VOCAL WORKSHOPS
2023
Nadia Tarnawsky
Lyrical Songs from the Zhytomyr Region
Saturday, february 18, 2023, 1–3:30 PM
playwrights downtown, noho, nyc
what we learned:
UVV welcomed back the wonderful and talented Nadia Tarnawsky to lead an in-person vocal workshop. Nadia’s exceptional teaching skills shone.
In the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine one can find the village of Bovsuny. It is located in the ethnographic region called Polissia, which is known for its preservation of songs and folklore – spring songs, wedding songs, harvesting songs and winter carols, among others. In this workshop, we learned two lyrical songs from the repertoire of the ensemble known as the "Bovsuny Grandmothers" or Bovsunivski Babusi.
Thank you to all who gathered together to learn these powerful songs and preserve this ancient vocal tradition.
About nadia tarnawsky:
Nadia Tarnawsky received a Fulbright award and spent much of 2017 and 2018 in Ukraine collecting traditional folk music in Ukraine. She has taught Ukrainian village style singing in workshops for the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York, Kitka Women's Ensemble, Village Harmony, and Dunava, among others. Nadia sang with Ensemble Hilka of New York in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster in Ukraine. In 2011, she was granted a Traditional Arts Fellowship from Artist Trust and an Artist Support Residency from Jack Straw Productions.
Iryna Voloshyna
Easter Folk Psalms of Ukraine
Friday, March 31, 2023, 6:30–8:30 PM
playwrights downtown, noho, nyc
During Lent, Ukrainians were not allowed to have fun, sing, or dance. It was a time for contemplation upon the ever-standing philosophical questions of the meaning of life, sin, and salvation. The only place where people could engage with music was the church. However, human creativity is unstoppable, and people started creating their own church-inspired songs based on biblical stories. In our workshop, we sang religious-inspired folk songs – psalms, from various regions of Ukraine.
ABOUT IRYNA VOLOSHYNA:
Originally from Ukraine, Iryna Voloshyna is a PhD student at the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington, and also serves as an Associate Instructor there. She is a Fulbright fellow and received her MA in Folklore at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Iryna has worked with the New York State Council on the Arts, New York Folklore Society, Yara Arts Group, The Ukrainian Museum in New York, and Ukrainian-American Museum and Archive in Detroit. She sang with Ukrainian folk singing ensemble Ladovytsi in her hometown Khmelnytskyi, the NYC-based Ukrainian Village Voices, and currently she is a founding artistic director of Indiana Slavic Choir at Indiana University.
Jurij Fedynskyj
Songs of the Kobzar Tradition
thursday, april 27, 2023, 6:30–8:30 PM
playwrights downtown, noho, nyc
During the war today, the tradition of the kobzars, or blind wandering minstrels, has become understood as a specific practice of defending Ukraine through spirit in music. Beyond the specific repertoire of its deceased leaders, it is the means to take that spirit wherever needed from a tradition that stretches back over 300 years. Jurij has played this music all over Ukraine, even bringing it to the front lines of the war.
We learned about the kobzars' history and philosophy, heard their unique instruments―the bandura, kobza, and turban, and investigated three core genres of this tradition: cants, dumas (epic poems), and the monadic Irmoses, which have enjoyed popularity in Eastern Ukrainian villages since the Middle Ages.
Jurij Fedynskyj is a researcher, teacher, and practitioner of the kobzar and torbanist traditions, and a maker of these instruments. He grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, studied classical piano at East Carolina University, and soon found purpose in the Ukrainian diaspora, studying bandura with Julian Kytasty and playing with the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus. At age 23, Jurij moved to Ukraine to continue his studies. For 10 years, he studied the kobzar tradition with Taras Kompanichenko, instrument making with the Kyiv Kobzar Guild, and traditional village music with Kriachkivka's renowned singing group Drevo. In Ukraine, he joined or founded numerous folk groups, including Haydamaky, Karpatiyany, and Khoreya Kozatska. For the past decade, Jurij's main project "Kobzarskiy Tabir" hosts a festival and camps in Kriachkivka that focus on traditional music education. Jurij actively practices the kobzar tradition by traveling around Ukraine, as well as abroad. His current "Kobzaring the World" tour has scheduled stops all over the U.S. and Canada.
