Hlukhiv Singing School

Hlukhiv Singing School. The first school of singing in the Russian Empire, established to train singers for the royal court. It was founded in 1738 in Hlukhiv, the capital of the Hetman state, and operated almost 40 years. Its usual enrollment was 20. Students were trained for two years: reading musical scores, singing, and playing the violin, husli, and bandura. Each year the top 10 students were sent to the court chorus in Saint Petersburg. The school's first conductor was F. Yavorsky. Graduates of the school included many famous Ukrainian singers, instrumentalists, and composers of the 18th century; for example, Maksym Berezovsky, Dmytro Bortniansky, and Antin Losenko.