A workshop intensive of polyphonic Ukrainian folk songs with Sasha Theodora:
In this two-day intensive workshop, Sasha Theodora will teach a series of songs being revived at this time in Ukraine, using a mixture of vocal techniques learned from Ukrainian culture bearers, basic singing methods and specific theatre vocal strategies (vocal authenticity). Using these techniques, the workshop will focus on creating tones and sounds specific to each song's region and on accessing the “village voice". They aim to hold space to facilitate the contextualization of Ukraine's musical traditions—as both a protest against colonial oppression and reciprocity with culturally specific ancestral insights such as singing as an act of joy and healing.
This workshop is geared towards experienced singers.
Sasha Theodora is a Ukrainian-Canadian diasporic singer and musician whose vocal practice is animated by deep connection to their ancestral heritage and a responsibility to the ongoing decolonization of Ukrainian culture against the present backdrop of war. They began singing traditional Ukrainian folk songs with family members as a child, but their exploration deepened throughout their career as they went on to study with Ukrainian traditional knowledge keepers and singers, most notably- members of Dakha Brakha, Inna Kovtun (Rozhanitsia), Marichka Marchyk (Bozhychi), Nadia Tarnawska, Marichka Chichkova (Torban), Nadiia Khanis (Viltse) and Iryna Klymenko (Drevo). They recently received their Master’s degree in Toronto, where they conducted ethnomusicological field work in Western Ukraine (2024/2025) as part of their research into the folkloric renaissance ignited by the full-scale invasion.