Mariana Sadovska

Eastern European critics have called her the ‘Ukrainian Bjork’, and it is not hard to see why. In her energetic performances, singer, actress and composer Mariana Sadovska creates a fusion of avant-garde and folk music, where archaic midsummer night invocations, wedding songs and emigrant chants from remote villages in rural Ukraine are transfigured into contemporary sound.

 

Creating her own innovative compositions and arrangements in a dialogue with ancient traditions, Mariana approaches each piece with a fresh and uniquely personal vision. Her vocal power and range even prompted The New York Times to compare her with rock star PJ Harvey.

 

Born in Lviv, Ukraine, Mariana Sadovska trained as a classical pianist at Lviv’s National Music Academy and in her late teens joined the Les Kurbas Theatre. A grant from the Earth Foundation brought her to New York in 2001. There she produced her first concerts of experimental and improvised music with musicians such as Anthony Coleman, Michael Alpert, Frank London and Victoria Hanna. In 2002 she released her first CD, Songs I Learned in Ukraine (Global Village Records). She also began appearing regularly in concerts and workshops across the US, including at the Public Theatre, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Princeton, Harvard, NY University, and Symphony Space New York.

 

After moving to Germany, Sadovska founded her band Borderland to experiment with interpretations of traditional songs and chants from Ukraine. With Borderland, she appeared at the WDR Radio Hall, Festival TFF Rudolstadt, the Cologne Philharmonic Festival Musiktrienale at Alter Wartesaal, for SouthWest Radio at the Broadcasting Centre in Mainz, and in the world music series Klangkosmos NRW. In 2006, she and Borderland were awarded the Creole Award for World Music in NRW and in 2007 they were nominated for the Creole National Award.

 

Cooperation with Ukrainian Institute:

Ukrainian November, Volkstheater Vienna (2019)

Contact: [email protected]