US ORCHESTRA / Ukrainska Silska Orchestra – Ukrainian Village Orchestra

Kyiv based trio that performs traditional dance music from different parts of Ukraine. The tunes, dug out both from the musical archives and people’s memory, resounds today fresh and vibrant. Accompanied by the band’s personal charm and straightforwardness, the music moves the dance floors in big cities just as well as in tiny villages. Band’s repertoire is vast and reflects musical abundance of different traditional tunes of Ukraine – polka, waltz, kolomyika, kozak, hutsulka and many more.

The band’s members, playing violins, bass, dulcimer and a bubon (frame drum) take us decades back, yet being here and now. The band has released three albums since 2017. US Orchestra performed live at lots of musical events both in Ukraine and abroad (Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Lithuania, Greece, Finland, Austria).

Yaryna DRON – fiddle

Born in Monastyryska in Podilia region. Graduated from music school in the violin class. She received her master degree in folklore studies and ethnography at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She started her adventure with traditional music back in 2013 and she took part in numerous musical field researches and recordings, namely in the regions of Podilia, Chernihiv, Poltava and Sumy. Teaches Ukrainian fiddle style at various masterclasses and summer schools dedicated to traditional Ukrainian music, organized by the Ris / Рись foundation. She leads a children’s folklore group „Oreli” by the The Ivan Honchar Museum in Kyiv. She also conducts dance masterclasses. Apart from music, she is creating her own line of jewelry inspired by traditional Ukrainian patterns.

Andrii LEVCHENKO – bubon (frame drum), bas (cello)

Musician and researcher, builder of traditional instruments. A graduate of Jewish Studies at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. His master’s thesis

concerned the klezmer music of Ukraine – the topic that he is exploring to this day. Another topic covered in his research is the musical landscape of Kyiv in the early 20th century. Since 2013, he has been recording authentic traditional music during countless field trips in the countryside. He collects melodies and stories of musicians from the regions of Polissya, Podilia and along the banks of the Dnipro River. Andrii Levchenko is the co-founder of the Rys / Рись foundation (https://www.facebook.com/Rysproject/), which since 2014 has been actively working to preserve and popularize musical traditions of Ukraine. He co-organized the first Ukrainian summer school of traditional music and had been a lecturer there. Leads masterclasses in playing the Ukrainian frame drum; he created his own on-line course dedicated to the topic. One of the first in Ukraine to reconstruct different types of drums found in the countryside. He holds a large collection of drums – all of which is documented and presented on the website https://bubny.in.ua and at the YouTube channel Bubny in Ukraine. Andrii is the author of a series of podcasts about Ukrainian music and musical traditions of ethnic minorities living in Ukraine.

Serhii POSTOLNIKOV – fiddle, dulcimer A dedicated researcher of Ukrainian traditional music. Spent a lot of time in the field expeditions recording traditional music in Central Ukraine and Podilia region. Thanks to that he holds a unique collection of recordings – including tunes performed by the last living fiddle and bass players from Poltava region. He plays the dulcimer, fiddle, bas (village cello). He mastered the traditional style and repertoire thanks to his teachers – old village musicians. Since 2001 he has been collecting old instruments and gradually started to build it himself. He conducts workshops and creates courses concerning traditional instruments, as well as organizes events with traditional live music. As a musician, he participated in many major European festivals with various Ukrainian groups such as Hulay Horod, male singing group Chornomortsi, Shchuka-Ryba, and eventually from 2017 – US Orchestra. He is a teacher of the Oreli children’s group at the Ivan Honchar Museum in Kyiv. He also lectures at the summer schools of the Rys / Рись foundation. He received the Polish Gaude Polonia scholarship twice (2013, 2023). Currently, as a scholarship holder, he lives in Warsaw and continues his research concerning the music of Red Ruthenia in the works of Oskar Kolberg.