Who wouldn't want to experience it: celebrating your birthday during a concert by the Alphens Cossack Choir? That happened to 90-year-old Wim Scholte: flowers and a full church that sings to you.

 On Sunday afternoon, February 12, the Alphens Cossack choir entered the church singing. The audience was immediately captivated by this unexpected turnout. Then followed some beautiful orthodox chants. After the solo performance of bass Klaas Schulp with the moving “Gorie, gorie moja zwezda”, conductor Arkadi Gankin let his bajan, a button accordion, speak with the melancholic “Oblivion” by the Argentinian composer Astor Piazolla. Subsequently, the audience was presented with another first: “Rewe ta stognje”, a Ukrainian hymn to the mighty Dnieper River.

After the break, the Cossacks, with the support of Sheila Moens (bajan), Nathalya Shevcenko (balalaika) and Trudi Bos (flute), treated the audience mainly to romantic and cheerful songs until “Amurski wolnie”, a beautiful waltz about the great river the Volga, was on the agenda.

The birthday soloist Wim Scholte was announced by lady speaker Anneke van Leeuwen and after the end of the song he became the center of the celebration: showered with congratulations and flowers. The enthusiastic audience immediately started singing “Long live” and the choir closed this joyful event with “Mno gaja ljeta” (Long live).

With the rousing “Sjto tak skoetsjno” as an encore, the Alphens Cossack Choir bade farewell to the enthusiastic audience in the Meije.

After a period of cancellation of concerts due to Corona, the choir members, led by conductor Arkadi Gankin, have continued to work hard to include new songs in their repertoire. This also includes beautiful songs from Ukraine and Georgia.

The opening of the concert season on October 16 in the beautiful Oude Kerk in Zoetermeer resulted in a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience. A welcome boost to start with.

The Alphens Cossack Choir was invited by MOORDRECH KLASSIIEK to give a concert in the village church of Moordrecht.

In its 15-year existence, the Alphens Cossack Choir has many performances at home and abroad to their credit. Under the direction of conductor Arkady Gankin, they perform Orthodox-Byzantine songs, but also traditional folk songs from Ukraine and Georgia and, of course, cheerful and romantic Cossacks. In the village church of Moordrecht with its magnificent acoustics, the melancholy and romantic, but also the exciting sounds of the Alphens Cossack choir sounded wonderful.

The choir was accompanied by conductor Arkadi Gankin on his bajan, supported by Sheila Moens, also on the bajan, Nathalya Shevcenko on the balalaika and Trudi Bos on the flute.

Klezmerband Nigun has been around for 12.5 years now. Nigun has included many cheerful Klezmer songs in the repertoire. In addition to Klezmer music, Nigun plays Yiddish and Hebrew songs and songs by Spanish-Portuguese (Sephardic) Jews.

Nigun also sometimes makes a trip to Balkan music.

The Alphens Cossack Choir has given a joint performance with Nigun several times and received praise from the audience, which was very surprised by the versatility of music styles.

For the opening of the new cultural season, the Friends of Urbanus have invited the Alphens Cossack Choir. A great choice!

On Sunday afternoon, March 5, the various Orthodox-Byzantine songs will undoubtedly come into their own in the magnificent acoustics of the St. Urbanus Church. In addition, the Alphens Cossack Choir also performs traditional folk songs from Ukraine and Georgia and, of course, cheerful and romantic Cossack songs.

In short: a very varied musical happening in a beautifully restored St. Urbanus.

With this benefit concert, the Alphens Cossack Choir hopes to contribute to the restoration of the St. Urbanus Church, which was hit by fire.

Alphens Cossack choir honored with invitation.

On Saturday, May 12, the municipality of Alphen aan den Rijn organized a meeting for Ukraine. While the audience came in, the Alphens Cossack Choir sang moody music and while mayor Liesbeth Spies went to hoist the flag together with the children's mayor Safae Ahannay, the Alphens Nataliya Kornyeyeva  and her Ukrainian mother.

In an impressive speech, the mayor indicated that she is very closely involved with the suffering of the Ukrainians. This Saturday, she had already had direct contacts with a mayor of the birthplace of Nataliya Kornyeyeva in Ukraine and with some refugees who will also be welcome in Alphen aan den Rijn.

It was nice to hear that the contribution of the choir was said to be impressive.

The Alphens Cossack Choir also feels involved in Ukraine and has organized pro bono meetings for Ukraine on a number of Wednesday evenings. Afterwards, a collection was held for the joint refugee aid.

