This is how the Ukraine sounds: from folk music to Elvis “Pressler”
Created: 06/10/2022, 16:00
By: Andreas Höger
Wanting to make music together (from left) Viktor Teztychnyi, PRO director Stefan Späth and Olha Krupko.
The program on Saturday is intended to be an audio sample of Ukrainian folk music and build musical bridges.
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Ukrainian folk music is full of special rhythms and melodies.
At a Bavarian-Ukrainian evening on October 8th in Otterfing, refugees and the PRO want to show what Ukraine sounds like.
And how well a song by Elvis "Pressler" fits the country's situation.
Otterfing
– When Russian troops invaded their country at the end of February, many Ukrainians decided to flee.
In Otterfing, too, some temporarily found a roof over their heads.
No one knows how long the exile will last.
The "temporary", it drags on.
This brings problems, but it also offers opportunities.
"Contacts are getting closer," says Stefan Späth, head of the Pop and Rock Center Upper Bavaria (PRO) in Otterfing.
And that should be heard on Saturday, October 8th: At a Bavarian-Ukrainian evening in the PRO rooms, music will be played that builds bridges - and is intended to arouse curiosity about the music culture of a country that is currently fighting for its existence .
Two crucial bridge builders are Olha Krupko (64) and her husband Viktor Teztychnyi (69).
The couple fled the war zone in eastern Ukraine in March to join their son Mykola, who has lived in Otterfing for years.
Olha taught at the Luhansk Music Academy.
When she sat down at the piano at the Otterfinger Frauenbund’s Friday coffee, Hildegard Kaiser and Claudia Conrad, those responsible for the Frauenbund, had the idea of establishing contact with Späth and his comrade-in-arms Theresia Siegmund.
A first result was a concert at PRO, in front of 60 invited guests, including many Ukrainians.
"The success has motivated us to organize a concert to which the entire population is invited," says Späth.
According to Späth, Ukrainian folklore is hardly known in Bavaria.
In any case, “folk music” is very popular in Ukraine.
"There is even a counterpart to our Florian Silbereisen there." The songs are rhythmic, influenced by the Balkans and the Russian polka, "everything very danceable".
A song often mixes melancholy and joy - an emotional world that many refugees currently experience every day.
She regularly telephones friends and relatives at the front, reports Olha: "It's bad, really, really bad." Späth noticed a lot during the rehearsals.
"There is indiscriminate murder, you can hardly imagine that here."
The concert is intended to show that the refugees far from home do not lose their courage and are grateful to have found refuge in Bavaria.
Viktor, a retired engineer, designed the announcement poster, in German and Ukrainian, decorated with flowers, which he painted in the style of the Ukrainian Petrykivka decorative technique.
In the head between the flags is the symbol that everyone is hoping for – the dove of peace.
The program lasts about 90 minutes.
Olha plays the piano, Späth can be heard on the cahon and the guitar.
Anna and Lena sing.
Irina, who was there in July, has returned to reasonably safe Kyiv.
Her husband asked her because he is fighting and has to take care of his mother-in-law.
Lena's husband is also at the front.
"During rehearsals, her little boys dance to the music, they have rhythm in their blood," reports Späth.
The Ukrainians also wanted a song by Elvis Presley, which they consistently call “Pressler”, as Späth reports with a grin.
"That's All Right, Mama", a rockabilly number and first Elvis hit from 1954. The song tells the story of a young man who no longer listens to his mother and wants to go his own way.
"The young man," says Olha, "is like the Ukraine."
The concert:
The Bavarian-Ukrainian evening begins on Saturday, October 8, at 7 p.m. in the PRO rooms at Otterfinger Schulstraße 10. Admission is free, donations are welcome.
The Leonhardi rides in the district are coming up again.
You can read a preliminary report on the Warngauer Leonhardifahrt here.
