Songs for Babyn Yar

In 1941, Nazi occupying forces murdered more than 33,000 Jews in the ravine of Babyn Yar in the suburbs of Kyiv, Ukraine, in just two days. In the following two years of Nazi occupation, Babyn Yar became the site of over 100,000 deaths. Eight decades later, three Ukrainian musicians – Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska – journey deep into their shared history, drawing on survivors’ testimonies, traditional Yiddish and Ukrainian folk songs, poetry, and storytelling to present ‘Songs for Babyn Yar’ – a music theater performance that intimately weaves languages, harmonies, and cultures to reveal the forgotten stories and silenced songs from one of the most devastating periods in Ukraine’s past. Songlines magazine calls it “elegiac and questioning, asking how do we sing about such events, or make art out of it? Important questions, powerfully realised”. This performance honors Holocaust Remembrance Day, and will also mark close to one year since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A Dash Arts production

Directed by Josephine Burton
Dramaturgy by Yael Shavit and Josephine Burton
Music composed and arranged by Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska
Video, set and projection design by Marie Blunck
Lighting design by Jess Bernberg

The original production has been created in partnership with Ukrainian Institute (Kyiv) and Goethe-Institut, with additional support from the Maria Björnson Memorial Fund, and Shoresh Charitable Trust.

The ORIGINS series features artists who delve into the folklore and roots of their respective culture’s music to tell the story of their origins, preserving and affirming cultural identities and legacies.