About

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The General Platoff Don Cossack Chorus website is a non-for-profit, historical and educational site dedicated to the memory of N.F. Kostrukoff and his General Platoff Don Cossack Chorus and dancers. The site consists of photos, history, and information about Kostrukoff, the chorus members, and the dancers. There are also recordings of the chorus that those who have never heard the chorus will be able to download for their personal pleasure.

We hope that the historical documents we present will help fill the void left when this world famous chorus was disbanded in 1972, after Kostrukoff suffered a heart attack.

DNF

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

D.N. Ferensick was born in New Jersey in 1935. He has nine years private formal training in music composition, six of which were in New York with Dr. William Thomas Pollack at the New York College of Music and three years in Berlin, Germany, two with Professor Heinz Frederick Hartig and one with Professor Boris Blacher, who was the director of the Hochschule Für Musik. As a dancer, he toured four years with Kostrukoff’s General Platoff Don Cossack Chorus, then two years with Jaroff’s Don Cossack Chorus. After leaving Jaroff’s chorus, he worked as a stage actor in Vienna, Austria, acting in close to 125 performances of the play “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder. He could have continued in this profession, but decided to give it up and return to music composition. Until it ceased to exist, he was a registered Kuban Cossack at the All Cossacks American Stanitsa, which was headquartered at the Kuban Cossack House in Howell, New Jersey.

He currently resides in Jackson, New Jersey with his wife, Kyung Yong, and their daughter, Glafera (Georgina).

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Without the encouragement, help, advice, and unfailing dedication to this project from my wife, Kyung Yong; our daughter, Glafera (Georgina); and my webmaster, AJ Heller, there would be no General Platoff Don Cossack website.

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Further Acknowledgements

In addition, we would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to the following individuals, bloggers, and web sites whose contributions have been enormously helpful in assembling this archive:

• Nicole Batchelor Regne
• Andrew Kotchoubey
• John Murawski from http://www.familywarletters.com/
• Siegfried Tiefenbeck, Germany

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Disclaimer
Most images on this web site have been collected from the private collections of Donald Ferensick and Georgina Ferensick. In instances where images or scans have been acquired from other sources, we do our best to name the source of the material. We gratefully accept contributions from anyone, and give credit and acknowledgements when such contributions are received.
The majority of audio content on this web site comes from Donald Ferensick’s private collection, which includes multiple, out-of-print, and rare titles, and are included under the fair use doctrine of the Copyright Act of 1976 (17 U.S.C. Section 107). To the best of our knowledge, the audio that is included on this site is not currently available for sale.
It is not our intention to infringe on any standing copyrights and we comply with requests from copyright or distribution right holders to remove items if such requests are made. In instances where a title remains in print — such as the Chorus of the Black Sea Cossacks — we link to stores and web sites where tracks can be purchased legally.
All text, unless otherwise specified, is (C)2013-2016 by D.N. Ferensick.