This would also take place on Wednesday 16 March in the OLV Ascension Church in Nieuwkoop. We had to cancel it due to corona with a number of members. On March 26, 2022, the choir hopes to be able to perform in good health again at the concert in De Schutse in Uithoorn. There, too, it has been decided to transfer 50% of the ticket sales to giro 555. The choir hopes for sufficient interest to cover the costs itself.

Alphens Cossack Choir would like to let you know where they stand.

The Alphens Cossack Choir has been a romantic Cossack Choir since its foundation in 2007.
Our repertoire consists of romantic Cossack songs from times long gone.
In addition, we sing beautiful old Orthodox songs from the worship service.
The Alphens Cossack Choir is an enthusiastic choir of Dutch men who exclusively sing songs from the rich Slavic culture.
Beautiful melancholic music of the people.
We distance ourselves from everything that has to do with violence and war.
We just want you to experience that this music is also peaceful and only connects people.

Cossacks are back on the scene.

On Sunday afternoon, October 17, the Alphense Cossacks took another step on the ladder of concerts.
The Alphense Sint Bonifaciuskerk was the setting for this concert by the Alphense Cossacks. A beautiful church with unique acoustics. Too bad only 70 audience members witnessed conductor Arkadi Gankin's men. It is generally known that the theater and event world is still struggling with the (after) contractions of the Coronapandemic. The Corana check to attend a concert also does not help to reach the normal quota of audience.
Despite all the limitations, the choir pulled out all the stops to put on a beautiful concert, which resulted in listeners returning home satisfied.

(translated by Google)

CONGRATULATIONS TO COSSACKS FOR LEADING THE KITCHEN SCHOOL.

The Alphense Cossacks have by means of a performance congratulations to the Russian community in Leiden on their new home for their Russian school. Sunday 17 October it was exactly 17 years ago that the Pushkin School was founded in Leiden. In those 17 years, the school has grown into a thriving meeting place for Russians from far and wide. Among other things, lessons are given in the mother tongue, but also Russian culture and customs are transferred to the youth from 5 to 12 years. Since September this year, the school has been housed in the beautiful Bonaventura College on the Burggravenlaan in Leiden. This celebration was organized on this occasion. The party started with a film in which 5-year-olds show in a candid way how they experience school life. Heartwarming was the performance, accompanied by Arkadi on the bayan, of the youngest students with their interpretation in Russian of “The Little Prince”, the world-famous book from 1943 by the French writer Saint-Exupéry. Then the youngest students sang the famous “Katyusha” together with singing teacher Irina Pozdniakova. The young students with their parents spontaneously sang along with “Konj”, a Cossack song, which the Alphens Cossack choir conducted by Arkadi Gankin performed. In addition to being the conductor of the Alphens Cossack Choir, Arkadi is also a music teacher at the Pushkin School. (translated by Google)

THE ALPHENS COSSACK CHOIR AGAIN IN THE ST. BONIFACIUS CHURCH.

On Sunday afternoon, October 17, the Alphens Cossack Choir will give a beautiful concert at 3 p.m. in the beautiful St. Bonifacius Church in Alphen aan den Rijn.

In the St. Boniface Church, in addition to the Cossack songs, the beautiful religious, Russian Orthodox songs are again on the program. Songs in which the beautiful high tenors will sound and the sonorous basses and baritones will vibrate the church hall.                                We wish you a nice concert on this Sunday afternoon.

SEPTEMBER 2021 STUDY WEEKEND AND PERFORMANCE IN GERMANY

From September 23 to 26, 2021, the choir held a study weekend in Germany. In addition to the daily study blocks, there was also room for sufficient relaxation, which further strengthened the friendly bond in the choir. At a performance in the local church, people still had to sing with a mouth cap. So that was really breathtaking. In a nursing home in Vorden, it was particularly moving to hear the people there again invigorating Cossack music from the Netherlands after many months of corona restrictions. In the beautiful and monumental Abbey of Marienmunster the Byzantine/Orthodox songs came into their own very well.

Liebe Sänger des Kosakenchores,

Wir sagen von Herzen Dank für eure musikalische Vielfalt und die Bereitschaft, für uns zu singen. Ich war begeistert of the soloist Beiträgen, of the genial Conductor and Eurer Disziplin!

Come right out in that Region!

Herzliche Grüße

Euer

Hans Hermann Jansen