DakhaBrakha

DakhaBrakha is a Ukrainian folk music quartet which combines the musical styles of several ethnic groups. It was a winner of the Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award in 2009 and the Shevchenko National Prize in 2020.
DakhaBrakha is a project of the Dakh Contemporary Arts Center, led by Vladyslav Troitskyi and born as a live theater music crew. Troitskyi continues to be the band's producer. Members of DakhaBrakha participate in the centre's other projects, notably in the all-female cabaret project Dakh Daughters, as well as in the annual Gogolfest festival.
Name etymology
The group's name derives from Ukrainian verbs Давати and Брати, meaning "give" and "take", respectively – while also playing on the Art Centre's name "Dakh" (literally "roof" in Ukrainian).
Members
Marko Halanevych – vocals, goblet drum, tabla, didgeridoo, harmonica, accordion, cajón, jaw harp
Olena Tsybulska – vocals, percussion
Iryna Kovalenko – vocals, djembe, flute, buhay, piano, ukulele, zgaleyka, accordion, percussion
Nina Garenetska – vocals, cello, percussion
All of the members except Marko Halanevych are graduates of the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. Nina Garenetska also takes part in the Dakh Daughters project.
Discography
На добраніч (2005)
Ягудки (2007)
На межі (2009)
Light (2010)
Хмелева project (2012)
Шлях / The Road (2016)
Alambari (2020)
Soundtracks
2018 – Trailer song for House 99, David Beckham's grooming brand (United Kingdom)
2017 – Bitter Harvest (Canada)
2017 – Mavka: The Forest Song (Ukraine)
2017 – Fargo (United States)
Origin
DakhaBrakha was originally a daughter project of Ukrainian avant-garde theater, Dakh, and its artistic director, Vladislav Troitsky.
Festivals
DakhaBrakha performed in June 2014 at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival held in Manchester, Tennessee. DakhaBrakha was invited to participate through the globalFEST showcase. They were proclaimed by ''Rolling Stone as "Best Breakout" of the festival.
They played at the Glastonbury Festival on the West Holts. They performed in July 2017 and July 2018 at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance held in Trumansburg, New York. In 2017, they performed at the South by Southwest festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. DakhaBrakha performed at the 2017 Sziget Festival in Hungary. In 2018, the group performed with Latvian group, Tautumeitas at Latvia's World Music Festival Porta 2018. In 2019, they performed at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts in Manhattan.
They performed during the first weekend of the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana.
DakhaBrakha played a well-received set at the Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette, La on April 30, 2022.
Film appearances
In 2023, when the Ukrainian animation, Mavka: The Forest Song (based on the play The Forest Song by Lesya Ukrainka) was released, the audience saw an animated version of the band members DakhaBrakha as characters of the animation. Soundtracks of the Mavka animated film also belong to DakhaBrakha due to their ethnic motives required by the film`s plot.
"The team recreated the ethno dance and other ceremonial elements with the help of experts from the Ivan Honchar Museum National Center for Folk Culture. The music for this episode is an authentic vesnianka performed by the DakhaBrakha band: the musicians not only created the song for Mavka, but also appear in the cartoon as Lukash's friends, village musicians"
Other performances
In January 2014, the group performed for NPR's series, NPR Music Front Row.
In January 2014, the group performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
In April 2015, the group performed for NPR's Tiny Desk concert series.
In 2017, the group performed for radio station, KEXP.
In 2021, the group performed for NPR's Tiny Desk (home) concert series.
On April 24, 2023, the group performed at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
References
External links
Articles
"Вибухова хвиля на ім'я «ДахаБраха»", article at myradio.ua
March 2022 New York Times article
April 2022 NPR article
Ukrainian folk musicians
Ukrainian musical groups