The Ukrainian Classical Voice Project joined the State University of New York at Oswego for Songs of Ukraine, a week-long artistic and educational residency presented in collaboration with Artswego, a campus initiative dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, lifelong learning, and cross-cultural understanding.

Throughout the residency, UCVP offered students comprehensive support in the study and performance of Ukrainian classical vocal repertoire, providing access to rarely available scores, IPA transcriptions, and individualized Ukrainian lyric diction coaching by UCVP founder Irina Petrik. Petrik also curated the repertoire, led a performance masterclass, and presented a lecture-recital devoted to underrepresented Ukrainian composers, bringing together scholarship, language, and performance in an immersive exploration of Ukraine’s classical vocal tradition.

The residency culminated in a collaborative recital at Tyler Hall featuring three faculty members and thirteen students, with all vocal repertoire performed in the original Ukrainian. The program featured rarely heard works by Mykola Lysenko, Hryhory Alchevsky, Kyrylo Stetsenko, Stanyslav Lyudkevych, Vasyl Barvinsky, Viktor Kosenko, Borys Lyatoshynsky, Mykhailo Verykivsky, Stefania Turkewich, Yuliy Meitus, Heorhij Maiboroda, Vitaly Kyreiko and Oleksandr Bilash, introducing students and audiences to the remarkable breadth of Ukraine’s classical vocal tradition.

The residency also featured a collaboration with Ukrainian-American photographer and Yale graduate Lida Sukhy, whose exhibition Portrait of a Village: Ukraine brought a powerful visual dimension to the exploration of Ukrainian culture and the human consequences of war and displacement. Presented within the Tyler Art Gallery alongside Sukhy’s photographs, the lecture-recital created an immersive dialogue between music and visual art, connecting individual stories and cultural memory with the contemporary refugee crisis.

Special gratitude is extended to Dr. Amanda Li for her dedication in preparing the students and supporting the residency, and to Professor Rebecca Horning for her collaborative artistry at the piano.

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