Ukraine’s Burdon Folk Band on Canadian Tour

By Bohdan Klid

Folk music lovers of Western Canada will be able to experience the lively music of Central Europe’s Carpathian Mountain region when the Lviv-based folk band Burdon performs several concerts in the New Year.

Most of the group’s appearances will be at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The band is scheduled to perform at Convocation Hall on January 29 (at 7:30 p.m.), and will be featured at the International Week final gala concert on February 1 at Myer Horowitz Theatre (7:30 p.m.). The group is also to appear at other International Week-sponsored events, including at a Ukrainian folk dance workshop and will meet with students and professors. International Week, held annually to raise awareness about global issues, is sponsored by the University of Alberta International.

 Other scheduled appearances in Alberta include concerts on January 30 (7:30 p.m.) at the Nancy Appleby Theatre in Athabasca and in Calgary on February 2 (5:00 p.m.) at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish Hall. The group will also hold a workshop/recital at the Banff Centre for the Arts’ Music and Sound Building on February 4 (4:30 pm). Following their stay in Alberta, the group will appear in concert with the Rozmai Ukrainian Dance Company in Winnipeg on February 8 at Jubilee Place (7:30 p.m.).

 Formed in 2002, Burdon has developed a strong following and won critical acclaim for its world-music interpretations of traditional folk music of Eastern and Central Europe, especially the Carpathian Mountain region, which is known as a kaleidoscope of nations and ethnic groups. In 2006, the group released two CDs: the first containing Carpathian repertoire (Re: Karpatia), and the second of Christmas carols (Vam Kolyadochka). The band also plays Nordic and other European folk music. Burdon has appeared at many folk festivals and other venues in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Russia, and Western Europe. The planned concerts in Western Canada will mark the group’s first tour of North America.

The Lviv-based band’s appearance at the University of Alberta complements and reinforces the university’s strong ties with Lviv, especially with Ivan Franko University. Two years ago, the University of Alberta inaugurated a student exchange program with Ivan Franko University and there has been much ongoing collaboration among scholars from the two institutions in Ukrainian studies, education and in chemistry. The Ukrainian Language and Literature Program offers an annual “Ukrainian through its Living Culture” summer school course in Lviv. As the Province of Alberta and the Lviv oblast (provincial) government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, the folk band’s appearance in Alberta is an activity that reinforces the relationship between these two regions.

The ensemble’s visit to North America is being organized by the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS). In this undertaking, CIUS has received support from the Vice-President (Research), Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies, Ukrainian Language and Literature Program, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, University of Alberta International, Ukrainian Canadian Benevolent Society of Edmonton and the Peter and Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore.