Fifty years ago, the Oberlin College Choir, directed by Robert Fountain, made history

when they toured the Soviet Union and Romania in March and April of 1964. Chosen by
both the US State Department and the Soviet government as part of a new cultural
exchange program, the Choir was the first collegiate music group from America to tour the
USSR, and it was a trip of many other firsts. For many of the Choirs members, the trip
included their first flight, first subway ride, and first international trip, while for many of
the Russian1 students that the Choir met, it was their first time meeting Americans. During
the trip, the Choir learned about the Soviet way of life and made friends with Russian
students while they, as American musicians, enchanted their Soviet audiences. The trips
success led the US State Department to consider it one of the most successful if not the
most successful of all cultural exchanges.2 However, ten years after the tour, Choir
member Donna Beik Wulff wondered how successful the cultural exchange really was:
I wonder how much the experience of travelling and singing for seven weeks in the Soviet
Union really touched and transformed us. Were we open to such transformation? Or were
we missionaries in disguise, agents of the cultural imperialism that has for centuries been
our countrys dominant stance toward those who happen not to share out values, our
assumptions, our way of life? Did our own attitudes, in the spring of 1964, permit us to
engage in a truly open cultural exchange?3

Today, fifty years later, collections of memories from the Choir members provide some
answers to these questions, but many not the one or the other answer that Wulff was
looking for. While the College Choir inadvertently perpetuated the American stance of
trying to impose its views on others and barred a truly open cultural exchange, they
were still open to transformation as much as their personal backgrounds allowed.

The sources used for this paper use Soviet Union and Russia interchangeably, so this paper will do the
same even though the tour included modern day Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine, and Moldova (as well as
Romania).
2 Choir Returns Today From 2-Month Tour of Russia, Rumania, Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), May 1, 1964, 1.
3 Oberlin College Archives, Russ Hurd, compiler, The Russian TourTen Years Later, 1974, 35.

After the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, American-Soviet relations began to relax and
head toward dtente. Part of this relaxation included a cultural exchange program where
each country sent performers and artists to the other. In 1963, the Office of Cultural
Presentations in the Department of State informed Robert Fountain that they were
considering the Oberlin College Choir for a Soviet tour during the 1964-65 academic year.
While most student exchange programs had occurred during the summer, the State
Department wanted a student group to tour during the school year so they had more
opportunities to meet and interact with Soviet students. After Fountain sent back some
recordings, the State Department sent their favorite recordings to the Soviet government
who chose the Oberlin Choir as their top choice for an academic music group to tour in
spring of 1964. Fountain was planning on taking a sabbatical that semester, but upon
learning the Soviets decision in October, he changed his plans.
In early October, Fountain told the Choir members that a tour of the Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe was likely, but it was a few weeks before both governments finalized
the plans. The State Department wanted to limit the trip to forty-five choir members, but
when Fountain insisted on taking at least sixty, the Department relented and allowed him
to take all sixty-seven singing members, along with six instrumentalists (who also sang
with the Choir when they were not playing their instruments).4 In late October, Fountain
informed the Choir that the Soviet tour had been confirmed, and things became hectic but
exciting for the lucky members of the Oberlin College Choir.5 To prepare, the students in
the Choir called home, obtained passports, got necessary shots and immunizations, had
more rehearsals, and memorized five hours of music in seven languages. The
4

Choir Awaits Word Of Government On Tour to Russia, Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), Oct. 18, 1963.
Dianne M. Haley, "Curtain Call," Oberlin Today 22, no. 4 (1964): 3.

administration planned how students would complete the spring semester while missing
two months (many took summer classes to make up for lost time), even making sure that
seniors would graduate on time. The Choir sang three concerts of their tour repertoire
before the trip: one in Cuyahoga Falls, one in Pittsburgh, and one in Finney Chapel in
Oberlin on February 16 to an audience of two thousand. The State Department visited
Oberlin just before the trip to brief the Choir on what to expect, and the members,
especially the girls were panicky at the thought of packing a two-month winter wardrobe
for the airlines suitcase limit of [44] pounds.6 In addition to their clothing, they also
packed guitars for informal music sessions, and many trinkets like ballpoint pens, lipstick,
and sheet music to give as gifts to the Russian students.
The original itinerary included twelve cities in the USSR: Leningrad, Moscow,
Kalinin, Yaroslavl, and Ryazan in the Russian SSR; Kiev, Lvov, Chernovtsy, Odessa, Kharkov,
and Yalta in the Ukrainian SSR; and Kishinev in the Moldavian SSR. It also said that concerts
in at least two of the Soviet Unions satellite countries would be tacked on to the end of
the tour, with these rumored to be Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria at first.7 However, the
actual itinerary was quite different: getting rid of the stops in Kalinin, Yaroslavl, Kharkov;
and adding concerts in Minsk in the Byelorussian SSR and Simferopol and Zaporozhe in the
Ukrainian SSR. The choir only added one other country to the tour, performing concerts in
Ploesti and Bucharest, Romania.
On February 29, a large group of well wishers saw the Choir, Robert Fountain, his
wife Clara, Anita Reichard (wife of a German professor), and William Cheney (assistant
Dean of Men) off as they loaded up their buses and left for Cleveland Hopkins airport on
6
7

Haley, Curtain Call, 3.

