The Kazka Ukrainian Folk Ensemble has been entertaining audiences with folk music and dance for 25 years in Schuylkill and surrounding counties.
Founded in 1987, Kazka began with four musicians and singers who wanted to preserve the Ukrainian culture brought to the United States more than a century ago.
The founding members of the nonprofit group are Michael Duda, Sandra Minarchick Duda, Paula Duda Holoviak and Joseph Zucofski.
Holoviak, soprano with the vocal ensemble and folk dance director, said the story begins at the Holy Protection of the Mother of God (St. Mary) Ukrainian Catholic Church, McAdoo, and St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church, Frackville.
"Our parish, St. Mary in McAdoo, had a children's group and a teen group, and St. Michael in Frackville had a dance group," said Holoviak, originally from Freeland. "After college, we started hanging out with the Frackville dance group. It was myself, my brother, Michael, and Sandy, who was not my sister-in-law at the time, and Joe, who was from Schoentown. We used to hang around with the dance groups, but they didn't do any singing. It just so happened that the four of us were alto, soprano, bass and tenor, and we decided we wanted to do some folk songs, so we started as a singing group."
Holoviak said the four-member group began singing at church and other small events.
"When I look back over the 25 years, it feels like it's been one long performance," she said. "I think the first performance was in McAdoo."
Holoviak and the others were still participating with the Frackville dance group, but would only sing as the quartet, at least until the requests began coming in.
"Every time we would go somewhere to sing, people would say they wanted to see some dancing. I think that was the genesis of the idea," said Holoviak. "We started out with some dances from St. Mary repertoire, which we still do. We found our first choreographer, Helen Kozak, who trained us in new dances."
Keeping track of the group's history is Sandra Duda, a native of McAdoo.
"I end up archiving everything - the group, the family histories, everything. You name it, I do it," said Duda. "Mike, Paula and myself first sang together in the fall of 1986 with the church cantor at the time. When we decided to do some other things, the three of us were a trio for about six months. The three of us did the Penn State Slavic Festival, and the Frackville group was dancing there as well and Joe (Zucofski) was with them. It was then that the four of us got together to sing in June 1987. It was after that that we got the requests for dancing, and then we got another girl to dance with us, so we had some interesting shows with five of us singing and dancing. It was interesting when we had costume changes."
Within five years, Kazka had the opportunity to perform in Ukraine at Shevchenko Park near Lviv, a city in western Ukraine that is regarded as one of the main cultural centers of today's Ukraine. When the group was there in 1992, it was within a year of when the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine regained its freedom as a sovereign country.
"Helen had a cousin there and made some sort of a contact," said Holoviak. "In 1992, Ukraine was marking the 100th anniversary of Ukrainian emigration from Ukraine to the United States. So, they wanted to bring a group from the United States to perform and do a three-city tour. We were representing the people who had left Ukraine and gone to other countries. That was a very big deal."
The 10-day tour also included performances in Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil.
"I've been in Ukraine many times, but that was my first time there. Ukraine had been under communist rule the year before," said Holoviak. "That made it very exciting since they were newly independent. It was a trip of a lifetime. It was very emotional. Joe had seen family members that he had never seen. His mother's cousins met us at the airport. One of the other members of our group was reunited with her family from Poland. The people were so excited. Everyone cried being in a place where your grandparents or great-grandparents came from and you were standing in the places you heard about."
She spoke of a visit to St. George Ukrainian Greek Catholic Cathedral in Lviv.
"We went into the cathedral for liturgy and they were singing just like we sing in McAdoo. It was the same arrangement that we do," said Holoviak. "It was like I was in McAdoo, except in a much bigger church."
When the group performs, Holoviak also provides the commentary about Ukrainian culture, and is the principal emcee. Sandra Duda is the assistant dance director, the principal costume researcher and designer, treasurer, accountant, historian, photographer and archivist. Zucofski, the musical co-director and arranger, plays guitar, keyboard and bandura, does folk song research and dance ensemble choreography. Michael Duda is musical co-director and plays guitar, harmonica, accordion, bass, percussion, sopilka, bandura and mandolin, arranges folk songs and is the group's sound and recording technician.
The ensemble's repertoire includes traditional melodies from the Carpathian Mountains and the Lemko region (Southwestern Ukraine), patriotic songs from WWI, romantic ballads and folk songs of central Ukraine and modern compositions by 20th century Ukrainian songwriters. Kazka has produced three folk recordings. Their most recent CD is a collection of Ukrainian Christmas music titled "God Sees All," recorded at WVIA studios, engineered by WVIA's George Graham and produced by Holoviak Church Supply.
In addition to the vocal quartet, the ensemble includes a 20-member dance ensemble. The expansive dance repertoire encompasses choreography from the Hutsul, Boyko, Transcarpathian, Poltava, Polissian and Bukovynian regions of Ukraine. The group emphasizes technique and authenticity in both regional choreography and costuming.
The ensemble currently works with two renowned choreographers, David Woznak of the Kashtan Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, Parma, Ohio, and Andrij Dobriansky of the Obrij Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, New York City. The ensemble has received numerous grants including funding from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the Schuylkill County Council for the Arts through the Schuylkill County Commissioners.
Holoviak said the group does about 12 to 15 performances a year, although at one time it was as high as 30.
"People are asking us constantly, but we have to turn people down," she said. "The demand is definitely there, but it can be too much with the traveling and such. We always do Ukrainian Seminary Day. That is our commitment until we die. We also always do the Ukrainian Festival at the homestead near Lehighton. We practice there almost every week for dancing."
Kazka will perform at 3:15 p.m. Saturday during the Celebrate Us ... Celebrate Schuylkill event in Pottsville.
For more information on Kazka, visit www.kazkaensemble.org or email kazka@epix.net.