Songs for Babyn Yar reveals the forgotten stories and silenced songs from one of the most devastating periods in Ukraine’s past and asks how we can move forward.
September, 1941. Nazi occupying forces murder more than 33,000 Jews in the ravine of Babyn Yar in the surburbs of Kyiv, Ukraine, over just two days. In the following two years of Nazi occupation, Babyn Yar becomes the site of over 100,000 deaths.
November, 2021. 80 years later, three Ukrainian musicians journey deep into their shared history, drawing on survivors' testimonies, traditional Yiddish and Ukrainian folk songs, poetry and storytelling.
Featuring beautifully haunting music from Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska, this music theatre performance devised by Dash Arts intimately weaves languages, harmonies and cultures to reveal the forgotten stories and silenced songs from one of the most devastating periods in Ukraine’s past.
Credits
Directed by Josephine Burton
Dramaturgy by Yael Shavit and Josephine Burton
Music composed and arranged by Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska
Video, set and projection design by Marie Blunck
Lighting design by Jess Bernberg
A Dash Arts production. In partnership with Ukrainian Institute (Kyiv) and Goethe-Institut Ukraine. Supported by Maria Björnson Memorial Fund, Shoresh Charitable Trust, Goethe-Institut London and Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Co-promoted with Ukrainian Institute London. Part of EFG London Jazz Festival.
Press Quotes
“[Mariana Sadovska’s] voice holds the clarity and bite of Slavic folk styles; her stage presence has the bright-eyed intensity of Björk or PJ Harvey.”
The New York Times
“Sveta Kundish hypnotizes the audience”
In Geveb Journal of Yiddish Studies
“[Yuriy Gurzhy is] an explorer”
fRoots Magazine
