• You will learn songs within a wonderful community and have direction in traditional Ukrainian village singing.

• There is no fee to sing with us and active UVV members attend our public vocal workshops for free.

• We have a solid group of singers, an ever-growing repertoire, and opportunities for performance, training, and also singing in nature (especially during our annual retreats).

We encourage Ukrainian speakers to join, but no Ukrainian-language ability is necessary to sing with us. Our song lyric sheets are written in Cyrillic (Ukrainian) as well as in English transliteration, which anyone can learn to read with a little practice.

We have a few policies in place to ensure that we are ever moving onward and upward.

Note that you do not need to be able to sight read music, as most of the learning we do is by listening to source recordings. Learning by ear is a brilliant way to internalize and really get to know these village songs.

Time Commitment

• We have two seasons per year, and you may join at the beginning of either one. The fall season runs from early September to mid January, and the spring season starts at the beginning of February and lasts until mid June. We may have some optional summer gigs with separate rehearsals scheduled to prepare for those.

• Attendance policy: Please be able to attend most weekly rehearsals. Your commitment is vital in creating high performance quality and a cohesive community.

• Our Wednesday night rehearsals take place in the East Village in Manhattan, 6:30-8:30 PM. Extra rehearsals may be scheduled before performances.

• Members are not required to sing at every performance, but should expect to be a part of at least a few gigs each season.

Auditions

• Please note that we may not always hold auditions every season. Often auditions are for specific voice parts, and sometimes they are open to all.

• If we are auditioning, you may choose to audition at the end of the second open rehearsal at the beginning of each season. We will hold a short audition for each new singer with songs we have been learning together. You do not need to memorize lyrics for the audition. If you play a musical instrument, bring it too! We are particularly seeking accordion, fiddle, tambourine, bubon, and sopilka players.

• UVV singers returning after a hiatus are required to audition as well.

• Audition results will be based partly on singing ability and partly on UVV’s current voice part needs.

Health/Safety

• You are welcome to rehearse in a mask if you would like. However, we do not perform in them.

Our spring season Wednesday rehearsals begin in mid February (date TBD) and end in mid June. The first two rehearsals are open to the public and take place from 6:30-8:30 PM in the East Village. We will be auditioning all voices for a few spots. Anyone is welcome to come sing and enjoy (and learn what it’s like to rehearse with us), as well as to audition.

Auditions will take place at the end of the second rehearsal, and results will be based partly on singing ability and partly on UVV’s current voice part needs. Bonus points if you play an instrument (in particular: accordion, fiddle, tambourine, sopilka, bubon).

If you’re interested in singing with UVV, please drop us a line.

Until then, we’d love to sing together at our vocal workshops which are open to the public (the next one will be on January 22!).