VOLYA GROUP was formed as a non-profit educational charitable organization in November of 2010 by Volya Dzemka and Olga Sukhover. The group strives to accomplish its mission by performing at community organized festivals and cultural events in the United States while also conducting ethnographic expeditions to Belarus to collect and record Belarusian folk songs in their authentic form. The group also collects and restores authentic Belarusian costumes, and maintains an audio collection of authentic Belarusian Folk Songs as well as a library of published material related to Belarusian folk art, history and culture. The collected material is translated into English to make it available to a broader audience.
The group is proud to wear original hand-made traditional folk costumes created in the late XIX century and donated to VOLYA by villagers from Palesse region.
The group has five members, most of them with deep connections to Belarus and its culture. All members of the group are constantly participating, performing and supporting groups, bands and musical projects that are taking place in the Pacific Northwest region (WA, OR and Vancouver B.C.).
Belarusian folk songs are known to be the oldest, unaltered songs on territory of Europe. Song types and themes include: spring and summer cycle songs, wedding and natal songs, love songs, laments, battle songs, and ancient mythology. Most if not all of these songs are out of everyday use.
