KOLIADA: Ukrainian Community Carolling Group

Koliada is nearly upon us! 

Not unlike the needs of so many people & cultures at this time of year, when the weather gets cold and the nights so long, KOLIADA is an occasion to come together, connect, and make the darkened cold season pass quickly trough celebration and song.

With less than 2 weeks left, our Koliada rehearsals are now closed. Over the past 3 weeks we have accumulated a great group of singers but now we now have to fine tune our style and learn the last set of songs.

Starting Dec 27, we are unable to accommodate guests into our rehearsals.

We are, however, still accepting invitations to visit houses for January 7th – so if you would like Kosa Kolektiv’s Koliada carollers to visit your home, please contact kosa.kolektiv@gmail.com.

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WORKSHOPS, REHEARSALS & CAROLLING

WORKSHOP SUNDAY DEC 11 2:30 – 4:30 PM

LOCATION CHANGE: the Belarus Orthodox Church, 524 St Clarens Ave. By donation. Suggested $20-30. Follow the link above to get to the FB event.
PLEASE REGISTER VIA kosa.kolektiv@gmail.com.

REHEARSALS!!!

WEDNESADYS 7-9 PM

BELARUS ORTHODOX CHURCH,

524 St Clarens Ave, just over a block north of Bloor and one block east of Lansdowne. Closest TTC is Lansdowne station.

CAROLLING JANUARY 7

The big carolling event is on January 7, Orthodox Christmas. We will be traveling in different groups, by car, visiting homes around the GTA. Make sure to book this day off for koliada!

There will likely be more opportunities to perform in December and January, and possibly additional rehearsals when needed to accommodate the needs of the group and individual singers.

REPERTOIRE, RESOURCES & PRACTICE

Here is our KOSA KOLIADA REPERTOIRE google doc for 2022-2023!!

You will find lyrics in Ukrainian, with transliterations, rough translations and audio file references. So, you can start listening and practicing immediately!! Also note that we will be updating the doc and adding more sound files and/or songs.

Some of the audio references even have sing-a-long files. Please use HEADPHONES with the singalong files. The RIGHT CHANNEL features a solo voice and the LEFT CHANNEL all the other voices. To learn, just listen to the RIGHT CHANNEL. To practice, just listen to the LEFT CHANNEL and add your own voice into the mix. Please also be aware, these files are very rough sketches to help learn the song & it’s highly recommended to practice/study from the original sound files as well.

NOTE: it is important that singers are able to sing harmonies and not just the main melody or top voice. The musical director and other seasoned singers will help develop the group’s harmony-singing skills, as well the authentic Ukrainian singing quality known as ridnyj holos. And for those who are not Ukrainian-speaking, don’t worry, we will also help with pronunciation. If you have any questions about your interest and desire to participate, please reach out to us through the contact form below.

OTHERS ROLES

Not a harmony singer but still want to take part? There are other ways you can volunteer. Please reach out to us using the form below.

CONTACT US ABOUT KOLIADA!





Learn UKRAINIAN songs

SONGS – lyrics, audio, sing-along files

SONG LYRICSSAMPLE AUDIOLEARNING RESOURCES: e.g., lyric practice, sing-a-long files (see note below)

Oj U Kievi (hrayje more) || Kalendar || Sing-along-Files – use headphones
Oj Rodyno
|| Kalendar || Sing-Along Files – use headphones
Oj Na Hori / Shuryata || Рожаниця || Sing-along-Files – use headphones
Siohodni Ivana Kupala || Рожаниця || to be updated soon
Tuman Yarom || Youtube || Sing-Along Files – use headphones
Herasym || Bozychi || Sing Along files – use headphones
Mnohaya lita || unknown || to be updated soon
Georgian Dance Song || Ori Shalva || partial score in the song-lyrics Link
Oj Kupalo Rozkupalo||Kosa||to be updated soon

NOTE: Use HEADPHONES with the singalong files. The RIGHT CHANNEL features a solo voice and the LEFT CHANNEL all the other voices. To learn, just listen to the RIGHT CHANNEL. To practice, just listen to the LEFT CHANNEL and add your own voice into the mix. Please also be aware, these files are very rough sketches to help learn the song & it’s highly recommended to practice/study from the original sound files as well.

