FIVE male singers from St Petersburg will sing in Saltburn next month.

The Hermitage Ensemble, which sounds like a barber shop quartet one minute and the massed ranks of the Red Army the next, has performed twice before in East Cleveland – at St Nicholas’ Church, Guisborough, four years ago, and more recently at Saltburn Emmanuel Church.

On both occasions they sang to packed houses and received standing ovations.

The Saltburn concert has been organised by opera singer Jeanette Wainwright and will involve 60 of the local singers whom she tutors as well as herself, accompanied by pianist Caroline Scales, who will perform a Spanish chant and John Rutter’s All Things Bright and Beautiful.

The Hermitage Ensemble seeks to maintain Russian traditions of church and folk music and bring these genres closer to western societies.

Their performances have been described as powerful enough to make a listener enter into the Russian soul, especially as the low registers of the bass voices reach well below those of many other countries.

The ensemble’s programme consists of liturgical motets, psalms and folk songs, including masterpieces of Russian choral, spiritual music that is currently enjoying a renaissance.

The concert is at the Saltburn Emmanuel Church on Saturday, May 1, at 7.30pm (doors open 7pm). Tickets cost £7.50 from Saltburn Health Foods, tel 01287-624622.

Profits will go to charity. There will be a bar with wine and soft drinks available.