A unique musical ensemble of military musicians and singers gave a concert last Monday at the Washington's Daughters of American Revolution concert hall.
The concert concluded with a composition of popular Soviet and American wartime songs performed by artists dressed in US and Soviet uniforms of the Second World War period.
The American audience cheered this performance with excitement. One of the viewers told RIA Novosti correspondent that he experienced "warm feelings" when he reminisced about the fact that the Soviet Union and the United States were allies during World War II.
Another viewer, Russian immigrant Ivan Makarov, who served in the US Army during the war, said he had attended all concerts of the Alexandrov Academic Song and Dance Company of the Russian Army in the United States.
"I always cry when I listen to The Sacred War song," Mr. Makarov told RIA Novosti referring to a song composed by head of the band Alexander Alexandrov.
The Alexandrov military band, founded in 1928 by the initiative of prominent Soviet military leader Voroshilov, took its name after its first leader, composer Alexander Alexandrov. Later, his son, Boris Alexandrov headed the band for more than 40 years. The Alexandrov ensemble, which has become a symbol of the Soviet and later the Russian army, toured more than 70 countries and gave joint performances with famous Russian and world singers.
The Alexandrov Company's repertoire includes not only famous wartime songs like Katyusha and Smuglyanka, but also hit songs of John Lennon, Frank Sinatra and other foreign stars.
The band gave numerous performances in the United States starting in 1989 and is widely known among local audiences as The Red Army Choir. A local newspaper wrote that its performance reminds of "the history of Cossacks movement, the music of Tchaikovski and the Tolstoy novels."
Shortly before the concert in Washington, the Alexandrov military band gave performances at the Lincoln Center in New York. After the conclusion of the US tour, the band will give several performances in Poland.
