A Musical Journey Across Russian Traditions

A concert-lecture with PowerPoint that includes songs and instrumental tunes from Russia and the former-Soviet Union. Group will bring a number of new musical instruments and skills. Their playlist will contain dancing, marching, slow, acapella songs, and more.

This event is sponsored by the International & Areas Studies Program and University College.

The folk ensemble “Zolotoj Plyos” was founded in 1994 in the city of Saratov, Russia. Its members are Alexander Solovov, Elena Sadina, and Sergei Grachev. All three members of the group graduated from the Saratov State Conservatory and are professional musicians.

zolotoj plyos Elena and Sergei also graduated from the "Jef Denyn" Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium, the Antwerp Conservatory and the University of Leuven. They have won prizes at All-Russian and international folk instrument competitions and at the First All-Russian bell competition. While students in Russia the musicians collected old Russian folk songs and bell music in rural villages and towns.

The group’s repertoire includes folk songs and instrumental pieces from various parts of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, and other areas, and also features Gypsy music, Russian popular music, and Jewish music. The members of the ensemble play more than thirty Russian folk instruments, including the bayan, chromatic and diatonic accordions , the balalaika, domra, guitar, zhaleika, clarinet, saxophone, various percussion instruments, and Russian bells.

The ensemble has performed in countries such as Russia, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland, and the USA. “Zolotoj Plyos” has been frequently invited to perform on radio and television shows in Russia, Belgium, and Holland. From 2000-2013 the ensemble made seven tours of the United States, including a concert in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and also directed the Russian Choir of the Middlebury College Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian at Middlebury College (Vermont, USA). In 2008, the ensemble was given the honor of performing in the main hall of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and also in the main hall of the State Academic Choir in St. Petersburg. At the present time the members of “Zolotoj Plyos” live and work in Belgium.