ShockolaD

About:

ShockolaD was founded in 2004 by Ukrainian jazz musicians Ihor Hnydyn and Anastasiia Lytvyniuk and its music speaks to the roots of Ukrainian identity in its unique, evocative sound, fusing the modern-day influences of jazz with traditional Ukrainian folk melodies. ShockolaD has collaborated with eclectic musicians from Ukraine and around the globe, performing to audiences in Ukraine, Europe, and the US.

In addition to touring, ShockolaD is heavily involved in community work, organising workshops, running the jazz school JazzClub.Lviv, and teaching at their alma mater. Over the last sixteen years ShockolaD’s cultural impact has grown from establishing the first jazz club in Western Ukraine to creating a jazz and popular music department in Lviv Musical Academy and influencing the next generation of professionals.

International performances and experience:

  • Starzy i Mlodzi, chili jazz v Krakowie, Krakow, Poland
  • Art Machine, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Nineteenth Festival of Ukrainian Culture, Sopot, Poland
  • Amiens Jazz Festival, Amiens, France
  • Ewropejski Stadion Kultury, Rzeszow, Poland
  • UA/PL Alternative Music Meetings, Wroclaw, Poland
  • Cho-Jazz, Chodziez, Poland
  • Voicingers, Zory, Poland
  • USA concert tour to Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, Chicago
  • Jazz Bez, Przemysł, Wroclaw, Lublin, Poland
  • Ukrainian Summer, Poznan, Poland

 

International collaboration:

Lytvyniuk and Hnydyn are the sole Ukrainian partners of Cho-Jazz (the oldest jazz workshop in Eastern Europe) and were awarded the Decoration of Honour Meritorious for Polish Culture in 2018, for their teaching contributions, masterclasses and concerts in Poland.

 

ShockolaD have recorded with well-known Polish and American musicians, recording five international albums. Their last collaboration with Brian Blessing was a tribute to the much-beloved Volodymyr Ivasiuk (singer and composer who wrote the massive Ukrainian hit ‘Chervona Ruta’), followed by a US tour.

 

Contact: [email protected]