St Nicholas Choir of the State Tretyakov Gallery

The St Nicholas Choir of the State Tretyakov Gallery was established in 1994 at the Church of St Nicholas in Tolmachi in Moscow. Founded and directed by Alexei Puzakov, a pupil of church musician Nikolai Matveyev, it combines liturgical service with concert activity. Support from the church’s rector, Archpriest Nikolai Sokolov, helped sustain the ensemble. Beyond services in Tolmachi, the choir has appeared at the Moscow Conservatory and at festivals of Orthodox music, and has collaborated with the Musica Viva chamber orchestra. Its recordings include the sacred choral works of Sergei Rachmaninoff. The choir closed the evening. On 5 February 2009, in the Bolshoj Theatre in Moscow, the St Nicholas Choir of the State Tretyakov Gallery — named for the gallery's house church of St Nicholas in Tolmachi — sang the final Mnogaya leta in Nayden Andreev's arrangement together with the Sofia Philharmonic, at the close of a Bulgarian gala that had run from Vladigerov's Vardar rhapsody to Ivo Papazov.