Regent of the choir. Nikon Zhila

Nikon Zhila was born in priest’s family in Sergiev Posad town, Moscow Region, on the 30th of November, 1976, and since his childhood he was singing in church choirs of  the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra.

He graduated from the Prokofiev Moscow Regional Music School in 1995, and in 2001 — the Faculty of the choral conducting at the Gnessins Russian Academy of Music.

Since 2000 Nikon Zhila worked as a chorister in the Moscow Sretensky monastery choir.

While serving in the Armed Forces in 2001-2002, he served as an artist at the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs of Russia.

Moscow Sretensky monastery invited Nikon Zhila as a regent of the monastery choir in 2005. Nikon Zhila had reorganized activities of the collective, while saving its best traditions. Talented singers, composers, arrangers were invited to cooperate with the collective, the repertoire was expanded and revised. The choir began to sing wartime songs acapella for the first time.