Print version

The Kyiv Chamber choir tours Ukraine

A National Cultural Event Sponsored by Romyr & Associates

Situation

After attaining its independence, Ukraine began to reclaim its choral culture and revive its traditions around folk singing and church choirs. While Ukrainian choral music enjoyed growing popularity among foreign listeners throughout the 1990s, domestic performances remained rare. It was in 1998 that Mykola Hobdych, the conductor of the Kyiv's Chamber Choir, first proposed the idea of a national tour that would give Ukrainians an opportunity to enjoy the finest examples of native choral music both classic and modern. It took almost five years before his vision became a reality.

Romyr & Associates has always offered its support of various aspects of Ukrainian culture including traditional choral arts. Indeed, the partnership between the Kyiv Chamber Choir and Romyr began in 1996 with the joint sponsorship of the music festival "In the Arms of Gold Domed Kyiv." Since then, Romyr & Associates has not only sponsored the choir in producing and recording several albums, it has also enlisted the backing of the Robert Bosch Company in promoting this distinctive form of music.  Bosch,  a leader in the production of power tools, electrical, automotive and industrial instrumentation, looks favorably upon sponsorship of  cultural events and was, therefore, a willing sponsor of the choir's  domestic tour. 

Strategy

No professional choral choir had ever conducted a national tour of Ukraine offering classical, sacred choral works.  Prior to Ukrainian independence, Soviet authorities did not support the performance of sacred choral music widely in Ukraine. With this historical background, the notion of such a tour throughout the country held real value as news. Our task was to build this news into media coverage that captured the main objectives of the project: to popularize classical Ukrainian music; to advocate the concept of patron support for professional choirs; and to distribute rare musical scores collected by the Kyiv Chamber Choir.

Nearly 1,000 posters with tour dates and sponors' logos were posted in host cities around the country. More detailed information about tour sponsors was provided in concert brochures that were distributed during the concert. In interviews leading up to each concert date and at the end of each event, the conductor expressed his gratitude to sponsors for their support.

To ensure media coverage of the event, Romyr & Associates worked with newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programs at the local and national levels targeting those that regularly report on cultural life in Ukraine. A press release with information about the tour and its organizers was prepared for each concert. A Romyr & Associates representative traveled together with the choir to optimize relations with the local media. Professional photographs taken during the course of the concerts were made available to journalists together with additional material to facilitate the work of the media. We at Romyr arranged for local administrators and regional representatives of the sponsors to attend shows while, back in the home office, Romyr's team provided continuous support and coordinated communication between concerts organizers, sponsors, and artists.  Monitoring media coverage was a task done both locally and from Kyiv.

The Event

Over a four-month period, the Kyiv Chamber Choir shared the beauty of Ukrainian choral music with colleagues, friends and fans of choral singing in 29 different cities around Ukraine. Enthusiastic audiences greeted the singers who had often been feted abroad but were unaccustomed to performing on the home front.  Concertgoers were primarily middle-aged although it was especially satisfying to see many young faces in the crowd, too. In total, about 14,000 people attended the concerts with TV and print audience exposure reaching an estimated 1,000,000 Ukrainians.

The Kyiv Chamber Choir celebrated its birthday on December 4, 2003 by giving its final concert of the tour at the National Philharmonic Hall of Ukraine in Kyiv. Performing for the 29th time, but this night with a special gusto, the choir dazzled the crowd with its repertoire that included the light, joyful folk songs in vivid contrast to the classical arrangements of Artemy Vedel,Yuri Alzhnyev, others. This special string of concerts that had begun weeks earlier in Luhansk ended on a high note with tributes by the tour sponsors and organizers.

Results 

The size of an event cannot guarantee its efficacy; it is, in fact, the details that can make or break such a large-scale project. The Kyiv Chamber Choir's 2003 National Tour proved no exception to that rule.  No aspect of the planning was ignored.  Each rehearsal, each interview with the press, each telephone call, in short, each small element of the process was important for the general success of the project.

A post-tour analysis of media coverage and dissemination of information related to the tour revealed especially high levels of coverage in all regions of Ukraine but most notably in the northern and eastern parts of the country. Romyr & Associates' work resulted in approximately 30 print articles, 5 radio programs, and - our proudest accomplishment - 26 TV segments amounting to a total broadcast time of over 2 hours. All informational messages were positive. Concert audiences included local leaders from Ukraine's population centers, cultural figures, music aficionados, professional musicians, and influential businessmen. The overall success of the project gives solid reason to expect that this was the first of many national tours highlighting Ukrainian culture.  Encore!