SING WITH US!

Thursday June 2 ~ 7:00 – 8:30 PM @ Shevchenko Museum – workshopom

Friday June 3 ~ 7:00 – 8:30 PM @ MusiCamp Garden

Saturday June 4 ~ 2:30 pm & 4:45 pm @ THE DO WEST FEST, the community stage

Saturday Jun 25 ~ early afternoon 1:00 – 2:30 PM @ MusiCamp Garden

Canada Day July 1 ~ 11 am meet at 1879 Bloor Street West / 12 pm performance for Canada Day picnic

OUTDOOR WORKSHOPS are at MusiCamp’s home at 11 Cobourg Ave (just behind Dufferin mall). For outdoor workshops, please remember to bring a sun hat if you need it! 

NOTE: we do recommend participants have some experience with singing harmonies.

MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT

In at attempt to recognize the breadth of Ukrainian culture, this project is a hopeful start to popularize traditional Ukrainian songs and create a larger caring singing community of Ukrainian songs in Toronto. Check out our workshops dates below. Wondering what we’ll be learning, have a look at our song document and listen the embedded links for each song.

The project is an extension of Sing with Ukraine, which is a grassroots effort by Toronto-based Eastern European artists, started after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24th 2022. Click the links to learn more about Sing with Ukraine and Artists With Ukraine.

UKRAINIAN singing workshops

Visit our SONG LEARNING PAGE for updated resources and info about our events/workshops

WORKSHOPS

All are welcome, pay-what-you-can, no one will be turned away who cannot pay. Money raised for the deeply discounted venue costs and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

Thursday May 12 ~ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm @ Shevchenko Museum

Saturday May 14 ~ 3:00 pm- 4:30 pm @ MusiCamp’s garden

Thursday May 19 ~ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm @ Shevchenko Museum

Saturday May 21 ~ 3:00 pm- 4:30 pm @ MusiCamp’s garden

Thursday May 26 ~ 7 pm – 8:30 pm @ Shevchenko Museum

Saturday May 28 ~ 10:30 am – 12:00 pm @ MusiCamp garden

Thursday June 2 ~ 7:00 – 8:30 PM @ Shevchenko Museum

INDOOR WORKSHOPS are at The Shevchenko Museum 1604 Bloor St W (a few blocks west of Dundas West Station). OUTDOOR WORKSHOPS are at MusiCamp’s home at 11 Cobourg Ave (just behind Dufferin mall). For outdoor workshops, please remember to bring a sun hat if you need it! NOTE: we do recommend participants have some experience with singing harmonies.

SONGS – AUDIO – RESOURCES

UKRAINIAN SINGING WORKSHOP DOC:

We will keep updating our resources to include other songs and tools to help learn songs, including audio of the individual song parts. In the meantime please check out the google doc below, which has all the lyrics and links to audio or video of the songs.

PERFORMANCES

SATURDAY JUNE 4 ~ 2:30 pm & 4:45 pm @ THE DO WEST FEST, the community stage

CANADA DAY JULY 1 ~ time tbd @ Parkdale-High Park MP Canada Day picnic in High Park

MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT

In at attempt to recognize the breadth of Ukrainian culture, this project is a hopeful start to popularize traditional Ukrainian songs and create a larger caring singing community of Ukrainian songs in Toronto. Check out our workshops dates below. Wondering what we’ll be learning, have a look at our song document and listen the embedded links for each song.

The project is an extension of Sing with Ukraine, which is a grassroots effort by Toronto-based Eastern European artists, started after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24th 2022. Click the links to learn more about Sing with Ukraine and Artists With Ukraine.

