Municipal Folk Song Ensemble "Radunitsa"
The recognized propagandist and brilliant performer of traditional folk music of the Vladimir land is the Folk Songs Ensemble "Radunitsa" at the Cultural and leisure center of the Suzdal district. The artistic director and founder of the ensemble is Konstantin Vasin, a collector of folk traditions, a musician, director and screenwriter, master of ceremonies of festivals, as well as a teacher at the Moscow State Institute of Culture and Arts.
The creative team "Radunitsa" was founded in 1999 at the Bogolyubovo House of Culture and brought together students from Vladimir Regional College of Culture and Arts. Young artists understood: without a deep study of ancient songs and tunes of the Vladimir region their reliable stage embodiment is impossible. Therefore, they began their career with folklore expeditions. While traveling around the villages of the Vladimir region, the artists got acquainted with folk performers, recorded their songs and stories about old rites, adopted a style of singing, learned to dance and play the folk instruments. Over the twenty years of the collective existence, dozens of expeditions have been carried out, abundant ethnographic and musical material has been accumulated, the material which can be considered invaluable because many folklore masters are no longer alive.
The main repertoire of the ensemble "Radunitsa" includes many samples of musical folklore obtained during the expeditions – calendar, round dance, wedding, lyrical lingering songs, ditties and tunes of various territories of the region. Therefore we can say that "Radunitsa" is a permanent creative laboratory for the study of the traditional musical culture of the Vladimir region.
The ensemble today consists of six people, five of whom graduated from Moscow State Institute of Culture and Arts. Now it is a professional creative team. "Radunitsa" is a regular participant in district, city, and regional cultural events. The ensemble has repeatedly become the laureate of inter-regional, all-Russian and international festivals and competitions. For the preservation and development of traditional Russian culture it was awarded a diploma of the Central Council of the All-Russian Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments.
The Folk Song Ensemble "Radunitsa" is often invited to perform abroad. With its originality and talent, the team has won the audience in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc., worthily representing the Russian culture, song and instrumental traditions of the Russian people by the example of the Vladimir region.
According to the members of the ensemble, the folklore song and dance cannot exist on their own. They are always organically woven into folk holidays and festivities, rites and rituals. Therefore, an important area of work of "Radunitsa" is the revival of the festive ritual culture. The ensemble cooperates with the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve on the reconstruction of folk rites and is a constant participant in folklore festivals at the Museum of Wooden Architecture in Suzdal.
As a true keeper of folk traditions, "Radunitsa" takes care of succession in creativity and the possibility of transmitting folk culture to the younger generation. Natalya Landysheva, a member of the ensemble, leads the children's exemplary folklore group "Traven" at the Bogolyubovo Cultural and Leisure Association. The children already have many achievements which means that the creative and research work of the folk song "Radunitsa" will be continued.