The choir was founded in 1974 with the Chelyabinsk Choral Society and is directed by Olga Selezneva.

The Chamber Choir of the Chelyabinsk Philharmonia plays a most essential role in the cultural and music life of the South Ural. The choir is named after its founder and first art director Valery Mikhalchenko (5 April 1941-13 September 2013), the People’s Artist of Russia. In 2014 the Chamber Choir was named after V.V. Mikhalchenko. On March 14, 2024 the Chamber Choir celebrated the 50th anniversary of its foundation.

Olga Selezneva is the chief conductor and artistic director of the Chelyabinsk Chamber Choir named after V. Mikhalchenko. She graduated from the Kurgan Music College named after D.D. Shostakovich and the Chelyabinsk State Institute of Arts and Culture. She holds the academic title of professor in the choral conducting department. In 2001, she was invited as a choirmaster to the Chamber Choir of the Chelyabinsk Philharmonia, and in 2013, Olga Selezneva became the successor to Valery Mikhalchenko and took over as the head of the ensemble. Over the years of her creative career, she has prepared dozens of programs in various styles, including the most complex works by Western European, Russian, and contemporary composers. Her concert activities are successfully combined with teaching work at the Chelyabinsk State Institute of Culture.

For her contribution to the development of choral art in the Chelyabinsk region and the training of personnel for cultural and artistic institutions, she has been awarded: a Letter of Gratitude from the Administration of the City of Chelyabinsk (2007), an Honorary Certificate from the Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region (2012), the Award of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk Region in the field of culture and art (2014), the State Prize of the Chelyabinsk Region in the field of culture and art (2022), and a Letter of Gratitude from the Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region (2024).

The V. Mikhaylchenko Chamber Choir has repeatedly become a laureate of all-Union, republican, and international festivals and contests, including: the P.I. Tchaikovsky Festival in Izhevsk, Alyabyev Autumn in Tobolsk, the choral music festival in Novgorod, The Singing Field of Perm Krai in Perm, the Haynivka Festival of Spiritual Music in Poland, and the Enlightener Festival on Valaam Island.

Over the years of creative activity, the choir has created an enormous number of complex and diverse concert programs that meet the demands of even the most discerning audience, well-versed in the field of choral art. The choir has produced television and radio broadcasts, recorded CDs and vinyl records. Each musical season is marked by premieres of the Chamber Choir, original programs, and participation in modern projects at the Russian level: performances of D. Shostakovich's Anti-Formalist Rayok with the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra under V. Spivakov; participation in the VII International Festival of Chamber Choirs dedicated to the 800th anniversary of the founding of Riga; performance of Symphony of Psalms for choir and orchestra with the New Russia symphony orchestra under V. Kakhidze in the Big Hall of the Moscow Conservatory; Musical Review 2004 — a musical-poetic performance "Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin" with Alexander Filippenko, People’s Artist of Russia; Spiritual Music of Polish Composers, conducted by Janusz Siedlecki (Poland); Missa Tirnaviensis, composer and organist Stanislav Shurin (Slovakia); Music of Computer Games, conducted by Kenichi Shimura; A. Vivaldi's Gloria with the Soloists of Moscow chamber ensemble, conducted by Yuri Bashmet, USSR People’s Artist; I Love You Now, a solo concert by Sergei Ekimov (St. Petersburg); W.A. Mozart's Requiem, conducted by Kim Sang (South Korea).

The choir’s repertoire includes Western European choral music, Russian music, spiritual works, including the pieces rarely performed in public, and works by contemporary composers. The company actively promotes Russian and foreign classics and strives to restore a great number of Russian sacred music works. It was the choir that first performed many pieces by Russian and foreign composers, such as A. Caldara’s Dies Irae, K. Vargin’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, K. Volkov’s Awakum's Lament, motets and madrigals of the 16th-17th centuries, J. Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, L. Cherubini's Requiem, and G. Verdi’s spiritual compositions. Moreover, the Chamber Choir is the first performer of choral works by Ural composers like E. Gudkov, T. Shkerbina, E. Poplyanova, A. Krivoshei, L. Dolganova, P. Sergienko and others.

