Stage4Beverley: The Bandura

Anastasiya Voytyuk, is a singer and promoter of Ukrainian folk culture and a virtuoso of the Bandura – a Ukrainian traditional instrument.

Anastasiya collaborated with many different musicians and artists and combined the Bandura with percussion, keyboards, saxophone, guitar, clarinet, experimental brass, electronic music, tabla, zheng and many other instruments. She became the author of soundtracks for several plays and performances with which she travelled to Canada and the Lebanon. She has toured many countries of Europe and the World with the Bandura as part of various bands. In the Summer of 2023 she was nominated to take part in Global Music Workshop in the New England Conservatory in Boston, USA, where she collaborated with 70 musicians from all over the world.

Anastasiya leads the Ukrainian folk fusion band Troye Zillia. They give a second breath to Ukrainian folk songs from various regions of Ukraine, releasing the archaic polyphonic singing in contemporary musical forms.

The work of Troye Zillia is a real fusion – the sounds of Bandura and singing with folk notes are accompanied by jazz drums, keyboards and synthesizers, and in the current incarnation also bass and clarinet. In the band’s repertoire you will find both lively and melancholy songs. Since its inception, the line-up has played several hundred concerts on the stages of Europe, North America and the Middle East, winning awards and distinctions at reviews and competitions, in the country and abroad. The last album (2019) entitled ENDORPHINS is a selection of Ukrainian songs about love from various regions of the country. The original sound, sophisticated ethno motifs and positive charge of compositions, mixed with driving styles of R&B, D&B, afro-cuban, jazz, create a special style of the album – folk fusion.