Academic chamber choir “Cantus” celebrated its 30th anniversary as a professional collective. The group gave its first concert in 1986 on Teacher’s Day. Emil Sokach, the unchanging conductor and founder of the choir, told about it.
“We have two birthdays,” he said. — We were at the Teacher’s House for a while, there were not many of us, and we were told that we could take part in a concert for Teacher’s Day. I haven’t even fixed the date for sure. This was our first public appearance, but as a collective we started our work in early 1985.
A choir of 20 young people began. At the performance at the concert, they were announced as a team of the Uzhgorod House of Culture.
— We thought for a long time about where to “attribute” us and settled on this option. And after the new year, we met for a rehearsal… 5 people. They worked for a year and again – “near the broken trough”. At first, they were completely different people – amateurs, students, there were also experienced musicians – and we wanted to do something that we did not have. I suggested creating an ensemble and singing works of the Renaissance.
In the end, we called ourselves the “Ancient Music Ensemble” and in 1989 we went to a very serious international choral festival named after Beyla Bartok in Debrecen, in Hungary, recalls Emil Sokach. — In the end, we succeeded in this scam, but when I saw the list of songs that we had to perform, I said that we are not going anywhere! But we managed to get a few more people from the students, and as part of 20 people, we still went and unexpectedly for ourselves became laureates. This competition is included in 7 European choral competitions! And so, even in Soviet times, we received invitations from France, Britain, Germany, and Ireland for other performances.
In 2009, the choir received the honorary title of academic team.
Now the group has decreased in size, today 12 people sing in Cantus on average, although, according to Emil Sokach, there should be 30 singers in the group… Nevertheless, despite all the challenges and trials, the Cantus Academic Chamber Choir is a laureate international competitions, a participant in choral festivals and forums abroad – in Hungary, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany, Great Britain, etc.
The repertoire is diverse: spiritual music, Renaissance music, Ukrainian folk songs, works of Ukrainian composers, carols, jazz compositions and others. And on his birthday, December 22, the choir gave a Christmas concert at the Philharmonic.
By the way, the word “Cantus” translated from Latin means “song, singing”.
It should be notedthat since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the choir team supports the volunteer movement in every possible way, holds charity concerts and brings our Victory closer with all its might.