Choir Intinerary to Include Soviet Union, Satellites. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), Feb. 14, 1964, 1.

their way to Moscow via New York and London. When the plane touched down in Moscow
on the night of March 1, a Soviet guard got on the plane accompanied by soldiers and
inspected the Choir members passports one by one. Guides showed them around the city
on buses before dropping them off at the train station to head to Leningrad for their first
leg of the tour.
Before the State Department had briefed the College Choir on some Russian
performance audience customs. If an audience enjoyed a piece, they would clap
rhythmically in unison signifying that they wanted an encore. Audience members would
also pass notes of requests or praise to the conductor, sometimes going onstage to do so.
The State Department informed them that standing ovations are very rare among Russian
audiences, with the rhythmic clapping being more common, but that they should not
expect this on their opening night, as those crowds were usually more sophisticated.
Despite these warnings, the Choir was excited to perform for their first Russian audience in
Leningrads Philharmonic Hall on March 3, Fountain being just as excited, saying This is
it! Dianne Haley recalls, as we walked briskly toward the stage to meet our first audience,
he said to each one of us words that became a nightly ritual for the entire tour: Go out
there and love them. So while the Choir loved the audience, the audience, which consisted
largely of students and filled the hall, loved them right back. Haley remembers that, they
especially loved our spirituals, applauding so much that we had to repeat one before they
would let us continue. Contrary to the State Departments warning, the audience surprised
the Choir by clapping rhythmically at the concerts end and giving ovations after all five
encores. The most successful of these was a Russian folk song. Haley recollects, when they
heard the Russian words, there was a sudden hush, then a rustle of excitement and smiles

everywhere as they leaned forward to catch our strange pronunciation of their language.8
The Choir sang four more concerts to similar audiences in Leningrad.
Leningrad was also the tome to some of the most cultural exchange. The Choirs
hotel was just across the street from the concert hall, so after the performances many
audience members sometimes lined up from the stage door to the hotel lobby, wanting
autographs or for the performers to talk to them in whatever language seemed to work
best. The Oberlin College Choir also visited the Leningrad Conservatory where they sang
for their Chorus and the Leningrad Chorus sang for them before they all joined together
and sang as one big choir. Also in Leningrad, the Choir visited the Hermitage where they
experienced some artwork, artifacts, and architecture from pre-Revolution Russia.
The Choirs next stop was Moscow. The audiences there were a little more subdued,
as they included more ambassadors and dignitaries, but the Choir received a similar
response to their Leningrad performances nonetheless. Once again, the audience favored
the spirituals and Russian folk songs the best, something that was true in every city: Haley
recalling, their delight at these Russian songs never failed to thrill us, and they were a high
point of almost every concert.9 Choir member Allison Weed Herrick also commented on
this, saying, It was evident that they particularly enjoyed the spirituals and the Russian
folk songs. This was a bit hard on those of us who were partial to the Bach and the
Mozart.10 For many of the students, the stop in Moscow made the fact that they were in the
USSR real to them, as they were walking by the Kremlin and the Red Square, the only
symbols of Russia theyd known beforehand. Like in Leningrad, Russians talked to the

Haley, Curtain Call, 4.

Haley, Curtain Call, 4.
10 Oberlin College Archives, Russ Hurd, compiler, The Russian TourTen Years Later, 1974, 33.
8

Choir members wherever they went, be it in their hotel, after a concert, or just on the
street, and this continued to occur in every city. Most cities on the tour also included visits
to universities on which Haley remarks:
At each [institute and conservatory,] we were treated as royal guests. The formula was
almost the same every time. We were ushered into the schools auditorium amidst
thunderous applause. The director of the institution would the welcome us with words of
praise and admiration, assuring us of their intense desire for world peace and friendship.
Often a recital or variety show would follow ,and occasionally our own choir members would
take part in panel discussions where student questions would be answered. 11

