Ukrainian
New York, New York
Photo: Remsberg Inc.
In pre-industrial Ukraine, the cheres was a wide, metal-studded leather belt, so thick it could ward off bullets; over time it became a talisman of good fortune for the people of the Carpathian Mountains. Here, in western Ukraine, folk traditions grew in dialog with the music of neighboring Eastern European communities in Romania, Hungary, Moldova, and Slovakia, as well as regional Jewish and Romani sounds, and have been preserved for centuries in the protective cradle of the Carpathians. The band Cheres has likewise become protector of the rich Ukrainian cultural heritage that is today under attack by Russia’s invasion and propaganda campaign; in the face of this existential threat, their vibrant music is a defiant and joyful statement of Ukrainian identity.
Bandleader Andriy Milavsky’s grandfather Mykhailo Sypko was a talented clarinetist who led the village band in Hryniv, in the Halychyna region on the outskirts of Lviv. The band was so popular they were booked a year in advance for the weekend-long weddings typical of the region. By the age of five, Milavsky was playing a double-headed drum with the band, and later took up the accordion, like his mother. When his grandfather died, Andriy inherited Sypko’s beloved clarinet, which he had found on the side of the road as he walked home after World War II. With this bequest, Milavsky began formal musical training at age 10. He received a master’s degree from the Kyiv State Conservatory of Music in 1986, and performed internationally with Ukraine’s classical orchestras and elite state-sponsored folk ensembles.
It was a rewarding life for a musician, but Milavsky felt the carefully staged pageantry of the state collectives missed something central to music in the village: “I thought I was the guy who could preserve it properly, the way I grew up with,” he says. “I could put some dust and blood and beer in it.” In 1990, he gathered a group of like-minded musicians, and together they formed Cheres. Milavsky came to New York a year later, and the Ukrainian American community embraced the band’s high-caliber traditional music. Three decades on, Cheres are celebrated as “the best purveyor of authentic Ukrainian folk music in the United States.”
The members of Cheres bring both their conservatory training and their deep knowledge of traditional music to this modern incarnation of the nimble village band. Representing the diverse traditions that make up the music of the Carpathians, the band includes Igor Iachimciuc on tsymbaly (cimbalom, a type of hammered dulcimer); Valeri Glava on fiddle; accordionist Victor Cebotari; and Branislav “Brano” Brinarsky playing double bass. In addition to the clarinet, bandleader Andriy Milavsky plays a variety of Ukrainian wind instruments including wooden flutes known as sopilka. The band plays instruments handmade by local masters in the Carpathians, and they perform in the hand-embroidered clothing typical at village celebrations.
As Andriy Milavsky says, “I want my grandfather’s legacy to live, not a staged version” but rather a personal expression that captures the joy of the traditions of their families and communities.
Cheres’ performances at the Richmond Folk Festival are made possible in part with support from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
