several soloists as they perform Slavic-inspired orchestral pieces.
The UW Russian Folk Orchestra began in the late 1990s when director and founder Victor Gorodinsky decided to bring his passion for Slavic music to Madison. A professional musician, Gorodinsky moved to the U.S. from Russia in the early 1980s. After moving throughout the Midwest, he finally settled in Madison.
Although Gorodinsky enjoyed UW and his job as a librarian specializing in Slavic studies, he realized he was missing one of his key passions in life — his music.
Gorodinsky took his proposal of the Russian Folk Orchestra to the Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia , and with their support he was able to slowly but surely build a group of passionate, dedicated musicians.
The organization began as a humble passion project for Gorodinsky and has since transformed into an ensemble of 40, composed of students and non-students alike. Gorodinsky serves as the conductor of the orchestra.
“I’m a musician. I can play, I can conduct, but I’d never organized anything in my life,” Gorodinsky said. “I was trying to be realistic and I thought ‘Okay, we’ll probably just have a small ensemble.’ I’m still amazed after all these years that it actually worked, because right now we have 40 people in the group.”
Although the organization is called the Russian Folk Orchestra, the musicians do not limit themselves to the music of Russia.
The group prides themselves on also playing Ukrainian, Polish and Serbian music and of course Russian music, although they enjoy sharing their time between Slavic countries. The orchestra includes a variety of traditional Slavic instruments, including the balalaika and domra.
Because Gorodinsky encourages fun, passion and excitement within the orchestra, its musical practice extends beyond tradition.
“We’ve played Russian classics, we’ve played music by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky… It’s kind of like a research lab, because I always like trying different things,” Gorodinsky said. “We play some modern music… just for fun, sometimes we’ll finish the concert by playing ‘On, Wisconsin’ which the crowd loves.”
Saturday’s concert, ‘The Snowstorm,’ is named after a piece played in the second half of the performance, which is a musical illustration of Alexander Pushkin’s short story of the same name. The piece is a suite of nine movements written by the Russian composer Georgy Sviridov.
The Russian Folk Orchestra performance will be held at the First Unitarian Society and will start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here.
