From their website:
"LYRA is a community of professional musicians. Most of our members are students or postgraduates of Saint-Petersburg Conservatoire, working in different choirs of Saint-Petersburg. Some of us are also soloists at musical theatres of our city. Though the members of our community represent different musical professions: choir conductors, opera singers, instrumentalists, music teachers – we are all united by love for choir and ensemble singing.
"The choir community LYRA includes about 25 people. However, due to different difficulties connected with the arrangement of concerts for such a numerous group, we usually perform in small groups of soloists consisting of 5-6 people, trying to keep the harmony of choir sound.
"The main goal of LYRA`s activity is exploring and popularizing Russian choir music. Through our performances, we want to introduce enormous musical heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as traditions of Russian folk music to all people who are interested in Russia, its history and culture.
"The field of our creative interests is quite diverse. In a wide range of time we represent examples of Russian sacred music, starting from ancient songs of the Orthodox Church to works of little-known, but remarkable composers of the XVIII-XX centuries, as well as famous masters – D. Bortnjansky, P. Tchaikovsky, P. Tchesnokov, A. Gretchaninov, S. Rakhmaninov, I. Stravinsky and others.
"We perform different folk songs of lyric, dancing and ritual nature in the arrangements of great choir music masters. We also make our own arrangements of folk songs. Secular songs of Russian classics, such as S. Taneev, P. Tchaikovsky, S Rakhmaninov and others represent another side of our creative activity. Our repertoire includes also programs consisting of songs, romances and arias from operas by Russian as well as foreign composers.