{"id":119467,"date":"2025-11-14T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=119467"},"modified":"2025-11-25T20:55:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:55:50","slug":"interview-ukrainian-canadian-composer-artist-anna-pidgorna-talks-upcoming-release-invented-folksongs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/11\/14\/interview-ukrainian-canadian-composer-artist-anna-pidgorna-talks-upcoming-release-invented-folksongs\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Ukrainian-Canadian Composer & Artist Anna Pidgorna Talks About Her Upcoming Release Invented Folksongs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Composer
Composer and vocalist Anna Pidgorna (Photo: Anya Chibis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Invented Folksongs is a new album by Ukrainian-Canadian composer and musician Anna Pidgorna, to be released on Redshift Records November 21, 2025. The release, her first full-length album, will be available as an LP or CD as well as digitally.<\/p>\n

While her music has often incorporated elements of Ukrainian music, the release marks a shift for the artist who is largely known in Canada for her contemporary classical music. In Invented Folksongs, Anna delves more deeply into her Ukrainian heritage.<\/p>\n

Anna Pidgorna<\/h2>\n

Anna Pidnorna holds a PhD in composition from Princeton University, along with an MMus from the University of Calgary, and a BA from Mount Allison University. Her music has been recognized by two SOCAN Foundation Emerging Composers\u2019 Awards.<\/p>\n

Her compositions have been extensively performed, commissioned, and recorded by ensembles and artists such as So Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, Ensemble Mise-En, Soundstreams, 21C Festival, New Music Concerts, Gryphon Trio, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Architek Percussion, Ensemble Paramirabo, Katelyn Clark, Turning Point, Standing Wave, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Wild Shore Festival, and Trio Klaritas.<\/p>\n

Anna\u2019s music was chosen to represent Canada at the ISCM World New Music Days 2013 festival in Vienna. She has written operas with writer and librettist Maria Reva, one titled Plaything that was developed through the M\u00e9c\u00e9nat Musica Prix 3 Femmes 2020 Award, and another titled Our Trudy that was commissioned and premiered by the Ad Astra Festival in Russell, Kansas.<\/p>\n

As an undergrad student, she sang in a choir, and began to develop her vocal skills, eventually taking classical singing lessons at Princeton alongside her composition studies.<\/p>\n

In 2012, with funding from Canada Council for the Arts and the Shevchenko Foundation, she travelled to Ukraine to study and record traditional music practitioners.<\/p>\n

In Invented Folksongs, she takes both her classical training and more recent knowledge of Ukrainian tradition, and creates her own unique sound \u2014 including the language and pronunciation. In her notes, she writes,<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving encountered many dialects and differences in pronunciation during my song collecting expeditions in Ukraine, I have freely played with words to create my own invented dialect using vowels that feel best in my mouth. The result is the unrooted language of a transplanted child with an imperfect memory of a tongue that was only sort of native to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

LV caught up with the busy Vancouver-based artist (where she is General Manager of City Opera Vancouver) to talk about the album.<\/p>\n

\"L:
L: Composer and vocalist Anna Pidgorna (Photo: Anya Chibis); R: Front cover of Invented Folksongs by Anna Pidgorna (Illustrator\u00a0Olha Kriuchkovskav\/designer\u00a0Roksolana Uhryniuk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anna Pigdorna: The Interview<\/h3>\n

Folk music is something of an ambiguous term. It can be used to talk about heritage music that has been passed down through generations via oral traditions. But, it can also be used by virtually anyone who picks up an acoustic guitar, or musical instruments associated with various ethnic traditions, and writes brand new music.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means different things to different people,\u201d says Pidgorna. \u201cFor me, […] the reason I call it Invented Folksongs, I\u2019m using the materials and approaches of Ukrainian folk music,\u201d she explains. \u201cI\u2019m drawing on that as a soil for creating basically fully original works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking that as a base, she pushes past the strictly traditional via her training in Western classical composition. When it comes to the vocals, she\u2019s likewise blending influences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m drawing on the Ukrainian folk singing style,\u201d she says, \u201creally expanding the range, going into a more operatic range, while still really reaching for that really chesty voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her trips to Ukraine, she found that music faculties at universities and conservatories generally incorporate distinct programs for classical and folk singing. \u201cThey\u2019re kept very separate,\u201d she notes. Classical singers, in particular, tend to shy away from folk music. \u201cThey\u2019re told it will ruin your voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her own training while at Princeton, she worked with a classical soprano who came from a gospel background. \u201cShe had no problem reaching for that chest range.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming up with a blended style wasn\u2019t easy. \u201cIn the beginning if I really used that chest voice, I found it tiring.\u201d She says it took the vibrancy out of her chest range. \u201cAlmost like I took out all the upper partials out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

With time and practice, she learned healthier approaches that made it much easier to essentially alternate between and combine both techniques. \u201cI think that\u2019s a more traditional approach,\u201d she adds, pointing out that contemporary singers outside the classical realm often do use both approaches.<\/p>\n

Drown in the Depth: Anna Pidgorna, voice and electronics; Mark Eichenberger, percussion; Matthew McBane, violin; Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, cello (2020):<\/p>\n