Orpheus National Male Choir was founded in 1979. The famous musician Petro Hudz was the organizer and the first group’s artistic director. The choir was directed by Oleksiy Volynets, the honored artist of Ukraine, for a long time and during the last eight years it has been directed by Volodymyr Hnid’, the honored arts worker of Ukraine . Today the choir is directed by a talented conductor Volodymyr Vivcharyk.
Orpheus National Male Choir has traveled a lot through Ukraine, Poland, Byelorussia and many other countries of Europe for its twenty eight years activity, it was the participant of all-USSR, Ukrainian and international festivals and contests of choral music. The choir is the laureate of the International Festival of Choral Music in Lviv (1998), the winner of the XIX International Festival of Orthodox Music in Hajnowka (Poland, 2001, the First Prize ), the prizewinner of the Choir in motion International Festival in Artem (Holland, 2001), International Choir Festival in Montreux (Switzerland, 2002), XX International Choir Festival on Jersey island (Great Britain, 2002), From Christmas to Christmas Ukrainian Festival (Dnipropetrovsk City, 2002); it participated at XX International Choir Festival in Prevenza (Greece, 2002), Festival of Choir Winners of the International Festival of Orthodox Music in Bialostoky (Poland, 2001), Severyn Suprun III Regional Choir Festival (Drogobych Town, 2005), annual festivals of Christmas carol in Lviv and so forth. In addition, choir gave a number of concerts at the towns and villages of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Transcarpathian regions and there it also took part in Holly Masses. It should be separately mentioned about the choir’s participation in great number of festivities, public political actions in order to bring fame to heroic deeds of our people in Lviv City and 6 villages of Lviv region. The peoples of different European countries learned about Ukraine, country with rich culture, ancient traditions and kind people, due to the choir’s activity. Creative activity of choir got approving publications in national and foreign press.
Group’s history is represented in By Artistic Roads album of Orpheus National Male Choir and in World by the Eyes of Orpheus book issued in commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of choir.
There are over 150 highly artistic choral works of Ukrainian and world classics, National songs, Christmas carols and shchedrivkas (New Year’s carols), Holly Mass and a number of spiritual compositions in choir’s repertoire. The choir’s unique manner of singing, which is based on a classical vocal, expressive artistic interpretation of compositions and rich sounding, provide creative success to the group that turned the attention of many admirers and fan.