Wernyhora
About us
Bio
WERNYHORA
Wernyhora is a legendary Cossack bandurist and bard who lived towards the end of the 18th century in the lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He had the gift of being able to tell the future and was said to have prophesied the fall of the Republic of Poland and its rebirth, however, only together with Ukraine. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Wernyhora became a significant character in Polish culture, found, among others, in literature and painting.
As a band, we selected the name “Wernyhora” because our searches are greatly inspired by the traditional music of the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands, where we actually live – in Sanok, Poland. The origins of our singer also influenced the selection of the band name: Daria is Ukrainian and stems from a Ukrainian family who had lived in Poland for generations. Her family history is closely tied to the history of the borderlands. Daria’s grandparents, like almost all Ukrainians from south-eastern Poland, were forcibly resettled to northern Poland as part of Operation Vistula
Returning to her roots, Daria moved from northern Poland to Sanok, where she started her singing career doing folk and traditional music. Her musical activity became a way for her to keep the cultural heritage of her grandparents alive and to maintain the memory of the identity of her ancestors. It is, among others, through her engagement that we are able to get to know and feel the songs of our region, located in the Carpathians and referred to as Bojkowszczyzna, the Boyko region.
Music
Our album and our music programme, “Bojkowski głos Bieszczadu”, is the first attempt in Poland to comprehensively bring back the memory of the musical traditions of the former inhabitants of the Bieszczady Mountains and the Sanok-Turka Mountains, who bear the name Boykos.
The band’s musical arrangements are characterised by the artistic use of source music that allows for the maintenance of sounds and tones that are not far from tradition, all the while allowing for a creative approach to folk notes. The start of our project was related to our singer participating in a grant from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, “Culture online”. As it quickly turned out, this minor musical project gained appreciation not only by those passionate about folk and world music but also became a musical hit in Poland and abroad.
During concerts, Wernyhora enables the listeners to immerse themselves in the music of the Boykos and the Lemkos. Songs presented by the group, in most cases, speak of feelings and passions dominated by emotions related to unrequited, betrayed and unfulfilled love.
