We first heard the Ukrainian song “Vesnianka” on a Smithsonian Folkways album by the Kobzari Ukrainian Folk Ensemble, a traditional Ukrainian choir composed of musicians in their teens and twenties that formed in Nebraska in 1972 to celebrate traditional Ukrainian music.
In this video watch Ukraine’s Kalyna State Ensemble dance to this springtime song. At about four minutes into the video, the melody of our version of the song, “Vesno Krasna” will float by. We are singing “Vesno Krasna” in class this season, but certainly not with as much verve as even your common workaday Nebraskan Ukrainian choir.
