MEMBERS of a renowned male choir have been spared from fighting in an Eastern European conflict due to their importance as cultural ambassadors.

The Boyan Ensemble, which is the travelling section of the Revutsky Academic Male Capella based in Kiev, Ukraine, will be performing at Bury Parish Church, on The Rock, on October 12, at 7.30pm, as part of an extensive tour of Britain.

The 25 professional singers are scheduled to perform 23 concerts during this month and October.

The tour is taking place against a background of deepening financial and social crisis in their homeland as civil war continues in the Donbass region where it is reprted that the infrastructure has been virtually destroyed, with a rising casualty rate and nearly two million people being displaced.

Vigilante military recruiters are said to regularly raid shopping centres, public transport, parks and other public open spaces to pressgang young men into the armed services, but members of the choir have not yet been called upon for military service due to their cultural importance.

“There has been serious ongoing concern that our singers would be conscripted into the army, but we decided to throw caution to the winds and go ahead with this tour because to cancel it would have caused bitter disappointment on all sides,” said Margarete Rolle, the organiser of the Boyan’s British tours for the past 23 years.

“This tour demonstrates that there’s more to Ukraine than bombs and bullets, a worn-out Soviet infrastructure and a bedevilled political system.

“Whatever its problems, Ukraine has a rich, traditional culture which never fails to impress and members of Boyan are exemplary ambassadors of this powerful musical heritage.

“There are devastating circumstances facing the nation, the economy is perilously close to default and an economist recently quipped that compared to Ukraine, Greece looks like Switzerland.

“The dire financial situation and austerity measures make life very difficult for the singers who struggle to provide for their families.

“They are reliant on their Government’s funding but this has become tenuous under the circumstances.

“They therefore hope that their British tour will be a big success because it gives them a rare opportunity to earn some real money at a time when their currency has plummeted to disastrous levels, and I beg people to support them.”

Tickets for the 7.30pm concert are priced at £16 and £18 and are available from Bury Tourist Information Centre in Moss Street, Bury, or by calling 0161 253 5111.