4th Annual Kubasa Competition - Saturday June 14, 2008

Calgary, AB… The Korinnya Ukrainian Folk Ensemble presents its 4th annual Kubasa Competition; an evening event showcasing local Ukrainian music, culture and smoked meat. Everyone is invited to:

• Taste some of the best garlic sausage in western Canada, and vote on your favourite,
• Enjoy the sounds of the Korinnya Ukrainian Folk Ensemble, TRYZUB Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, Suzirya Ukrainian Dance Theatre, Polanie Polish Song and Dance Association,
• and dance to entertaining Ukrainian dance band music of Kalabai Ukrainian Fusion from Edmonton.

This year's event will consist of three sets of Ukrainian entertainment – music, song and dance by performers from Calgary. In between the evening’s musical segments the guests will sample different varieties of sausage from producers across western Canada. The expected 250 guests will then vote on their favourite in each category, with the winners announced at the end of the evening.

Korinnya is a choral ensemble entertaining Calgary’s Ukrainian community since 1993. Korinnya sings traditional folk music often with the accompaniment of a four-piece orchestra. Over the past 13 years, Korinnya has shared its exuberance of the Ukrainian culture with audiences across western Canada, and has released two CD's.

Tickets are $25 each before June 1 and $30 afterward. Tables of ten may be reserved prior to June 1. Tickets are only available in advance. Purchase your tickets from Korinnya members, call 403-239-8643 or e-mail info@korinnya.com.


The 2008 Korinnya Kubasa Competition will be held on Saturday, June 14, at Calgary's St. Vladimir's Center, just off of Edmonton Trail South. Get your tickets now - Last year's event sold out early!

Baba Goes to San Diego!

We’ve gone international! We were thrilled to be invited to accompany the Suzirya Dance Theatre to the House of Ukraine Festival in San Diego, California. We flew to Los Angeles on August 31 and then by bus to San Diego. We hoped to get Baba’s toes in the Pacific that day but we ran into one of those infamous freeway traffic jams on the Friday of the long weekend and spent over fifty kilometers bumper to bumper.

The Festival Organizing Committee hosted us by the hotel pool on Friday evening and we had a chance to meet and visit with people and Baba even had a chance to go swimming – Calgary was never like this! Saturday morning we had free time so some of us went shopping and several of us including Baba took a bus tour of all the major sights of SD, and then went on a harbour cruise. SD is a very attractive city with lots of very interesting sights, as well as a large military presence as the Pacific Fleet of the U.S. Navy is stationed here. The West Coast was experiencing a very unusual heat wave; rather than a moderate 23˚ C with low humidity which is the usual weather, it was over 30 with humidity of over 90%! Pretty hot for our heavy costumes!

We had an afternoon tech rehearsal and then a concert that evening. It was well attended and we were very well received; we were only the second or third choir in the 32 year history of the festival. We met several audience members during intermission and found some who knew our families so we were never far from our Canadian prairie roots. We ended our concert with our crowd pleaser, Baba!

Sunday morning was free so some of us went to the beach to dip our toes into the Pacific. The beaches went on for miles and we could easily have spent a week there. In the afternoon we performed in Balboa Park, a very unique park with museums and a zoo in the heart of SD. Our show was on an outdoor stage in the International Village right beside the House of Ukraine. Again we met people who knew people we knew – you’re never alone when you’re a prairie Ukrainian! The temperature and humidity was a real killer but fortunately a breeze provided some relief. After the outdoor concert, we had time for a couple of hours in the pool before the zabava. That evening was a dinner and zabava and we were able to have several sing-alongs during the band breaks.

Back home via LA on Monday but this time the freeway was no problem; Baba had the pedal to the metal all the way and we got back to the airport in two hours.

We had a fantastic time and received a super warm welcome. Thank you to Suzirya for inviting us to participate with them and thank you to Vera Skop and Katya Priestley, the festival organizers who worked with us. We’ll sure miss those palm trees! Maybe Baba can go back again for a longer visit next time.

Thank you to Cathy, our director, for all of her work in organizing this tour, to Mike Wais of the San Diego Symphony for kindly lending us a double bass and a big thank you to Marko Baran of Saskatoon who joined us to play accordion and sing tenor.

Next year in the Old Country!

3rd Annual Kubasa Competition – And the Winners are?

