Information about the choir is offered by the Parter.ru website.
Young professionals came together in 1989 to revive old sacred music. They named their choir after the sirin, heavenly bird of Russian legends, who sings about the redeemed souls in the garden of Eden.
The choir repertoire includes Kievan, Bulgarian and Greek canticles, mediaeval monastic music, and the earliest Russian polyphonic samples.
The Sirin is an only group to collect, study and sing "spiritual verse"-an original genre of folk music and poetry, which has brought down to this day the pious world-view of the Russian grassroots.
"This is a non-vibrant singing. It abounds in overtones, and truly resembles the seraphic chant," said an admiring German music critic. He described a Sirin concert as "symbol of the Divine Eternity which its hymns witness".
Sirin CDs won the French awards Diapason d'or and Fortissimo Telerama. "The Sirin is demonstrating perfect vocal endowments and an absolute professionalism. This choir deserves to be described as superb and even more than that," says Spain's CD/Compact.
"You have only one desire after you hear this recording-you wish to hear this exclusive repertoire at concert hall for live contact with these gorgeous, enticing voices," the French monthly Diapason joins in.
The Sirin triumphantly toured Russia and many European countries. It won several international contests, and appeared at many sacred and mediaeval music festivals. The choir was a memorable presence at the 1st European Choral Symposium, Ljubljana, 1995, and the World Choral Music Symposium, Rotterdam, 1999. It was notable at Christian bimillennials in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, January 2000.
