2008 Camps and Workshops
Ukraine
August 6 – August 24
Retreat Week in Verkhovyna, At the Foot of the Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine
Led by Evgeny Efremov, Patty Cuyler, Olga Velitchkina
Tuition: $1500
Map of the Ukraine
Western Ukraine Festival
Photo by N.Gilbert
Village in Ukraine
Photo by M. Korotchenko
Woman and thatched hut in Ukraine
Photo by M. Seminog
Mountain river in Ukraine
Photo by S. Myhayluk
Bridge over river in Ukraine
Photo by S. Myhayluk
View of Kiev
Photo by N. Gilbert
Come and explore the great diversity of culture and music of Ukraine, the ancient cradle of Eastern Slavic civilization.
We will begin our tour in beautiful western Ukraine in the Carpathian Mountains, nestled in a landscape of pyramid-shaped peaks and pocketed valleys, after flying in to the former Soviet air base at Ivano-Frankivsk. Closed off from the rest of the world, the rich and separate folklore of the Carpathians and the truly rural settings makes travelling in the region feel like going back in time. The Carpathians are known to shelter some of the oldest of Ukrainian traditions, and it is a region where several ethnic groups—the Hutsuls, Boiki and Lemko—still hold on to unique traditions, dialects, and musical styles. This is the area in which we will have our retreat week.
While we are learning music and dance from a number of different areas of Ukraine—not just from western Ukraine—we will certainly meet with local musicians, and there will be chances for those who wish to study some of the unique indigenous instruments of the region. In addition to our Ukrainian repertoire and the American folk set that Patty will lead, Olga will teach a number of old Russian church pieces of 17th century polyphony—wonderfully dissonant and mysterious—as well as Russian panpipes—a tradition surviving in a handful of villages spread in southern Kursk and Briansk provinces of Russia. (A group of 5-7 players is divided into two subgroups and the play is a hocket-like rhythmic complementarity between the subgroups, intertwined with the vocal sounds, and traditionally combined with violin, balalaîka and other wind instruments; the whole impression is something coming from some ancient time.)
From the mountains we will travel east into the central part of the country,
the ancient European territories where the first Slavic tribes settled. There
we will meet with folk musicians (including refugees from the Chernobyl disaster)
who keep alive the ancient songs. Our tour will take us into the old
forest region of Polissya (literally, ‘in the woods’), with some
of the most beautiful landscapes in the country and home to Ukraine’s
most ancient towns and villages. From there we will travel to the left
bank of the Dnepr (Dnipro in Ukrainian) River—the third-longest
river in Europe, and Ukraine’s defining waterway; there we may stay
with another group of migrants from the Chernobyl region who practice eco-tourism. The
camp will finish with a stay in Kiev, the ancient capital city of Ukraine.
In Ukraine, regional identity is paramount. Identity in different areas
could mean speaking a different language (Russian or Ukrainian, both with
dialects and in many places a mix, with the historical dividing line being
the Dneper River)—or holding allegiance to a certain football team. As
we work our way east from the mountains on our tour we will be able to see
these differences. However, there are quite a few constants about Ukraine—hospitality
and national pride among them. And while Ukraine still struggles to
catch up economically with the West (expect poor bathroom facilities, bad
customer service, and trash) you will have a wonderful experience visiting
and learning the music and culture of this post-soviet country.
The Ukrainian airlines, Aerosvit, offers reasonably-priced (currently around $1100) non-stop flights 5 days a week to Kiev from New York’s JFK airport. We recommend that US participants fly out together from New York on August 5th, arriving in Kiev late the following morning; those people traveling on a different itinerary should plan to meet the group at that time. We then all take the daily flight to Ivano-Frankivsk airport in western Ukraine to begin the camp session.
Verkhovyna, Ukraine
Verkhovyna
Verkhovyna
Verkhovyna, Retreat Center Room
Our rehearsal week will take place in the town of Verkhovyna (elevation 620m, known as Zhabye before 1963), 150 km from Ivano-Frankivsk and located just outside the boundaries of the Carpathian National Park in a wide valley along the Chorniy Cheremosh River. The town branches out into hundreds of dirt roads, paths and minuscule villages that extend from the town, dividing the pastures and forests. Mountains surround the town on all sides, excellent for day hikes. The large house we will be occupying—with nicely renovated bedrooms and bathrooms and, it is said, hot water—is near the center of the town and is right on the river.
The Verkhovyna district is one of the historical Hutsul centers. The road that leads to Verkhovyna ("Verkhovyna is not along the road to anywhere") is very picturesque, winding through mountain passes. Thanks to the relative inaccessibility of the mountain region, modern civilization with its urbanized society has not so much influenced this territory where the Hutsuls live--although the effects of Soviet-era environmental abuse and deforestation are still widely felt. In this region many interesting customs, traditions, legends, and crafts are said to bepreserved which have largely disappeared in other regions.
Faculty
EVGENY EFREMOV grew up in Kiev, Ukraine. When he was 21, he encountered
the rich polyphonic music of rural Ukraine for the first time, and immediately
took up the study of “this strange, marvellous music,” seeking
out and working with peasant singers who were the experts and masters of
this art. Now a professor in the Department of Ethnomusicology
at P. Tchaikovsky Ukrainian National Musical Academy, Evgeny has collected
and studied traditional music in ethnomusicological expeditions to different
regions of Ukraine since 1971. A teacher and performer specializing
in the methods and styles of the Ukrainian national singing for over 20 years
now, Evgeny founded and leads the folk ensemble Drevo, the first
group in Ukraine to perform traditional village singing as living and valuable
phenomenon.
PATTY CUYLER of Marshfield, Vermont, is an energetic,
dynamic workshop leader and director with special expertise in teaching
Corsican, Georgian and South African singing and dance music. Her passion
for honest, direct music coaxes fierce, forthright singing out of even
the most timid singers. An instrumentalist from an early age, Patty is
a brass player and self-taught accordion player. Since 1995 she has co-directed Village
Harmony and Northern Harmony with Larry; in 2002 she founded
the women’s Corsican trio Eccuci, and began the Montpelier
World Music Chorus and Boston Harmony in 2004. Patty
has edited a number of song books of South African, Georgian and Bulgarian
folk music and has a large library of her own transcriptions. Patty
will be teaching South African dance-songs and Georgian and Corsican a
cappella singing at the Winter Workshop.
OLGA VELICHKINA has been collecting, studying and performing
Russian folk songs since she was 17, the time she joined Moscow Tchaikovsky
Conservatory folk ensemble and went on the field trip to the villages of
Riazan province in central Russia. The charm of this unusual music was immediate
and irresistable. After graduating from Moscow Conservatory she went to continue
her education in the USA, at the Ohio State University, where she also led
the University Slavic chorus Rusalka. Now living in France, Olga
teaches Russian traditional music at workshops and to different choruses,
and has two established groups of traditional Russian singing in Paris. This
year she is on the faculty of the Slavic Department of Sorbonne University
of Paris. This year will be Olga's second season as Village Harmony teacher.
The repertoire she proposes includes vocal polyphonic songs, dances and some
folk instruments (panpipes, violin, balalaika) of Southern Russian provinces.