Zauber der Balalaika

Voice of the Russian soul: Although few Russian composers wrote for it, the balalaika won its place on the concert stage. Russian aristocrat Vasily Vasilevich Andreyev established the first balalaika orchestra in 1888, bringing the music of his native land to the international stage as the 20th century dawned. The ensemble lives on as the “Imperial Andreyev Orchestra of Russia”, bringing arrangements of Russian folk dances and songs with that unmistakable, unforgettable “Russian sound” to the world’s great concert halls.