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THE WORLD-FAMOUS ORIGINAL
Don Cossack Chorus Serge Jaroff

Michel Bajanoff (Михаил Бажанов)

(Jan. 11, 1893 in Russia - Feb. 02, 1989 in New Jersey)

1921
1927
1950
1955

Bajanoff sang as a bass(baritone) and was the soloist of religious chants in Jaroff's choir for decades from 1930-1959. He was a founding member and was already shown on the first choir photos. At the end of 1959, like many of his older colleagues, he left the choir for reasons of age.

Year 1956. The following people are shown:

At the front of the table: V.Lvoff, 1956 treasurer of the choir
On the sofa: S.Jaroff, actor Paul Horbiger (with glasses), W.Flustikoff, M.Bajanoff
Back from left: N.Naneff, dog, G.Zolotareff (?)

According to a statement from the secretary of the Don Cossack Choir, S. Jaroff, regarding a denunciation by the choir director and some of his members in 1936 in the Third Reich, Germany:

...I know Mr. Bajanoff as a calm, solid, level-headed man. He used to be a captain in the Russian army and as such took part in the war against the Bolsheviks in the ranks of the White Army, after the victory of the latter he embarked with his company for Turkey.

In the Gallipoli camp, B.(ajanoff) was the favorite officer of General Kutepoff (Kutepov) who, as is well known, was kidnapped and probably murdered by the Bolsheviks in Paris a few years ago (note: 1930).

The informers apparently forgot to mention that among them Messrs. Chimtschenko, Zachartschenko and Popovkin, as former officers of the so-called Korniloff regiment (volunteer army under General Kornilov 1917), always elected Bayanoff as liaison officer. The relationship between Bajanoff and the last three was particularly close and friendly until the moment when Bajanoff, outraged by the drunkenness and bad behavior of the three, openly spoke out against them. Lately I have often heard the three of them scolding Bajanoff and claiming that he had no right to interfere in their "private lives"...

In the event of a bus accident on the night of 19./20. August 1938 in Weißenthurm am Rhein, Germany, 27 members of the choir were injured partly lightly, partly seriously. Bajanoff suffered a fractured skull. He was treated further in Berlin by Prof. Kudneff and in Bad Suderode (Harz, Germany) from November 7th, 1938 to December 13th, 1938, and was therefore not part of the America tour in 1938/39.

Bajanoff is bass (baritone) soloist in "The Lord's Prayer"
scene 0:16 - 2:28

The Michigan Daily, Oct 11, 1942 wrote:

Don Cossacks To Open Choral Series, Oct. 20.
Russian Group Will Conduct Twelfth Tour Of U.S.
http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/p16921coll4/id/2274

"...Every member of the troop has hobbies of interest. Akim Terichoff, for instance, expresses his Cossack's love of horseflesh by keeping an up-to-date, complete scrapbook on thorough breeds. Michael Bojanoff and Eugene Gabayeff have a more scholarly bent. The former writes for pleasure, and can amuse himself in this fashion in any one of twenty-two languages. Gabayeff boasts the heaviest luggage in the company, he fills his bags with stones collected in all parts of the world during his geologic quests."

Michel was an extremely frugal person who provided for his old age. He did not stay in the hotel restaurant in the evening with the others, where most of them spent their fees on alcohol, but he was often seen standing at snack bars where he ate dinner.

He reached a very old age (96 years), and even in old age he was pumped for cash by other members who were no longer financially well off.

Ivan Assur, who had joined the choir after World War II, passed on the anecdote that after one of their concerts, Fedor Chaliapin (famous russian bass), who had attended, said that bass Michael Bajanoff, who was a founding member, sang liturgical music better than he did.² Chaliapin was a supporter of the choir and had made a recording with them.

Siegfried Tiefenbeck

¹ Source: Andrej Diakonov's interview with member Ivan Assur.
² Donna Arnold. Serge Jaroff and His Don Cossack Choir: The Refugees Who Took the World by Storm.


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