Varvara Kotova - Varvara Kotova, Polina Terentieva - There Was a Soul Living (spiritual poems) (2012)

The duet "Varvara Kotova - Polina Terentyeva" appeared due to singing in the Sirin ensemble. The basis of the repertoire is Russian spiritual poems accompanied by the wheel lyre (Polina Terentyev) gusli and percussion (Varvara Kotova). Much attention is paid to the rarely performed verses of the written tradition, recorded in znamenny chanting. In the performance of the duet they sound with orientation to the folk singing of the znamenny chanting with the use back vocals. One of the areas of work is the reconstruction of spiritual poems, singing texts on already existing folk tunes, as well as Pomeranian famous voices and are alike, which corresponds to the tradition of performing spiritual poems.
Each of the duet works in its own direction:
Polina Terentyeva pays great attention to Znamenny spiritual poems (in 2010 the Red Desert CD was released, where spiritual poems of the written tradition of 15-19 centuries were recorded, as well as a collection of spiritual poems to the disc), a collection of poems of the written tradition Poems of Affection (2013).
Varvara Kotova is engaged in folklore (folklore studio “Obereg” (junior group), ensemble “Gorozhane”).
The duet successfully debuted in St. Petersburg at the Christmas Festival (2010), and also performs in concert halls in Moscow, the Moscow region and St. Petersburg. He performed at the Festival of Ancient Church Music (St. Petersburg, 2012) in 2012, toured in Montenegro. The duo took part in such actions as “Museum Night” (2012), Nikolaev Readings (2012). In 2011, the duo's CD “How Soul Lived a Soul” (Russian spiritual poems) was released.