About us

Shchedryk Children Choir was founded in 1971 in Kyiv by master of choral art Iryna Sablina. Since 2003, the artistic director and chief conductor of the collective is the Honored Artist of Ukraine Marianna Sablina.

Today, the choir has more than 150 children of various ages, who participate in the respective age groups. About 55 best performers are part of the concert lineup. Over the 50 years of the choir's existence, more than 2,000 choristers have "graduated" from Shchedryk.

The repertoire of Shchedryk includes music of the Renaissance, baroque, classical music, arrangements of Ukrainian songs and songs of the peoples of the world, works of modern domestic and foreign composers.

Since the beginning of the 70s of the last century, the choir has been touring with solo concerts in the philharmonic halls of the republics of the USSR: Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

In the 1990s, Shchedryk became a discovery for the world music community, and within three decades the choir received the highest awards in all international competitions in which it participated.

The choir toured successfully in 15 US states, many cities in Canada, Germany, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, as well as in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Shchedryk had the honor of singing in joint projects with outstanding musicians of the world, such as: Volodymyr Krainev, Gidon Kremer, Roman Kofman, Gia Kancheli, Ivan Monighetti and others. Ovations in honor of "Schedryk" were heard in the most famous music halls:

• Colonnade Hall named after M. Lysenko of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine
• «Carnegie Hall» in New-York, USA
• «Musikverein» in Vienna, Austria
• Chamber Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic
• «Konzerthaus» in Vienna, Austria
• «Mozarteum» in Salzburg
• «Beethovenhalle» in Bonn
• «Roy Thomson» in Toronto
• «Gasteig» in Munich
• «Forum» in Leverkusen

The first three recordings of Shchedryk were made by the "Melody" company on vinyl records. Part of the Shchedryk repertoire is presented on 5 CDs recorded in Ukraine. The German company "Deutsche Welle" released the Shchedryk Christmas concert in Bonn. An honorable place in the choir's discography is occupied by Olivier Messiaen's Three Little Liturgies, performed by Shchedryk together with the Kremerata Baltica orchestra under the direction of R. Kofman, which was included in the collection of the best concerts in the history of the Gidon Kremer Chamber Music Festival.

Shchedryk was mentioned in documentaries by famous Ukrainian directors:

• "Sviy holos" ("Own voice"), 2016, directed by S. Masloboyshchykov
• "V. Sylvestrov", 2020, directed by S. Bukovskyy

During its existence, the choir took part in around 20 prestigious Ukrainian and international music festivals: