The award-winning choir was started by conductor Mykola Hobdych in 1990 and is the official representative choir of Kyiv. After the 70-year ban on church music during the Soviet era, Hobdych saw it as his great task to revive the rich Ukrainian Orthodox music. Several composers have written commissioned works for the choir, and they have recorded much of Valentin Silvestrov's choral music. The choir also sings Ukrainian folk music. They have performed on some of the world's biggest stages, from Carnegie Hall in New York to Notre-Dame in Paris, and consist of professional singers recruited from music conservatories in Ukraine.