The creative collaboration between Chelyabinsk composers and the V. Mikhalchenko Chamber Choir began as early as the 1960s with performances of works by such masters as Yevgeny Gudkov and Mikhail Smirnov. The choir was entrusted with premiering their compositions, many of which have remained in the choir's "golden" repertoire fund. Today, a new generation of composers is continuing this tradition of creative friendship. For example, in 2023, the Chamber Choir recorded a music video for Polina Sergienko’s song Chelyabinsk Krai, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Chelyabinsk Region. In 2025, preparations are underway for a music video of Sergienko’s song Two Victories featuring the Chamber Choir to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Victory in World War II.

The mobility and artistic versatility of the Chamber Choir enable the implementation of fascinating multi-genre projects. The first such project for the V. Mikhalchenko Chamber Choir was the concert-play Madame Operetta, which premiered in 2014. It was directed by Oleg Khapov, with musical editing by Yuri Nikitin, scenography and choreography by Galina Kaloshina, and libretto by Konstantin Rubininsky. This production marked not only a true creative breakthrough for the choir but also leaving their usual "comfort zone" of static performance. The artists had to step down from the choral risers and begin moving across the stage for the first time.

Equally engaging was the work on the choir’s next project, Sounds of Immortality, a musical-poetic play that premiered in 2018. Directed by Oleg Khapov, this emotionally powerful concert was dedicated to the victims of all wars and is essential for fostering patriotic education across generations. The task for the choir was to "tell" the story of a person from birth to death, portraying the fragility of human life, love for one’s mother, affection for a beloved woman, and the senselessness of war. In addition to these projects, the V. Mikhalchenko Chamber Choir has experience in theatrical-stage productions, including children’s New Year's plays: Alice in the Land of Musical Wonders (stage director V. Soldatkin, musical accompaniment by V. Osherov), The Snow Queen (stage director and composer R. Pretser), Of Fairies and Dragons (stage director O. Khapov, composer E. Poplyanova, libretto by O. Kolpakov), and Disney Christmas (stage director A. Tetyuev). They have also staged children’s concert programs such as "When I Was Little," "When the Clock Strikes Twelve" (composer E. Poplyanova), and Fairy Tales Songs for Brave Kids (composer P. Sergienko).

In 2020, unique collections of sheet music were published. Those collections were created by Valery Mikhalchenko, the founder of the Chelyabinsk Chamber Choir, People’s Artist of Russia: Faith. Hope. Love, Beloved Land, and We Shouldn’t Forget These Roads. These collections include V. Mikhalchenko’s sacred choral works, his arrangements of folk songs for mixed, women’s, and men’s ensembles a cappella, a fantasy on themes of wartime songs, and adaptations for mixed choir of songs dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. The compositions included in these collections are part of the core repertoire of the V. Mikhalchenko Chamber Choir.

The Chamber Choir has performed in many cities across Russia: Moscow, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Tyumen, Voronezh, Vologda, Kurgan, the Republic of Crimea (Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Kerch, 2019, 2021), Dagestan (Makhachkala, Derbent, 2023); and abroad: Italy (Riva del Garda, 1997), Latvia (Riga, 1987, 2001), France (Paris, 2007), Germany (Berlin, 2014), Poland (Warsaw, Białystok, 2015), Czech Republic (Prague, Tábor, 2016), Valaam Island (Karelia, 2017), Austria (Graz, Weiz, 2018), and Abkhazia (Sukhumi, Pitsunda, 2022).

Each performance of the choir is a unique choral sermon bringing deep truth about the world, human, and spirit and giving the listeners an opportunity to rise above the commonplace and think about eternal human values.

Discography:


• 2004–2005 Choral Sermons
• 2008–2009 V. Bartulis. Messa brevis; R. Cocciante. Ave Maria; A. Ramirez. Misa Criolla
• 2010 Arkaim, a choreographic paroemia; Thumbelina, a fairy-tale. Music by T. Shkerbina
• 2012 Poem to the Memory of Sergei Yesenin. Verses read by Alexander Filippenko, People’s Artist of Russia
• 2013 K. Vargin. Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
• 2018 Vera. Nadezhda. Lyobov (Faith. Hope. Love), a tribute to V. Mikhalchenko
• 2020 – Choral music of Chelyabinsk composers