biography

Since 2007, the choirmaster and leader of the senior choir of the Turchak School of Music has been Olena Mardarevich, a graduate of KNUKiM (Krechko NM class), PI Tchaikovsky NMAU (assistant-internship class of Professor Venediktov LM). Under her leadership, the children’s choir “Pastoral” was founded on the basis of the senior choir of the S. Turchak School of Music. The main goal of the young team was to try to bring the usual high school choir to a more professional, qualitatively new level.
The choir’s repertoire policy is aimed mainly at educating children’s vocal and choral skills, forming good musical taste, which is so lacking in our children today, and getting acquainted with the musical choral culture of different countries, different styles and different times.
2014 was a landmark year for the band. This year the choir won first place in the All-Ukrainian competition “On the Wings of Spring” in the nomination “choirs”. It was during this period that the ensemble received its name and became known in the city and beyond as the children’s choir “Pastoral”. In 2014, the band made its first trip to Austria for the International Children’s Music Festival “Music and Dance in the Alps” held in Rauris.
In recent years, the choir “Pastoral” has participated and was awarded diplomas of 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree in such well-known in Ukraine international vocal and choral competitions and festivals as: “VICTORIA” (Kiev), “Pearls” of Art ”(Kyiv)“ Galician Gems ”(Lviv),“ Musical Meetings ”(Kyiv),“ Voices of a Bright Country ”(Uzhhorod). The choir was also awarded in international competitions abroad. On June 22, 2018 “Pastoral” won the first prize in Italy (Chieti) at the international vocal and choral competition “Chorus inside summe” 2018 “and on June 14, 2019 won the Grand Prix of the first international vocal and choral competition from Croatia” VICTORIA in CROATIA ».
At the end of 2019, the team took part in several creative projects in Kyiv. This is exactly in December 2019 on the stage of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine together with the Chamber Orchestra of the Kyiv Children’s Academy of Arts named after MI Chamberzhi under the direction of the People’s Artist of Ukraine Madarash OS was performed by Mozart’s Messa brevis. At the beginning of 2020, “Pastoral” was invited as a guest in the concert – presentation of the All-Ukrainian choral competition of school groups “From Pokrovsk to New York” in the concert hall of V. Slipak National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music. One of the most important was the performance of the choir with the orchestra of the Ensemble of Early Music in the hall of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine under the direction of People’s Artist of Ukraine Bohdan Plish in October 2021. Works by Benjamin Britten were performed.