Dmitri Pokrovsky’s goal was to preserve and transmit to a new generation of performers and audiences the vitality that he found in authentic village music. Dmitri was the one of the first musicians in Russia who felt the need to bridge the gap between the old and new musical vocabulary.

From their base in Moscow, Pokrovsky Ensemble have traveled the length and breadth of rural Russia, documenting and learning to perform themselves the music traditions they encountered. Pokrovsky Ensemble brought the authentic folklore of Russia back to life.

The Ensemble was the first group of professional musicians who performed the folk music in authentic village style at the academic scene.To learn the essence of the village music, members of the Ensemble became a part of the village, experiencing the relationships, rituals, life and music of the villagers.

The Pokrovsky Ensemble has grown to encompass more than 1000 songs, including the village songs, dances and pagan rituals, medieval Russian village music, spiritual music, classic and modern works of Russian composers. Ensemble also reveals the totally lost layer of pious spiritual songs and verses that were sung outside of church, thus recreating a variety of folk oral traditions; monastery styles and early forms of Russian church polyphony.

By the way Pokrovsky had avoided the image of an only folklore group style and much more like an ethnographical. The Ensemble had been performing modern music, working together with many modern composers and at the same time having classical compositions in its repertoire. Really though those were first steps, try-outs in absolutely new development hiding in itself great possibilities. “Les noces “(The Wedding) by Stravinsky, in many things, was the turning-point of the Ensemble

Following Pokrovsky’s untimely death in 1996 his Ensemble continues his work and develops his innovative vision.

The vocal school created in the Pokrovsky Ensemble is absolutely unique. The Ensemble applies the principles and technology of tradition singing in modern music. Each modern piece for the Pokrovskys is a part of traditional musical culture of style and genre attitude.

Pokrovsky Ensemble united Russian national culture traditions with contemporary musical culture. The Ensemble permanently collaborates with famous musicians (Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Paul Winter Consort, Thomas Ades, Peter Gabriel, Avanti!Orchestra etc).

The Pokrovskys has successfully toured in the United States, Germany, Austria, England, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Israel, Finland, Japan, Italy, performed at BAM, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera, Vienna, Tokyo, Cologne and Berlin Philharmonia, London Barbican, etc.