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21 October 2009 16:16

Ukraine 3000 Foundation and Art Veles Arts Agency Present Ukrainian Wedding Folk Songs Collection

October 21, 2009, the Ukraine 3000 Foundation and Art Veles Arts Agency presented the  Ukrainian Wedding folk songs collection2-CD set.

The event was held at the Ivan Honchar Museum Ukrainian Folk Culture Center (29 Mazepa St., Kyiv). Among its participants were Head of the Supervisory Board of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation Kateryna Yushchenko, Head of the Board of Directors of Ukraine 3000 Foundation Oleksandr Maksymchuk, Director of Art Veles arts agency Taras Hrymaliuk, Ivan Honchar Museum director Petro Honchar, and Head of the Culture Programs Dept. with Ukraine 3000 Foundation Vladyslav Pioro.

The Ukrainian Wedding collection is a part of the My Ukraine: Bervy art project by Ukraine 3000 Foundation and Art Veles arts agency. The music for the Ukrainian Wedding was collected in almost all regions inhabited by Ukrainians: Naddniprianshchyna, Ppolissia, Podillia, Volyn, Halychyna, the Carpathians, Pidliassia, Slobodyanshchyna, Kuban, and Steppe zone. The songs are compiled according to the traditional Ukrainian wedding scenario, from engagement to saying farewell to the guests.

Addressing the audience, Mrs. Yushchenko said that the Ukrainians had preserved their traditions in spite of the years of oppression. “More and more young people want to use authentic traditions and rituals at their weddings,” she said. “If our young people make use of even a small part of this beautiful ritual, it will revive.”

Mrs. Kateryna thanked all those working on the CDs. “This is a continuation of our great artistes’ traditions,” she said, quoting Lesia Ukrayinka financing folklore expeditions and Mykola Lysenko putting on record 1,500 Ukrainian folk songs.

Kateryna Yushchenko said that Ukrainian traditions should be known all over the world. “We need to make films in different languages and show the world our interesting rituals,” she said, expressing her hope that further steps of the My Ukraine: Bervy project would be in this direction.

Mr. Hrymaliuk spoke about the My Ukraine: Bervy project’s attainments. The project is implemented in three large areas: publishing Ukrainian folklore CDs, organizing folklore expeditions, and digitalizing audio archives. In Mr. Hrymaliuk’s words, 10 CDs have already been published within the framework of the project, a number of folklore expeditions organized, and around 1,500 hours of audio materials digitalized. The total of 30,000 units of information have been collected: songs, instrumental music, lamentations, etc. It is planned to publish a series of traditional music and kobzar lyric poetry CDs.

The project organizers announced that a half of the Ukrainian Wedding CD edition would be distributed among the 908 Ukrainian music schools, 41 music colleges, and 10 higher education institutions having folklore departments. The rest will be on free sale, with profits earmarked for implementing the project’s tasks: organizing expeditions and digitalizing audio records.

The participants and guests of the presentation toured the Ukrainian Wedding: Traditional Attributes. Old Polissian songs were rendered by women’s folk groups from Stari Koni, Svarychovychi, and Zaluzhzhia villages in Rivne oblast, along with a performance by Hurtopravtsi group accompanied by violinist Serhiy Okhrimchuk.