[4] Slavyanka was founded in 1979 by a group of former Yale Russian Chorus members including Paul Andrews, John McCarthy, and Peter Gleick.
Directors of the group have included founder Paul Andrews (1979—1993), Aleksei Shipovalnikov (1993—1996), Gregory Smirnov (1996—2011), and Irina Shachneva (2011—Present).
[8] In 1986 and 1990, Slavyanka was chosen to perform at the Western Regional Conventions of the American Choral Directors Association.
[10] Notable performances of historic works by the group include Sergei Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil, the Western premiere of Aleksei Shipovalnikov's Vespers, and the US premiere of Konstantin Shvedov's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, recovered from secreted Soviet negatives.
[8][11][12] Slavyanka's performed languages have included Russian, Ukrainian, Old Slavonic, Armenian, Croatian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Slovene, Georgian, and Svan.