Biography

«Elim-ai», Children's Musical-Chorus School was established in 1998. The Director and conductor of «Elim-ai» is Honored Artist of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Larissa Romanovskaya.

Around 200 children attend «Elim-ai» each year. The school comprises a special choir, piano, guitar and vocal singing departments.

Chorus

The main focus of the «Elim-ai» is choral singing. Singing teaches children to be good team members, and instills a love of music. The development of a proper breathing processes whilst singing has positive benefits on the children's health as well.

There are 4 choirs at the School:

•    Pre-school choir (3-5 y-o);
•    Junior choir;
•    Middle choir;
•    Senior choir;

The choruses and their soloists are all involved in different kind of concerts held on the most prestigious stages of Almaty. They have won prizes at numerous local and international festivals and competitions. The children have made studio recordings and performed on TV. The media has carried many features and favorable reviews of the school`s work and achievements. The choir have a wide repertoire, which consist of Russian, European, sacred and classical music by modern composers as well as traditional Kazakh and other folk songs from around the world.

Piano department

This department benefits from a very proactive and creative group of like-minded teachers. A combination of traditional and tailored learning methods ensures that the children, irrespective of their ability, are able to perform wide-ranging and complex repertoires. A lot of attention is paid to developing playing skills, which is the basis of the whole system of musical education and also offers some practical benefits to the future life of the children. Concerts for parents, relatives and friends and competitions where every child has the opportunity to feel like a true artist are held on a regular basis.

Academic vocal

Nature blessed everybody with a voice, but unfortunately not everybody is able to use it in a beautiful and musical way. Those lucky enough to have natural singing ability have to learn how to use it properly. Academic vocal classes assist with of voice training, where a student acquires knowledge to control the vocal apparatus and to create splendid musical characters.

Pop singing

Nowadays pop music has become more relevant... This category of performing art is not considered to be an easy one. During this class our students learn not only voice -managing technique, but competent work with microphones and stage presence. They are also trained to display their artistry and creative individuality in lively and expressive ways.

Guitar playing class

«There is nothing mоге excellent than the guitar except a pair of them» (F.Chopin)

The guitar as a solo-instrument, and an accompanying instrument, is extremely popular in the world. Each day, a group of teenagers are taught the rudiments of how to play the guitar. This fine instrument sounds perfectly fine in our children's hands.

The troupe of guitarists was established in 2000. The troupe won prizes at the 37th «Young musician» competition in Almaty (2003), the national Festival in Istanbul (Turkey, 2003). The group was laureate of the International musical festival in Bulgaria (Obsor city, 2004) and regularly participates at different city events and concerts.

Theoretical class

Solfeggio-is the basis of singing. During sol-la lessons the children learn proper singing skills (e.g. pure intonation, ear for music, etc). The teachers of the theoretical classes maintain close contact with the teachers from the choral department. They aim to implement an emotional and colorful atmosphere into a basic theoretical knowledge through the use of musical examples. This creative approach used by the teachers, their intuition and ability to relate to the children, contributes towards dynamic, interesting and bright solfeggio and musical literature lessons.

All teachers in our pedagogical collective are engaged in the process of and more people each year and has influenced the popularization of children's choral singing both in Almaty and overseas.

Children from 3 to 17 year old attend our musical school. The special choir for vocal singing, guitar, synthesiser, pre-school children choir and piano, «Fa-solka» Sunday school, classic and pop singing departments and also evening classes department for pre-school children and young people are based there. In future there will be pop-choir, show-group, musical theatre and recording centre in our musical school.

Admission to the school takes place in a first half of June and September every year.

Latest update 08.01.2009