The Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble

The Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble (Russian: Ансамбль Дмитрия Покровского, tr. Ansambl Dmitriya Pokrovskogo) was founded by Dmitri Pokrovsky (1944–1996) together with his wife and lifelong partner, Tamara Smyslova, in Moscow in 1973 as an experimental singing group under folk Commission of the URSS Сomposers Union.The appearance of this team completely changed in modern society the understanding and view of folklore. For the first time in this Ensemble came together scientific approach to the study of folklore and brilliant stage presentation of it. Professional musicians belonging to the city culture had to master a large number very dissimilar styles of Russian village music. The Pokrovsky Ensemble became the first professional groups who began to study the Russian folk music from authentic village musicians in numerous folklore expeditions. Participants of Pokrovsky Ensemble has been recording, learning and then performing very different traditions, styles and manners of folk singing, playing and dancing, trying to penetrate the rules of its existence, understand the laws of its development. Dmitri Pokrovsky was one of the first musicians who tried to bridge the gap between the old and new music. The credo of The Pokrovsky Ensemble that Russian traditional folk music is a living treasure of Russian culture and is the basis for all classical and contemporary Russian music. Pokrovsky Ensemble became the starting point in the search for new ways to stage implementation of folk music and marked the beginning of a Russian wave in the World music.