Education of female church choir masters in educational institutions at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries (with St. Vladimir’s church teacher’s school as an example)

Since the middle of the XIX century, the development of education has become one of the important state priorities in the Russian Empire. The spread of education in society has influenced the development and democratization of the arts. At the end of the XIX century, as a result of social changes, the status of women in art was gradually revised. The history of musical education in Russia, as well as in foreign civilization, is inextricably linked with church culture. Our article will focus on St. Vladimir’s church teachers’ school in Saint-Petersburg which belongs to the religious department. This educational institution prepared teachers for parish schools. Musical education and in particular its choir part used to be of such a high quality there, that it could have been an example for many female institutes of that period. The historical experience of this education institution can still be useful today. This article concerns the choir education of the pupils of the school. There is also the aspect of church chants and the matter of school choir repertoire considered in the article. There are a number of prominent writings devoted to the development of musical education in Russia. However in the majority of cases female musical education is addressed briefly in all these writings. Nevertheless there were secondary educational female church institutions that had begun training women choirmasters, which provoked the raise of choir singing level in the country.