Ukrainian Festival
We look forward to seeing all of our friends and supporters at the Capital Regions' Ukrainian Festival with support from all regional Ukrainian churches and organizations.
See you at the next Festival September 2024!
Festival took place Saturday, September 30, 2023
We raised over $45,000. All this money is going for humanitarian aid for Ukraine: ambulances, night vision devices, first aid kits and emergency medical supplies.
PERFORMERS
Alisa Serdyuk
Alisa Serdyuk is a Ukrainian-American performing artist, singer and actress. Throughout her career, Alisa was privileged to perform as a singer, speaker and actress at various events and celebrations with numerous Ukrainian organizations and communities at Capital District and beyond.
Marina Serdyuk
Marina Serdyuk is a 10th grade student at Albany Academies, a Graduate of the Capital District School of Ukrainian Studies, as well as a singer, actress, and a dancer at Zorepad Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. Both, Marina and Alisa feel very strongly about this year's Festival goal and encourage you to please do all you can to support this valuable cause - freedom, peace, democracy and prosperity in Ukraine. A special gratitude goes to all the Festival organizers, sponsors, Reverend Fathers, participants, volunteers and welcoming community for their dedication to this noble cause and making this year's event a huge success - we could not have done this without you! Please enjoy the show - you are in for a wonderful treat!
Irina Petrik
Praised for her "vivid presence" and "radiant luscious timbre", the Kyiv-born Ukrainian American soprano Irina Petrik is quickly gaining popularity as a charismatic singing actress of today in the United States and beyond. Once a performer with Kazka children theater, and later a resident soloist with the Kyiv Youth Symphony and Choir, Irina graduated with honors and obtained an Artist Diploma from the historic Glière Municipal Academy of Music, where she studied voice performance upon receiving a full four year scholarship from the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.
After moving to the United States, Irina obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in California and a Master's degree in Vocal Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.
Since then Ms. Petrik has performed as a soloist and featured guest artist with the National Operetta Theater of Ukraine, National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Harpa National Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland; New York City Ballet and Orchestra, Opera Saratoga, Syracuse Opera, Arizona Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, Hubbard Hall Opera Theater, Lowell House Opera at Harvard University, First Coast Opera, Schenectady Saratoga Symphony, among others.
A versatile and gifted performer, Irina is equally comfortable in genres ranging from opera, operetta and sacred music to musical theater, jazz, contemporary commercial music and traditional ethnic music. However, Irina's heart undisputedly belongs to Ukrainian traditional music, and she recently celebrated this affinity by releasing an album titled "Songs From The Heart", dedicated to this unique genre and produced together with her dear friend Roman Karpishka, a brilliant Canadian-born guitarist. It is currently available on all platforms worldwide, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, ITunes, Spotify and Pandora.
Irina is a passionate advocate of cultural diplomacy and strives to promote and bring awareness to Ukrainian music, traditions and rich heritage to audiences throughout the globe as an artistic ambassador and educator.
She has performed as a featured guest artist at the Festival of the United Nations in NYC, O-Fest International Festival in Kyiv, Montreal Ukrainian Festival, Denver Ukrainian Festival, Soyuzivka Ukrainian Festival, among others.
In light of the political unrest in Ukraine, Irina was proud to present a Ukrainian opera “Cossack Beyond the Danube” in New York which she co-produced in collaboration with Boston-based Commonwealth Lyric Theater and Zorepad Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. The project was met with much critical acclaim and enthusiasm, premiering to a sold out audience at the SUNY Albany Performing Arts Center in 2015.
In 2018 Irina received a Top 40 Under 40 Award from the Department of Culture of Ukraine and was given an honored alumna status by her alma mater Glière Municipal Academy of Music on its 150th anniversary in Kyiv.
After a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Putin in 2022, Irina launched UCVP, the Ukrainian Classical Voice Project, a groundbreaking and timely educational initiative focused on illuminating Ukrainian vocal music, bringing up the subject of cultural appropriation of Ukrainian repertoire and popularizing Ukrainian classical arias and art songs among students and professional performers of all ages.
