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Artist
Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble
12+ albums
russianfolkethnictraditionalfolklore
about
The Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble (Ансамбль Дмитрия Покровского) is a Russian group performing traditional music. Dmitry Pokrovsky was founder and leader of the Ensemble, which he founded in 1973 as a workshop for the conservation of real Russian folklore. He studied music at the Moscow Gnessin Institute and during one research excursion he came into contact with the unchanged, true folk music of Russia and instantly he realised the danger this culture lived in. Stalinist agricultural politics destroyed the old traditions and the way of living in the villages, and thus killed the music, too. It was replaced by the 'Balalaika-' and 'Kasatchok'-ensembles, which performed an invented people's culture. Pokrovski realised that the real music was disappearing, only old people remembered the tunes, and so he founded an ensemble and travelled with its members through the countryside for many years, collecting songs and dances. During their research, they studied music and ways of living, and developed an immense repertoire. Mainly they explored Central Russia, the country between the Don and the Dnieper, south of Moscow, north of the Ukraine. The had few chances to perform during the Brezhnev years, and it is only since the advent of perestroika that tours and concerts in larger venuess became possible. Pokrovsky received the Gorbachev Award for his work in preserving Russian culture. He lived in the United States for some years, but returned to Russia regularly. He lectured at the