Below are some videos from a Ukrainian singing workshop at Afro Latino Dance as part of Dance Together Festival to raise funds for humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

Georgian Singing Workshop Online?!?

Starting February 6!

ONLINE WORKSHOPS via ZOOM
SATURDAYS 2-4 pm EST (7 pm GMT)
Starting February 6th, and
EVERY OTHER SATURDAY AFTER

$20-30 for employed; pwyc for underemployed.

Questions?
A song requests?
Or want to sign up?
Drop us a line or click the PAY PAL button (make sure to enter your email address) and we’ll send you the zoom link.

MusiCamp’s most popular activity is running Georgian singing workshops. We usually run singing workshops in the fall, winter and spring. Our last one started late February 2020 – and after only 2 sessions, the workshop got hijacked by COVID 19 and the new social-distancing measures. Somehow, we transferred these harmony singing workshops to ZOOM and as you can see from the image posted above or the videos below, we were all singing together and, in some inexplicable way, it worked!! Here’s what a few of our participants have to say about it:

Thank you for a wonderful workshop and an opportunity to learn from artists with such integrity, talent and hospitality… The workshops are well structured, easy to follow and very enjoyable. – Merey Ismailova

An enjoyable sharing of interesting songs, singing and music. With a smiley side of open hearts and kindred spirits. – Jan Knoppers

If you want to learn more about how we teach harmonized singing online, please read on. 


VIDEO OF ONLINE GROUP SINGING

HOW DOES SINGING HARMONIES WORK ONLINE?!


The short answer: it doesn’t. There will always be some kind of latency, even with the fastest internet speeds and the most advanced technology.

What makes it work for us is the fact that we are a singing family and have enough people in our household to sing all the harmonies – all three voices are covered on our end. The ZOOM participants actually sing along with us but they mute their mics so that their voices don’t lag and upset the musical form, as you can see in the videos.


VIDEOS OF TEACHING

WORKING ONE-ON-ONE


Like in our studio, we teach the parts individually (see the video above). Participants’ mics still need to be muted for this. But there are times when mics are turned on, so we can have conversations, make a toast (once in a while only), or work one-on-one with individuals to ensure the vocal line is correct, or even work on technique. We actually had a great session a few weeks back working on some distinctive timbral issues and inflections with krimanchuli, a yodelling style in Georgian polyphony.
VIDEO WORKING ONE ON ONE

TEACHING KRIMANCHULI  (Note: audio quality is poor due to the wrong mic settings).

SING-ALONG FEATURE


We even offer the play-along or sing-along feature (trio minus one voice) so that participants can test themselves, make sure they can sing their part alone, and sort of feel what it’s like to fit their voice into the trio. In the video below, the participants can practice the top voice independence with the bass and middle being sung by the workshop leaders.

SING ALONG: TRIO MINUS ONE


WORKSHOPS WILL START AGAIN FEBRUARY 6
Suggested $20-30 for employed; PWYC for under employed

Let us know you are interested through our Contact Us Page or click on the PAY PAL button (make sure to enter you email address) and we’ll send you instructions for installing and running ZOOM and setting up your microphone up to work with musical content (rather than spoken content).

In the meantime, stay safe and healthy and wash your spirit often with music ;) !!

BrouLaLa at Night of Dread!

Don’t miss out on Toronto’s best festival!! Night of Dread

Where Torontonians are invited to call on, mock and banish their private and collective fears through parade and pageantry, music and masquerade, dance and a devilishly good party.

Drawing on Georgian, Bluegrass, Appalachian, Lithuanian and other musics, BrouLaLa (Andrea KuzmichRyan Brouwer, Lieke van der Voort and Jackson Welchner) will be singing, sounding, improvising and memorializing in the Valley of Remembrance.

Saturday October 27
5 – 9+ PM (BrouLala performing around 7ish)
Dufferin Grove Park

BrouLaLa night of dread 2016

BrouLala Nigtht of Dread 2016 with Hats on to keep us warm!!