HOLY RESURRECTION ORTHODOX CHURCH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basile (Vasiliy) Fedorovich Kibalchich, the prominent Russian émigré conductor and founder of the Russian Symphonic Choir, died in 1981 at age 98 in a nursing home in Contra Costa County, CA. He spent his final years in the San Francisco Bay Area, near the diaspora archive that housed his choir's recordings.

 

Born in 1883 in Chernigov, Russian Empire, Kibalchich was a highly influential figure in early 20th-century choral music. He studied under the legendary choral conductor A.A. Arkhangelsky and was a contemporary of Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev. 

 

After the turbulent aftermath of the Russian Revolution, he left Russia in 1920 and moved to Europe, where he briefly served as choir conductor at the Russian Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland, before relocating to Paris. In Paris, he officially organized the Russian Symphonic Choir in 1920. He carefully selected vocalists to mimic the sections of a full orchestra, enabling the ensemble to perform complex symphonic works entirely a cappella.

 

Seeking more opportunities, he made his United States debut in New York in 1924. The choir became an instant sensation, prompting massive annual coast-to-coast tours across North America throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Under his direction, the choir recorded extensively for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Their 78 rpm recordings, including Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp minor and the Volga Boatmen Song, remain landmark representations of the ethnic recording boom in the United States.

 

Kibalchich’s work preserved and popularized Russian Orthodox church music and traditional folk music among Western audiences long after the fall of the Russian Empire.

 

Prominent Russian and Ukrainian émigré musicians frequently traveled to smaller New England industrial towns, such as Claremont, to lead workshops, direct local choirs, or help immigrant parishes establish proper liturgical music. In his later years, Vasily Kibalchich visited our church and stayed in town for an extended period, helping the HROC choir select music and teach vocal technique to the young, enthusiastic parishioners. 

 

He polished their performance to such a degree that our choir became popular in New England and was invited to many events. In the church archive, there is an old black-and-white photograph of the HROC choir with their priest, Morozov, and Kibalchich in the center, taken in 1941 after one of the concerts (see Parish History). Even a few decades later, after many administrative and personnel changes at HROC, the remaining older parishioners, "the pillars of faith," continued to use the singing technique he had taught them and held sentimental yet proud memories of their inspiring Maestro.

 

Vasily Kibalchich was laid to rest in the Churayevka Village Cemetery (also known as the Russian Village), an arts colony established by Russian émigrés in Southbury, CT. The choice of burial site reflects a significant portion of his mid-century life, during which he lived in Churayevka with his longtime partner, Maria Soroka. The village cemetery is the final resting place for many prominent first-wave Russian émigré artists, writers, and musicians who fled the revolution.

 

Grateful Memory Eternal!