Chinese find their voice singing Russian songs

A group of Chinese singers are unable to speak Russian and they have no musical background. However, they sing old classics in Russian. Not just idiomatically, but with complex polyphony in eight vocal parts. They follow the beat from Ekaterina Ilyakhina.

Pear trees are blooming,

Mist floats over the river,

Katyusha stands on the steep bank,

The sound of her singing is as enchanting,

As the radiant spring sun.

The Beijing Hand-to-Hand Chorus are interpreting Katyusha with a Chinese touch. The song was popular during the World War II.

Ilyakhina is the director and conductor of the chorus, which was founded in Beijing 2003. It has 30 Chinese members.

"At first, we would put Chinese characters or Chinese phonetic letters under the Russian lyrics," the chorus's translator Gao Lei recalls.

The singers found themselves struggling with the pronunciation. But, Gao says, "Ilyakhina insists that the real feeling of a song must be expressed through its native language. She would tell us the history and cultural background of each song to help our singing with a more Russian flavor."

Ilyakhina studied conducting with the famous Russian conductor and composer E. Fertelmeister when she was a student at Nizhny Novgorod (former Gorki) Conservatory. After graduating in 1993, Ilyakhina worked as a professional conductor in various choruses in Russia.

"I have been interested in China ever since my childhood," says Ilyakhina. "Back then, I often heard my mother singing a song called 'Moscow-Beijing'".

The song was popular in both countries, during the 1950s, and was sung to celebrate the friendship between the two nations.

"From that time, I started having special connection with China," Ilyakhina says.

She arrived in Beijing in 1999 with her husband Yury Ilyakhnin, and was art director at the Beijing Russian Art Center.

Yury Ilyakhnin had been in Beijing for a year from 1984 to 1985 working as a correspondent with the ITAR-TASS news agency. He now runs a Chinese newspaper, named Hand to Hand that provides free ads.

"Yury gives financial support to the chorus," says Ilyakhina. "Our expenditure, from training to our performances abroad are paid for by my husband."

Yury points out he does this "all out of my love for Ekaterina and China."

In the couples' eyes, Beijing is a city full of vigor and human interest. "The sound of bike bells ringing and the humor of the Beijing dialect are beautiful like a piece of music," Ilyakhina says.

After settling in China, Ilyakhina decided to set up a chorus to teach Chinese people how to sing Russian songs. The chorus's members include school teachers, accountants and subway workers.

Although none of them had any music training before joining Hand-to-Hand, they all have one thing in common -- a passion for Russian music.

Wang Weiguo, a 52-year-old cook, says "my parents' generation had a fascination with Russia due to the close bilateral relationship between the two countries during the Cold War. Russian literature and songs were very popular in China during the 1950s, and had a big effect on them and their children."

When he was young, Wang imitated his parents singing Russian songs while he played guitar. "In those days, many people sang Russian songs in Chinese."

When he saw an ad for the chorus in the Hand to Hand newspaper in 2003, he applied. "At first, I felt the sound of my singing was like 'moo' due to the huge pronunciation gap between Russian and Chinese. I had to practice harder," Wang says.

After joining the chorus, he cut his restaurant working hours and developed a habit of singing while he was awake at night.

Wang, who is now a very good baritone, can sing more than 100 Russian classic songs in fluent Russian.

Zhang Cheng, 22, is a tenor in the chorus. He says, "I knew almost nothing about Russian music. However, when I watched a Russian animated film 'Rabbit, Let's Wait and See', I was deeply touched by the sound track of the movie."

After graduating from college, Zhang felt lost. One day a friend persuaded him to join the chorus.

"Singing and the chorus changed my life," Zhang points out. "Ekaterina treats us like her children. Her love and passion for the Russian songs she teaches just totally captured me. I cannot live without the chorus now."

In 2004, the chorus attended the Moscow International Chorus Competition, where they took second place. "It wasn't until the end of our performance that the audience realized we were Chinese. Then the audience all stood up to salute to us. It was both touching and rewarding," Ilyakhina recalls.

The debut of the Hand-to-Hand chorus was in a terminal care hospital in Beijing. "The people there were old and are dying," Ilyakhina says. "They all seemed to have a special love for Russian songs. I guess because they experienced the time of the honeymoon between China and the former Soviet Union."

She adds, "They even joined in when we sang Katyusha. A 70-year-old man told me he was longing to see a performance of Russian songs. Now he could leave this world without regrets. Our chorus made his dream come true. I will never forget him."

According to Ilyakhina, there are more than 14,000 Chinese people singing Russian songs in different choruses in China.

In 2009, Ilyakhina set up another chorus called Katyusha to teach Russians in Beijing to sing Chinese songs.

Alexey Kosarev, the son of a Russian diplomat and doctor says, "I joined the chorus because I wanted to learn more about Chinese culture through music, and promote bilateral ties through music."

The 27-year-old is pursuing his Ph.D. in international relations at the Renmin University in Beijing and will graduate next year.

Guo Chunlei, research assistant at the World History Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences notes that China and Russia have a mutual understanding of each other's culture due to geopolitics, with close economic and military relations.

"In the 1920s when China faced many choices, socialism came to China," Guo says. "When China chose socialism, the country had a similar ideology with the former Soviet Union."

"That allowed the two countries to build close emotional ties. Those ties still exist today and that's why the Chinese and the Russians still have great interest in the other's culture," he adds.