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Nikolai Kachanov was born in the Siberian city of Barnaul, capital of the Altai Region of Russia. Trained as a pianist in his early years, Kachanov earned appreciation for his achievements as a jazz musician and for his devotion to Russian sacred music during times when these genres were officially disapproved in his homeland. He holds a Ph.D. in choral conducting from the Novosibirsk Conservatory and completed post-doctoral studies at the Moscow Conservatory. In the 1970s Kachanov enjoyed an active and highly successful career in Novosibirsk as a conductor of choral works from throughout the classical music canon, and as a teacher and mentor of aspiring young conductors.
In 1981, Maestro Kachanov moved to the United States with his wife, Tamara and their son Pavlusha. In 1984, Nikolai and Tamara founded the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York with the help of enthusiastic fellow singers. At that time, the treasures of the Russian choral repertoire were rarely, if ever, performed in this country. It is largely due to Maestro Kachanov that this music has become a staple of New York City's concert life. As Music Director of this unique ensemble, Kachanov has introduced American audiences to a long list of works, including numerous ancient chants previously banned in his homeland (and completely unknown in America), and works by Russian master composers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
Among the collaborations of which Nikolai Kachanov is most proud are those with Russian-American composer Alexei Haieff and electronic music pioneer Vladimir Ussachevsky. In 1992 he created and conducted the Ussachevsky Festival of Russian-American contemporary music, held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. In 2002 he led the choir in the premiere of Haieff's long-lost masterworks, Holy Week and Easter, also at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This premiere had special significance because shortly before his death, the composer bequeathed these scores to Kachanov, verbally entrusting their future solely to him.
Nikolai Kachanov enjoys an active career as a vocal coach, having worked with talented singers including Angela Brown. He has prepared concert choruses for
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Leon Botstein, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov Yuri Temirkanov and Peter Tiboris, and participated as a coach in the 2004 Lincoln Center Festival's U.S. premiere of John Tavener's All-Night Vigil, The Veil of the Temple.
Gifted with an inquiring mind and a passion for both philosophy and science, Kachanov has trained his singers in the use of the Pythagorean and natural scale tuning systems, as well as in harmonic uses of the voice characteristic of the Tuva region of Siberia. Maestro Kachanov places great emphasis on the importance of these techniques for the release of the true beauty in music.
Nikolai Kachanov is a composer of choral and electronic music. His philosophy is elegantly reflected in his two choral scores, Benevolence and Reflections on Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan, which interweave elements of Easternand Western musical traditions. Both works were premiered by the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York to sold-out audiences at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in May 2003, and are scheduled to be recorded and released on CDin late 2004. Kachanov's first CD recording, The Call, was released in the spring of 2003.
A man who lives and breathes music, Nikolai Kachanov has also delighted audience members with the cogent, eloquent program notes he
often writes for concert performances.
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