UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Ukrainian music and visual arts ensemble Kurbasy shared their music and culture with the State College community during a recent residency visit to Penn State earlier this month.
The artists started their visit on Tuesday, Oct. 7, with a panel discussion with the Penn State Ukrainian Society, followed by a community dialogue and musical discussion event on Wednesday, and then a concert in the School of Music Recital Hall on Thursday.
Dasha Yalch, vice president of the Ukrainian Society, said her favorite part of Kurbasy’s visit was how the group showed a different side of Ukraine to an American audience.
“Usually people know about Ukraine because it’s in the war right now — there’s a conflict, there’s big headlines,” the third-year criminology student said. “And they don’t see the culture itself as much, and they don’t see the richness of our nation that is hiding behind those big headlines.”
Yalch said that when she heard Kurbasy would visit Penn State, she didn’t really know what to expect.
“But as soon as they started performing, I just froze there,” she said. “I was like, ‘Yes, that’s how I want people to see Ukraine.’”
Liidia Lutsak, the president of the Penn State Ukrainian Society, said folk music is about how people lived in the past.
“Each song Kurbasy played was about how people suffered, how people lived, how the soldiers went to war,” Lutsak, a second-year studying nursing, said. “Folk songs are about life, not just about nature or love.”
“It’s our history, our stories, our traditions, everything that we’ve been through,” Yalch added. “And we’re still here standing, fighting. And we’re just going with life and creating [things] as beautiful as Kurbasy are doing.”
In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine as part of an ongoing conflict between the two countries, starting what’s become the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II.
“Ukraine is not a part of Russia, Ukraine is not a part of any other country,” Lutsak said. “It has its own culture, language, spirit. It deserves freedom.”
Lutsak said Kurbasy’s visit was an incredible experience.
“I was born in western Ukraine, [with] folk traditions and music,” Lutsak said. “For me, it was like being in Ukraine for those three days when [Kurbasy] was in State College. I was like ‘I feel like I’m in Ukraine, and I really want to go back home.’”