A workshop for women's voices (04/28/96)

A workshop for women's voices

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz

WINNIPEG - Take young women from Cleveland, Toronto, New York, Pittsburgh, Washington and other North American places, add love of Ukrainian culture and music, mix with instant camaraderie and the willingness to sing all weekend, and combine all under the able leadership of a woman for whom Ukrainian folk and ritual songs are our "soul music" - and you have the Workshop for Women's Voices in Cleveland organized by Nadia Tarnawsky. This year's workshop is slated for the weekend of May 3-5.

As described by Alexis Kochan of Winnipeg, the workshop leader, "this is a form of a retreat, where the group does nothing but sing and eat."

In the notes to "Daughters of the Steppes," a cassette of the Workshop for Women's Voices held in 1995, Ms. Tarnawsky writes:

"In May of 1994, I made a phone call which would begin the yearlong process leading to this project. I spoke with Alexis Kochan. This initial phone call got me thinking about organizing a workshop specifically for women. I had been to various bandura camps and music camps for a good part of my life, but none of them ever focused on women's singing, and some of them didn't even encourage a women's ensemble. I then decided that it was time to stop thinking about a workshop for women's voices and to start working on making one happen.

"On May 5, 1995, 20 women gathered in Harkness Chapel on the Case Western Reserve University campus in Cleveland, Ohio, to create music. They committed themselves to learning some ancient Ukrainian singing styles and their accompanying songs. For me, this recording represents the end product of a year of phone calls, typing, photocopying and much hope. For the singers, I believe it is the culmination of a weekend of hard work, good singing, and much fun. For the listener, it is the first of many such projects."

If I had not known that this was a cassette recorded by the participants of a singing workshop in the U.S., I would have guessed that this was some women's ensemble from Ukraine, a choir I had not heard of yet. The voices are rich, fine, deep, harmonize beautifully, and sing the ritual and traditional folk songs of early Ukraine.

Many of the songs are recognizable, as they were recorded on Ms. Kochan's first album, "Czarivna." This recording contained ritual songs of the year, such as wedding songs and "hahilky," arranged by Arthur Polson, concertmaster of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. The violin solo and orchestral accompaniment is spectacular, with certain interludes composed for this album by Mr. Polson.

Ms. Kochan, a Winnipeg-born singer, has been a psychologist and a teacher in her other lives. But she has always sung. As a descendant of pioneers to Manitoba (her grandmother was born in Winnipeg), she doesn't remember not singing. She led the kids singing even in kindergarten, and participated in all the elementary school music programs. Ms Kochan joined the famed Alexander Koshetz Choir at an early age, when the other members of the choir were decades older than she.

A turning point in her love of Ukrainian music was the trip to Ukraine by the Koshetz Choir in 1978, where they met and studied with the Veryovka Choir. She and her husband, Nestor Budyk, then returned to Ukraine for a year of study with Veryovka, to learn "the deeper music." For her, that ancient Ukrainian ritual and folk music is the stuff of deepest tradition; it represents the specificity of everything Ukrainian.

In leading these workshops, she wants to give women an opportunity to sing their music, by way of their culture. The participants had heard Ukrainian songs throughout their lives, but, in general, people are singing less. Just a few years ago, people, including youth, would gather at weddings, camp and other occasions, just to sing. But now, most people need the lyrics written down, and only a small select number of songs seems to be sung over and over. In order to make music part of life again, these workshops bring the songs and their understanding back. They raise consciousness, they are beautiful, therapeutic, they tell you all you need to know about life, "there is a jewel in every folk song."

In addition to leading Ukrainian women in song, Ms. Kochan is propagating Ukrainian music globally, breaking new ground as she does this. She has led the women's voice workshops in Winnipeg, Edmonton, New York and Cleveland. Her "Paris to Kiev" recording (with Nestor Budyk, Alexander Boitchouk and Petro Yourashchuk) has been very popular, not only within the Ukrainian community. This album is selling in the "global" or "world music" sections of music stores.

A second recording is now in the works, with "Variations" as the working title. It also will be an exploration of old Ukrainian music, but with accompaniment that includes not only old banduras, but also South African drums and Northumbrian pipes. For the general public, this is uncommon music, being explored with professional musicians in a unique manner.

Ms. Kochan has also taught Ukrainian folk music at klezmer camps and workshops, because of its influence on Eastern European Jewish music. Culturally literate people of all backgrounds are interested in the antiquity of music, whether Ukrainian, Celtic or other. In her musical style and marketing, Ms. Kochan has been compared to Loreena McKinnitt, who has popularized a new form of Celtic music and markets it herself. In teaching and singing Ukrainian ritual and folk songs, Ms. Kochan wants to revive the sense of ethnic pride, to redefine culture for the future, to go beyond folk ditties "into deeper stuff."

For more information, or to register for the Workshop for Women's Voices, please contact Nadia Tarnawsky, (216) 749-0060. Mailing address: Daughters of the Steppes, c/o Nadia Tarnawsky, 3000 Mapledale Ave., Cleveland, OH 44109.

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