The votes were cast by the sold-out crowd of the 300 attendees at Korinnya's annual celebration of Ukrainian music, culture and smoked meat. Everyone in Korinnya would like to congratulate Stawnichy, Polcan, and Butcher Shoppe for winning and placing within their respective categories. The competition was intense, but in the end, the best sausage won. And the winners are:

Round 1 – Garlic Sausage

First place – Stawnichy - Homestyle
Second place – Polcan – Country Sausage

Round 2 - Specialty Sausage

First place – Polcan – Hunter Sausage
Second place – Butcher Shoppe (Airdrie) – Home smoked Salsarica

Attendees were treated to performances by the Korinnya Ukrainian Folk Ensemble, Tryzub Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, the Suzirya Ukrainian Dance Theatre, and Absolutely Unplugged, all from Calgary. Those that stayed beyond the tasting danced to the unique Ukrainian sounds of Absolute.

Korinnya would also like to thank all of the suppliers and the donors for their generous contributions.

Garlic and Specialty Sausage donors:

The Butcher Shoppe Inc., Airdrie, Alberta
Dominion Meat Market, Chestermere, Alberta
Heritage Bakery & Deli, Calgary, Alberta
Illichmann’s Sausage Shop Ltd, Calgary, Alberta
Jans Meat & Delicatessen, Calgary, Alberta
Polcan Meat Products & Delicatessen, Calgary, Alberta
Stawnichy’s Meat Processors, Box 18, Mundare, Alberta
Strikers Deli and Meats, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Limited edition Shot Glass and Prizes donors:

Canadian Tire, Dalhousie Store
Chesney’s Hardware
Discount Car and Truck Rentals
Glenmore Audi Calgary
International Manpower
Multicultural Marketing
Slavutich
TeamWorks Inc.
Trademark Workwear
Wal-Mart, Northland Village
Shopping Centre
Wild Rose Brewery
And Korinnya choir members and their families

Thank you for supporting the Korinnya Ensemble. This year's fundraising will support Korinnya's international trip this August.

Stayed tuned for Korinnya’s 4th Annual Kubasa competition next year…promise of more fun, entertainment and rings of Kubasa.

3rd Annual Kubasa Competition - Saturday June 2, 2007

Calgary, AB… The Korinnya Ukrainian Folk Ensemble presents its 3rd annual Kubasa Competition; an evening event showcasing local Ukrainian music, culture and smoked meat. Everyone is invited to:

• Taste some of the best garlic sausage in western Canada, and vote on your favourite,
• Enjoy the sounds of the Korinnya Ukrainian Folk Ensemble, and thrilling Ukrainian dance of Calgary's Tryzub and Suzirya,
• Dance to the unique Ukrainian music of Calgary’s own Absolute.

This event will consist of three sets of Ukrainian entertainment – music, song and dance by performers from Calgary. In between the evening’s musical segments the guests will sample different varieties of sausage from producers across western Canada. The expected 250 guests will then vote on their favourite in each category, with the winners announced at the end of the evening.

Korinnya is a choral ensemble entertaining Calgary’s Ukrainian community since 1993. Korinnya sings traditional folk music often with the accompaniment of a four-piece orchestra. Over the past 13 years, Korinnya has shared its exuberance of the Ukrainian culture with audiences across western Canada, and has released two CD's.

Tickets purchased before May 15 are $25 and $30 after. Tables of ten may be reserved. Tickets are only available in advance. Purchase your tickets from Korinnya members, call 403-239-8643 or 440-9585, e-mail info@korinnya.com.

The 2007 Korinnya Kubasa Competition will be held on Saturday, June 2, at Calgary's St. Stephen’s Cultural Centre, 4903 - 45th Street SW. Get your tickets now - Last year's event sold out early!

Our New Look

Though we haven't been blogging too frequently, Korinnya have been busy performing and working on this new web presence. Our new site is now up and running, and we hope you find it easier to navigate.

We've been busy over the Christmas season, performing at Calgary's Heritage Park, the CBC Knox Carol Festival and the Ukrainian Festival of Carols - all in the same weekend. Rehearsals continue for the following upcoming performances:

January 7 and 8, 2007 - carolling at the homes of our friends and supporters
Janaury 19, 2007 - performing at the Suzirya/UCPBA Malanka
January 26, 2007 - performance at the Malanka in Lethbridge, AB

Stay tuned for more performance announcements - including the third annual Korinnya Kubasa Comptition!