RACS - Russian American Colony Singers
Address:
P. O. Box 770787, Eagle River, Alaska 99577, U.S.A.
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2000-2009.

Conductor -
Pavel Sharomov,
Honored Artist of Russia

RACS Art Director -Zlata Lund

RACS President -Meg Girard

Русский Хор на Аляске

Our performance on September 12, 2009.  Please read below.

Greetings My Friends!

This is our charity concert that is scheduled for September 12, 2009 at the Discovery Theatre (let's keep fingers crossed!). This concert is the reply to numerous requests I have received in the past year asking for my solo performance. I have finally came up with the idea, and with a help from Russian American Colony Singers we're launching this event in upcoming fall.

To make it a worthwhile event, we've decided to donate the profit to Hope Community Resources, a private, not for profit agency operating in the state of Alaska. Incorporated in 1968, they are the largest and only statewide provider of services to individuals who experience a disability. I've had a chance to translate for Hope when UAA Russian American Center invited a group of Russian social workers to exchange experience with social workers in the state of Alaska. We have met with people who have been rejected by their families because of their disability, people in their 40-50es who had spend the majority of their life at Hope Assisted Home Living, and during all of that time, Hope employees have been taking good care of them. We, singers, musicians, dancers of Foreign X change project would like to put our efforts together and give it back to our community, Hope Community resources.

About the Concert.

This concert is all about meeting you all, my friends, listeners, fans and new comers who will get dragged along. After almost four years of performing on the Anchorage's stage at different shows and venues (Monostatos, Magic Flute, UAA Opera Ensemble, 2006; Rocky In Rocky Horror Show, Mad Myrna, 2006, Narcisso in Midnight Soapscum, Out North, 2007; George Berger in Hair, Out North, 2007; Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror Show, Out North, 2007; Magaldi in Evita, Sydney Lawrence PAC, 2008; Five Decades of Music, TAU, 2009, Hullaballoo, Cyranos, 2009), I've come to realize that I don't really know you well, and there's a substantial part of my life you have no idea about. Consider it as a giant group date.You're all invited.

I have teamed up with some of the best musicians and dance groups in town to take you on an entertaining journey.

First, we'll go to Russia, listen to authentic folk tunes wrapped in modern rock arrangement. I'll take you to my native Magadan, a cold city in the Russian Far East, where Stalin kept millions imprisoned, where Soviet elite went under the genocide, and those who survived had formed this unique group of people called "Kolymchane".

Our next stop will be Michigan, USA - this is where I came to six years ago. Motown sound, gospel churches of Detroit have defined my taste in American music.Oh, and listening to the Oldies 104.3 while washing dishes at the restaurant had contributed to that too. With the help of the Anchorage gospel choir, we'll sing some tunes that are dear to my heart.

Our last, but not least stop will be Alaska. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been to so far. With its developed multicultural taste, I got quickly sucked into the entertainment industry. There will be music of different genres, including original pieces written by an Alaskan writer/composer L.

Whether we like it or not, but we're living in a multiracial community. Being a strong advocate for learning English, if you want to live in the USA, I still acknowledge different cultures we are lucky to have access to, here in Anchorage. Blues, soul, tango, middle eastern, russian techno - a wide multicolored blanket of music, that's how I see Alaska and that's what will define the second act of Foreign Xchange concert.

There'll be guest appearances by Lena Lukina, violin, Dewey Whetsell, saxophone, Underground Dance Company, Schekherezada Belly Dancers.

See you there!

Leonid Grinberg,
http://www.alaskadotru.org/ForeignXchange/Participants.html.