Gleb Chandrowsky

Gleb Chandrowsky (20 June {O.S. 7} 1896, Baibuzovka, Savran-Podolsky District, Odessa, Russian Empire — 9 January 1976, Tomkins Cove, New York) was a Ukrainian-American basso profundo singer renowned for his uniquely deep voice (below G₁) with the working range of over 3½ octaves. He came to international prominence in the early 1920s, touring with Alexander Koshetz and his Ukrainian National Chorus. Since 1923, Shandrovskiy had lived in the USA, serving as the principal singer in Serge Jaroff's Don Cossack Chorus and several other vocal ensembles. Name variations: Gleb Danilovich Chandrowsky, Glib Chandrowsky, Hlib Shandrovsky, Глеб Данилович Шандровский, Гліб Данилович Шандровський. Born in a tiny rural village in the Odesa Region (modern Ukraine), Glib grew up in the larger city of Tulchyn in Vinnytsia Oblast. After completing grammar school, he studied at the Tyvrov Theological College of the Podolsk diocese, where Shandrovsky sang in Kirill Stetsenko's choir. Upon graduating from the seminary, Gleb returned to Tulchyn and joined a choir directed by Mykola Leontovych alongside his younger brother, Vladimir Shandrovsky (1901—1985). In the spring of 1919, a prolific Ukrainian choral conductor, Olexander Koshetz (1875—1944), who was in Kamenetz-Podolsk preparing for an upcoming European tour with his Republican Choir of Ukraine, immediately spotted a unique voice in the local Vinnytsia Drama Theatre choir. Despite already having plenty of basses, Koshetz hired Gleb Chandrowsky as a principal singer. The ensemble soon toured Europe, the United States, and Canada. In October 1923, as Koshetz's Ukrainian Choir completed another USA tour, Chandrowsky decided to stay in the country and settled in Brooklyn. He performed and recorded extensively over the next four decades, hailed by critics as one of his generation's most extraordinary and versatile basses. Gleb collaborated with several prominent ensembles, including Russian Master Singers and other bands led by Theodore Zarkevich, the Ukrainian National Quartet ("Український національний квартет," featuring Josef Davidenko (1893—1936), Peter Ordynsky (1886—1973), Mikhail Grebinetsky (1887—1943), and Klim Shchyt), and Alfredo Antonini And His Orchestra on New York's WOR-AM radio. He participated in the Philadelphia Sesqui-Centennial expo in August 1926 and recorded in a mixed vocal trio with Josef Davidenko and Vera Barchanivna on the Okeh label in September 1929. Chandrowsky had performed with Serge Jaroff's Don Cossack Chorus on every US tour since 1928, joining as a permanent member after the choir relocated to North America in 1939. During the Second World War, he toured US military bases with a state-funded entertainment troupe established by United Service Organizations (USO). Reuniting with Don Kosaken Chor Serge Jaroff after WWII, he traveled with the choir across South America in 1951, followed by international tours in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan in 1956.