The Dostoevsky choir from Australia wins the hearts of the audience. “The ghost of communism is haunting the planet” (C) Greetings from a ghost from Australia Australian choir in Russian
Sometimes Life gives Gifts.
I just became acquainted with the work of these amateur singers - Australian workers, for which, as it turned out, Russian song of the twentieth century - became part of their Life. How about the classic: “When he plows the land, he writes poetry”? So these hard workers, for whom working on the land is daily labor, for some reason known only to them, perhaps at the behest of the Soul, took such a path as the Russian Song.
You understand - where is the Russian Song, and where is the south of Australia?!!
But, in spite of everything, these two Phenomena there - in the south of Australia, despising planetary distances, took and, as they say, agreed!
I wonder what this choir is named after "Dustyesky". Almost like a last name Dostoevsky. Is it possible to assume that the Australians wanted to name their singing group after Fyodor Mikhailovich, but only used the “phonetics” of his last name, and even then - inaccurately? But they made the Hammer and Sickle with a Five-Pointed Star on the Red Linen their symbol. And who taught the Australian workers this symbolism...? :)
Be that as it may, not so long ago, signs of their Creativity were found in the ocean of modern video news by fellow information workers. And, thanks to them, today there is an opportunity to show respected readers this amazing layer of Russian culture and Russian song, which arose, strengthened and is developing far, far from the shores of Russia - on the Green Continent, as they like to call Australia. And we also like to talk about those places, as part of the Earth, “where people walk upside down”...
And now - jokes aside. This is what, in particular, was written in the material “Australian men from the Dustyesky choir sing Soviet songs better than your grandfather”: “ In the town of Mullumbimby in New South Wales, Australia there is an unusual male choir. Its participants are the most ordinary indigenous Australians of many generations. But they sing Russian and Soviet songs, and very well at that. The members of an amateur choir from a small town in south-eastern Australia have nothing to do with Russia. They've been touring all over Australia lately."
Founders of the choir - director local music festival called "Music of Red Square" Glen Wright and musician Andrew Swain (they are the heroes of one of the videos below). The men once got to talking in a bar, and it turned out that they were both big fans of Russian choirs. And, although none of them have Russian roots, they decided to create a Russian choir. And this initiative became, unexpectedly, very popular!
Wright and Swain collected initially 13 enthusiasts. And now the choir already has twice as many participants. Yes, and the queue is about 70 people long. All the singers are ordinary local Glens, Roberts and Malcolms, guys from the outback, there are no Russians among them. Everyone learns song lyrics exclusively by ear, but understand what they are singing about, because the First, they comprehend the meaning of the words in translation.
"Dustyesky" has become so strong that it is set to travel to Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup as the "official choir" of the Australian team.
Judge for yourself.
"From the taiga to the British seas, the Red Army is the strongest! ":
Brief video history of the choir "Dustyesky" :
"The dawns are shining above the blue wave." (Music by K. Listov, lyrics by A. Zharov) :
Choir "Dustyesky" and its songs :
Original taken from
Anna Panina is a junior correspondent for the newspaper “Evening Moscow”, a columnist for the newspaper “New Districts”, and is interested in theater and music. She constantly monitors events and this phenomenon did not go unnoticed...
Russian songs are of interest all over the world. They are sung in America, Germany and China: the American Choir from Yale University in the USA, the Don Kozaken Choir (translated as Don Cossacks) from Germany, the Chinese Student Choir - all of them have received recognition and love from the audience.
Lost in exotic Australia is the small town of Mullumbimby, nicknamed “Mull” by the locals. Its population is a little more than three thousand people, everyone knows each other. A striking landmark of the town is the unusual male choir.
Spectators crowd into the cramped and stuffy club room. On the stage are strong bearded men in checkered shirts. They cheerfully sing: “The Red Army is the strongest!” The next song is “Black Eyes.” The choristers are ordinary farmers and hard workers, passionate about Russian song. Spectators who regularly attend performances join in, and on stage one of the bearded men dashingly starts squatting.
Andrew Swain, the choir director, is a professional musician. For many years he was passionately in love with Russian song and dreamed of a Russian choir coming to Australia, but alas, it was too expensive to invite him on his own at his own expense. Then he came up with an original idea: to create a “Russian” choir himself. The decision came suddenly when he, sitting on an ice box at the bar, was telling his friends about “the songs of Mother Russia.”
What kind of songs are you singing, Andrew? - the guys asked.
And he answered:
These are Russian songs, they are full of pain and despair. Who wants to learn how to sing them? Who's with me?
This was in 2014. Then 13 volunteers came to Andrew. Now there are 30 people in the choir, and there are 70 people in line for a vacant place!
