Children folk group “Oreli” was founded in 2010 at the National Center of Folk Culture “Ivan Honchar Museum” (Kyiv). The band’s name Oreli, which is an ancient name for a swing or cradle, is related to the cultural setting where the kids were brought up. Children that grow up in a traditional setting exhibit harmonious personal and creative development as well as a passion and concern for traditional culture.

Members of the Oreli band explore and revive traditional Ukrainian culture: ancient songs, dances, games and amusements, traditions and instrumental music. Kids start to attend the band when they are 2 or 3 years old. First they learn children’s games, patterns, amusements and later on join older kids and sing polyphonic songs, learn traditional dances and reconstruct traditional rites. Special attention is paid to the mastery of traditional manner of playing musical instruments. Troisti musicians (traditional triple band) became the first children’s band to begin to master folk instrumental music without relying on musical notation, basing their performance on the sounds of their instruments, including the violin, tambourine, basol, and cimbali. Band members participate in expeditions, record songs and music from seniors in the rural areas, and study the traditional manner of performance in vivo.

An important mission of the band is not only performing folk music on stage, but preserving it in everyday life, like wedding ceremonies, Christmas, children’s games, and others. Kids and their parents jointly celebrate traditional folk holidays, attend festivals in Ukraine and abroad, organise traditional dance workshops for kids and adults, thus preserving and promoting traditional Ukrainian culture.

The alumni of the folk band “Oreli” continue developing their proficiency in youth folk bands like ShchukaRyba, Shliah-dorizhen’ka, or Viltse, and are involved in joint projects with child members of the band.

Members:

Band Leader – Myroslava Vertiuk

singing instructor – Sofiia Andrushchenko

dance instructor – Yevheniia Shulha

musical instrument instructors – Yaryna Dron and Andrii Levchenko.