The female bandura player trio “Oriana” is the professional group which has already existed for more than 15 years and during the time of its artistic career is known as one of the well-known group of Ukraine. This group become popular due to tree talented girls. There are virtuosic musicians, owners of the strong and beautiful voices in the faces of Iryna Korolevych (soprano), Iryna Hubiak (mezzo-soprano), Yuliya Rudnytska (alto).
The concerto repertory of the group is very wide. It includes large range of genres and directions ranging from folk music to. classical and spiritual music, from works of world-famous composers and modern work of authorship to jazz. The concert programs consist of instrumental and vocal works with the accompaniment of the bandura or sound songs in the genre of acapella. The viewer can appreciate performance of the whole trio together as well as take pleasure in the solo performances of the girls, or performances in the duet. Members of the group looking for new interesting works with enthusiasm, for expansion of the trio repertoire. The most of works sound in an adaptation of artists.
The female bandura player trio “Oriana” make a guest appearance not only in Ukraine but is also well-known and welcome guest abroad. The group has presented Ukraine on more than one occasion on the international music festivals and contests. The “Oriana” have given a concert in Poland, France, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden and it is not the full list of countries were they make a guest appearance.
During their first concert tour around Finland in November 2018, members of the “Oriana” bandurists trio discovered a Finnish folk instrument – kantele. Their interest in the instrument arose immediately and absolutely naturally, because both bandura and kantele are instruments that are iconic and peculiar musical symbols of the Ukrainian and Finnish peoples, which carry a great part of the cultural and spiritual heritage. Being in Finland, the girls from the “Oriana” trio noticed how respectfully and tremulously the Finns treat their folk instrument the kantele. They immediately realized that such feelings are very close to them, and the idea of combining bandura and kantele, while performing their musical works, seemed very exciting. And the result was really impressive – the kantele and the bandura blend perfectly in the musical works, complementing and decorating one another. And the “Oriana” bandurists trio is very proud of becoming the first Ukrainian-known band, which combined Ukrainian bandura and Finnish kantele in its concerts.
We hope so much that the Finnish viewer will not only highly appreciate the idea of combining those two instruments in one concert, but will also have pleasure and enjoyment of the new concert program, which is called “BANDURA AND KANTELE – AN INCREDIBLE UNION”.