Following this formulaic section, the students would chat with one another in whatever
language worked best for them, usually English but with some German, French, and every
so often very broken Russian (from the Americans of course). If the language barrier
proved to be too difficult, the Choirs interpreters aided the conversation. Many Choir
members remarked that they rarely talked about politics largely because of the language
barrier. They also avoided the topic because when politics did come up, they were in a
deadlock as both parties had been raised to believe that their ideology was far superior.
Education came up frequently, and the Russian students were amazed that the Oberlinians
had to pay for their education, boasted that the State paid for all of their studies. They also
couldnt grasp the concept of a liberal arts education, as they specialized in one field that
would become their occupation. For example, when Dianne Haley told students that she
majored in Latin, they responded, Is that ALL?12
Next on their tour was Minsk, the capital of the Byelorussian SSR, which was largely
closed off to foreigners, so the Choir was one of the few groups to visit the city. Next the
choir went back to the Russian SSR with a stop in Ryazan. This was followed by their many
stops in the Ukrainian SSR, beginning with Kiev and heading to Lvov and Chernovtsy. Then
11
12

Haley, Curtain Call, 5.

Haley, Curtain Call, 7.

off to Kishinev, the capital of the Moldavian SSR, followed by a return the Ukraine with
concerts in the cities of Odessa, Yalta, and Simferopol on the coast of the Black Sea. Ending
their tour in the Soviet Union in Zaporozhe, Ukraine, they travelled to Romania, first for a
brief sojourn in Sinaia, a town in the Transylvanian Alps, before performing one concert in
Ploesti and going to Bucharest to perform their final two European concerts. They planned
to fly to Belgrade, Yugoslavia (present day Serbia) and spend a day off there before
returning to New York City, but a dust storm delayed their plane so much that they were
forced to take an overnight train ride to Belgrade, where officials held their plane so they
could make it back to the States.
In New York, the Choir recorded their repertoire and performed a final concert at
Town Hall, which was received just as warmly as their European concerts, but this time the
critics favored the Bach instead of the spirituals and the Russian folk songs. They were
truly back in America. The Choir returned to Oberlin on May 1, on the day of Oberlins mock
presidential convention, to signs saying Fountain for President! Both the US government
and the Oberlin community knew that the tour was a great success.
But still, Donna Beik Wulff was not so convinced ten years after the trip, and for
some good reasons. Yes, the trip was not a truly open cultural exchange, but such an
event is impossible when both parties have been brainwashed by Cold War propaganda.
While both sides tried to defend their ideologies, neither was successful in converting
anyone to the other side. Memories of the tour say things credit the tour with making them
better musicians, teaching them about professional touring, being slower to judge,
increasing their capacity to love, and simply being the most important event in their lives.
So while Wulffs question of whether the Choir imposed American views onto Soviets is a

good one, the fact that the cultural exchange was not completely open does not bar the
fact that the tour really did transform and change people.
Bibliography:
Choir Awaits Word Of Government On Tour to Russia. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), Oct.
18, 1963.
Choir Intinerary to Include Soviet Union, Satellites. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), Feb. 14,
1964.
Choir Returns Today From 2-Month Tour of Russia, Rumania. Oberlin Review (Oberlin,
OH), May 1, 1964.
Choir To Depart Tomorrow; Attends to Final Preparations. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH),
Feb. 28, 1964.
Choir To End Tour With N.Y. Concert; Returns Next Friday. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH),
Apr. 24, 1964.
Comrades Bid Choir Do Svidaniia. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), Mar. 3, 1964.
Cooke, Sandra Russians Heap Kudos on Choir; Fountain Praises Performances. Oberlin
Review (Oberlin, OH), May 5, 1964.
Cooper, Dick. Highly Acclaimed Choir Returns. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), May 5, 1964.
Five Choir Members Defect, Request Asylum in Kremlin. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH),
Mar. 27, 1964.
Haley, Dianne M. "Curtain Call." Oberlin Today 22, no. 4 (1964): 3-14.
Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin College. Memories of the Oberlin College Choir 1964 Soviet Union Tour, 2013
Robert P. Fountain. Papers, 1917-1996
Russ Hurd, compiler. The Russian TourTen Years Later, 1974
Oberlin College Choir To Tour Soviet Union. St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, FL), Oct.
25, 1963.
Olson, Eric. Choir Pauses in N.Y. City Before Returning Friday. Oberlin Review (Oberlin,
OH), Apr. 28, 1964.
Russians Cheer College Choir. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), Mar. 6, 1964.

State Department Approves Choir Trip to Soviet Cities. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), Oct.
25, 1963.
Tass Praises Choir. Oberlin Review (Oberlin, OH), Mar. 13, 1964.

I have adhered to the Honor Code in this assignment.