Canadian Tour 1982

Artistic Director: Yevhen Kovalenko

Vocal – Instrumental Ensemble 
Mykola Berehovey: Violin, sopilka
Valeri Viter: Sopilka, drymba
Stephen Zhovnirovych: Bandura, sopilka
Yevhen Kovalenko: Piano, organ, sopilka, lire
Volodymyr Soldatenko: Bass guitar
Yevhen Trinko: Percussion
Victor Yutz: Guitar, kobza
Lidia Kondrashevska: Guest vocalist
Tatiana Kocherhina: Guest vocalist
Yuri Dremluzhenko: Technician

Recorded in Ukraine: 1980
Artistic Director: Yevhen Kovalenko
Recording Engineer: Y. Vinnik
Mastering: Lionel Parent
Front Cover Concept: Lavrenti Derevianko

Play List

  1. Love Me – O. Bilash – M. Tkach
  2. A Time to Love – A. Semenov – A. Vpatarev
  3. Night – Ukrainian folk song
  4. Beyond the Danube – Ukrainian folk song – arr. V. Lashchuk
  5. Through the Rocky Cliffs – Ukrainian folk song – arr. Y. Kovalenko
  6. And in the Field, the Rue Grows – Ukrainian folk song – K. Stetsenko
  7. Shchedrivaka – arr. Y. Kovalenko
  8. The Minstrel Walked the Open Field – Ukrainian folk song – arr. O. Lednov
  9. The Woodland – Ukrainian folk song – arr. Y. Kovalenko
  10. The Girl Walked by the Shore – Ukrainian folk song – arr. Y. Kovalenko
  11. And Quietly, the Cossack Walked – Ukrainian folk song – arr. O. Lednov
  12. Threshing on a Saturday – Ukrainian folk song – arr. O. Lednov

About Kobza

Set up in 1971 and specializing in traditional Ukrainian folk and pop songs by contemporary Ukrainian composers, the KOBZA Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble is notable for its somewhat unconventional renditions. The fact that the members of the ensemble play Ukranian folk instruments with such exotic sounding names as the bandura, bass kobza, buhay, sopilka, drymba, as well as the violin and the tambourine considerably broadens the repertoire of the ensemble and gives their music a remarkable national coloring.

The name of the ensemble, KOBZA, is taken from the old Ukrainian folk instrument, the early original of today’s bandura. Kobza players or kobzars are strolling minstrels who sang of the common folks’ joys and sorrows to the sound of their kobzas. Today, Ukrainian folk songs make up most of the ensemble’s repertoire, although some have been given modern arrangements.

Source: LP Cover