Today, the Ukrainian Bandura Chorus from Kiev performs worldwide. Mykola Lysenko is probably the best known Ukrainian classical composer, famous for basing piano works on Ukrainian folk songs. Popular contemporary musicians include the punk band Plach Yeremiyi and the singer-songwriter Nina Matvienko, who draws heavily on Ukrainian folk traditions. Christianity came to Ukraine late in the 10th century. The Catholic and Orthodox churches split in 1054, and Orthodoxy itself later split into three main branches, each one with a different relationship to Moscow-controlled Russian Orthodoxy and to Roman Catholicism.
Church buildings dominate Ukrainian architecture.
The Byzantine cruciform style became popular during the late 10th century, culminating in the St Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. Renaissance styles caught on in Ukraine in the 16th century. The trend was strongest in Lviv, where Italian architects adapted local Byzantine traditions to create the Uspensky Church and the Three Saints Chapel. The 18th and 19th centuries brought elements of systematic urban planning such as grid street patterns to Kiev and the Potemkin steps to Odessa. Art Nouveau figured in the eclectic Metropolitan Palace and university complex in Chernivtsi.