Pacific Fleet Orchestra Marks 150 Anniversary

VLADIVOSTOK. May 6. VOSTOK-MEDIA – The history of the Pacific Fleet Orchestra began in the spring of 1860, when “military brass choir” consisting of 50 people was established by an order of the navy.

In 1872, the then-called Pacific Ocean Orchestra was relocated from Nikolaevsk-on-Amur to Vladivostok. During the first several years since its inception the orchestra consisted solely of seamen. In 1889, the first music boarding school in Russia’s Far East was set up within the Siberian Naval Barracks. Its graduates were obliged to serve in the orchestra for six years.

The Pacific Fleet Orchestra played during ceremonial reviews, ceremonies of taking military oath, military parades and on many other occasions. The outdoor festivities, military officers balls in the Navy community center and dancing-parties for common soldiers were also accompanied by the only professional orchestra in Vladivostok. The Pacific Fleet Orchestra still has an important place in the cultural life of the Vladivostok and Primorsky Krai.

Nowadays, the orchestra is headed by Lieut Col. Konstantin Selivanov, who won the 2003 All-Russia Patriotic Song Contest and the 2007 All-Russia Conductors Competition in St Petersburg.