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Often, I find myself in an American or Canadi- an town exhausted from travel, hunched over, knocking back coffee, tuning my bandura. Then my fellow ensemble members begin to file in, laden with banduras, note stands and tote bags. Immediately, we happily greet each other, grinning from ear to ear with the excitement of seeing one another. This scene repeats several times with each new arrival before we finally sit down to rehearse. Established in 2015, the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America has grown into a thriving ensemble of bandurist-vocalists, unit - ed by the mission of showcasing the bandura, maintaining musical traditions and fostering new creative directions and artistry. Most im- portantly, the WBENA sought to correct the dis- parity in performance opportunities for female bandurists who often stopped playing, while our male counterparts were able to further de- velop and gain membership in the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus and the Canadian Bandurist Capella. In our first five years of work, we have held concerts in 16 cities in Canada and the USA. Our audiences have been diverse: members of the Ukrainian diaspora at historic community events, as well as non-Ukrainians, for exam- ple, at the inaugural Lincoln Crossroads Music Festival in Nebraska. During this time, we have grown to 23 active members and several re- gional members with a repertoire that breaks stylistic boundaries. Diaspora-born women of Ukrainian descent, women who are immigrants, as well as wom- en who have Ukrainian partners comprise our multi-faceted ensemble. While we have no base, we work together regionally in Chicago, More than an Ensemble By Alina Kytasty Kuzma WBENA: Our Life | Наше життя 14
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