The choir is called strangely - “Dustyesky”. It is consonant with the name of the great Russian writer and at the same time different. “Dusty” and “esky” translate to “dusty ice box.” Dusty - because there is a lot of dust in Australia, explains the creator of the choir. Well, the ice box is the same one on which Andrew was sitting at the moment of the idea of the birth of the choir.
Brutal Australian machos blew up the multi-million audience of Russian television viewers and Internet users. The attention of Russians was riveted to television screens and computer monitors. The choir posted a video on YouTube, then their performance was shown on the news on Channel One. Famous Russian songs sounded unusually from the screen.
"Dustyesky" has a Facebook address. I wrote to the musicians to express my admiration.
Comrade, I'm near the Volga! - the male choir “Dustyesky” from Australia answered me.
This means that the guys are very busy now.
We are the Dostoevskys, modest fishermen from Murmansk, they introduce themselves at concerts.
For three years we sang “in the closet”, and now fame has fallen on us for three days, and we don’t believe that we are not sleeping, the guys say.
There are no people with Russian roots in the choir and there are no people who know Russian.
We learn songs from recordings, and look up translations on the Internet,” the Dostoevskys told the world.
Australians love the power, energy and beauty of the sound of obscure Russian songs, which, in their opinion, bring love and joy. The singers do not tell the audience the meaning of the lyrics, they simply perform - and this helps them charm people and steal their hearts.
Before the performance, musicians offer their listeners a drink to better understand the Russian soul.
The choir produces T-shirts with a poster image of a Red Army soldier in a budenovka. The T-shirts are consistently snapped up by Australians to commemorate songs full of melody and passion.
Now we feel hot from the warmth of people, like from your grandmother’s borscht,” the guys said.
They never expected the kind of success that a simple YouTube video brought them. Unbelievable fame and fantastic success suddenly fell on their heads - and they “woke up famous.”
Now we are waiting for Abramovich to invite us to sing at his dacha,” the musicians laugh.
The guys are working on pronunciation of difficult Russian words, they want to record their album and come to Russia for the 2018 Football Championship as the choir of the Australian national team.
Post Views: 9,121
A male choir from the Australian outback called Dustyesky, similar to the surname Dostoevsky, performs songs in Russian and Ukrainian. The performers want to come to Russia in 2018 as the official choir of the Australian national football team
In the small town of Mullumbimby with a population of 3 thousand people in New South Wales, Australia, there is a men's choir performing Russian and Ukrainian songs. Its participants are the most ordinary indigenous Australians of many generations who have nothing to do with Russia.
Related materials
The choir members are guys from the outback, there are no Russians among them. They learn lyrics exclusively by ear, because they understand the meaning of songs only in translation.
Before the performance, the performers do not explain the meaning of the songs. But they do make a few toasts with Russian vodka to make the performance more authentic.
One of the choir's founders, Andrew Swain, explained the choir's mission as follows: "We bring you songs full of pain and despair so you can feel love and joy."
The choir's repertoire includes songs: “The Red Army is Stronger than All,” “Dubinushka.”
“I love these songs, the Russian language is fantastic. There is so much passion in him that is difficult to convey to an audience that does not speak Russian,” said Svein.
Svein said that sometimes Russian listeners come to concerts, but the participants are embarrassed.
The choir, called Dustyesky, began in 2014 after a conversation between city music festival director Glen Wright and local musician Andrew Swain. They were both fans of Russian male choirs. Svein explained this by saying that “in Russia, men sing in chorus, that’s all.” Wright admitted that he would be glad to see a Russian choir at the festival.
“I said, 'Glen, I'll organize this,' but when I woke up the next morning, I didn't know what it would entail,” Swain later admitted. “For the last 15 years I’ve been thinking about starting a choir, but I never got around to it until now,” he said.
Swain listened to hundreds of Russian songs on the Internet, chose three, told Glen about it, and then they started the rumor about creating a choir. 13 people came to the first meeting, a week later there were already 20. Now there are about 30 people. And the number of people willing to join them is about 70 people. “When one of the comrades leaves us, the person at the top of the list receives a call from us,” says Swain.
In an interview with the Byron Echo, Andrew Swain joked that once the choir had raised enough money for a Lada car, they would be able to drive around to local music events. And their dream is to go to the World Football Championship in Russia in 2018 as the official choir of the Australian Socceroos team.
After debuting at the festival, Dustyesky became popular in his hometown. Now they are already touring concerts all over Australia.
Dustyesky has its own Facebook group where you can follow concerts. They are already releasing branded T-shirts with the name of the choir, and are going to record an album.