Since the beginning of the war, Irina made it her mission to spread the word about her nation's fight for freedom in academic circles and beyond. She conducted Ukrainian diction workshops, seminars on underrepresented composers of Ukraine and lecture recitals at the NATS National Association of Teachers of Singing at Skidmore College, Rio Hondo College in California, Philomela Women's Ensemble in Virginia, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Troy Music Hall in New York, The Friday Club of Chicago, SUNY Oswego, with many more planned for 2023-2024 school year. In addition to her busy performing schedule, she serves as a voice professor and lecturer at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY and Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Teryn Kuzma
Ukrainian-American soprano Teryn Kuzma is a versatile performer and musician of classical, contemporary, musical theater, and folk repertoire. She is thrilled to be joining the team of OnSite Opera in NYC to cover the roles of “Frog” and “Mechanical Nightingale” in their new production of Song of the Nightingale, a contemporary work with music by Lisa Despain and libretto by Melissa Tien. Most recently, she sang in the chorus of the Bard SummerScape’s production of Camille Saint-Saëns' opera, Henry VIII. This past year, she sang in her culminating Masters Degree recital, “Songs of Strength”, at Bard Conservatory, and had the immense pleasure of workshopping the lead role of “H'ala” in Layale Chaker's dynamic new opera, Ruinous Gods, with Spoleto Festival USA.
Her performance credits include the title role of “Vixen” in Leoš Janáček’s opera, The Cunning Little Vixen, and singing the role of “Luisa” with Ohio Light Opera in The Fantasticks.
Since the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War in February of 2022, she has taken part in over a dozen benefit concerts for humanitarian aid, in addition to organizing and performing in “Bard Musicians in Support of Ukraine”, a student-led concert which raised over $4,000 in aid for the Help Us Help Charity.
Over the past five years, Teryn has performed as a featured artist with Hartford Opera Theater, UConn Opera Theater, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Berkshire Opera Festival, and the Ukrainian Art Song Project in Toronto. In addition to her emerging singing career, Teryn is also devoted to maintaining the art of the bandura and Ukrainian music. In these solo recitals and special performances, she brings together the unique beauty of bandura with her voice.
Since moving to Brooklyn, she has been working alongside Zoya Shepko of the band, Korinya, to revive the New York Bandura School, and looks forward to many performances to come in NYC. Originally from Connecticut, she began studying voice at the Hartt School of Music. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Connecticut and her recent Masters Degree from the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program. There, she studied with esteemed faculty members Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Kayo Iwama, and Stephanie Blythe.
For more information and upcoming events, visit www.terynkuzma.com
Yuriy Konevych
Ternopil, Ukraine – Montreal, Canada
Yuriy Konevych is a lyrical tenor from Montreal with a large experience of in stage performance and who possesses classical vocal talent. Yuriy has been singing with multiple choirs as well as the OSM choir. He performed at various festivals and official events around Canada. In his repertoire, there is mainly classical music, Ukrainian baroque works, Ukrainian folk songs, world classical arias, and art songs. Yuriy mastered vocal at McGill Conservatory.
John Seneta
John's musical career started at the tender age of fivewhen he first began playing the mandolin. Perhapsbecause it was his first, the mandolin became hisbest-loved instrument.
John is a multi-instrumentalist who was formally educated atBerklee College of Music in Boston (Arranging &Composition) and received his degree in MusicTheory from the University at Albany.
He began honing his performance skills with anumber of ethno-centric groups (primarily Music ofUkrainian origin) until his Berklee days. From that pointon he has performed with rock/jazz fusion groups;asa soloist (where in Manhattan heperformed regularly at Folk City as part of the YoungComposers Concert Series);performed and recorded withno less than twentyperforming groups in the Long Island, New Jersey, and Philadelphia areas. He appeared as a guest classical mandolin soloist withSinclairProductions, as well as being principal mandola in the Munier Classical mandolin and guitar Orchestra of Philadelphia.
His eclectic writingand playing styles are uniquely his own. He continues performing with various ensembles as well as a soloist.
Roman Karpishka
A Canadian-born music enthusiast living in upstate New York for over 20 years, Roman Karpishka has been refining his guitar skills for over 4 decades. As a musician performing in bands since the tender age of 13, Roman has dedicated most of his musical career to the pursuit of creating, interpreting and refining folk and modern music for audiences throughout North America. A self-professed musical gear nut, Roman enjoys collecting guitars and all kinds of musical equipment to add to his studio where the band rehearses on a regular basis. As a founding member of Code Groove, Roman is very excited and proud to be part of a well-oiled funk machine whose membership is graced by some of the Capital Region’s finest musicians. Aside from his musical interests, Roman is a dedicated husband and father of three amazing children.