This film documents the work of Vera Tymchyshyn, conductor of a bandura cappella based in Bradford. It captures the musicians in rehearsal and performance with the Dibrova choir from Bradford and the Duma choir from Keighley. It was filmed by the Ukrainian Video Society Archive. The language of the film is Ukrainian. The film begins with a photograph of the Dibrova choir and Bandurists (taken in Bradford Ukrainian Catholic Church) and is captioned Dibrova and Bandurists in Ukrainian. The...

This film documents the work of Vera Tymchyshyn, conductor of a bandura cappella based in Bradford. It captures the musicians in rehearsal and performance with the Dibrova choir from Bradford and the Duma choir from Keighley. It was filmed by the Ukrainian Video Society Archive. The language of the film is Ukrainian. The film begins with a photograph of the Dibrova choir and Bandurists (taken in Bradford Ukrainian Catholic Church) and is captioned Dibrova and Bandurists in Ukrainian. The language spoken throughout the film is Ukrainian. The film begins with the Dibrova choir and bandurists, all dressed in embroidered shirts and blouses (vyshyvanky) performing in Bradford Ukrainian Catholic Church. They stand in front of the iconostasis with the bandurists seated in front. Dibrova’s members are predominantly second-generation Ukrainian men and women, and the bandura cappella are a mix of second and third generation men and women. Their conductor, Vera Tymchyshyn, stands in the pews to conduct. The camera pans across the choir and musicians as they sing a song. The film fades out to show Vera tuning a bandura in the school hall at Bradford Ukrainian Club, whilst her students sit on chairs waiting for the class to begin. The film continues with a snapshot of the bandura class taught by Vera. It then cuts to Vera’s responses to interview questions which are filmed as a monologue. She describes the context of the bandura cappella, how she set it up and its significance in the diaspora. She mentions some of her students and is proud of the commitment they have shown to learning the bandura, which often means travelling distances for lessons and rehearsals. The film then cuts to two second generation girls performing Shedryk, a famous Ukrainian Christmas carol. The setting is possibly a concert hall, church or cathedral. One girl is seated and plays the bandura, and the other stand and plays the flute. At the end of the piece, the film returns to Vera, who describes her own experience of learning the bandura in Ukraine and talks more about her work with the cappella. The scene then fades to a rehearsal by the Duma choir from Keighley in the school hall at Bradford club. The bandura cappella is seated in front of the choir and provide the accompaniment. The scene then switches to Duma and the bandurists in embroidered shirts and blouses (vyshyvanky) on stage in the hall at Bradford Ukrainian Club, performing the two songs they have rehearsed. The members of Duma are first- and second-generation men, and the bandura cappella are a mix of second and third generation men and women. The curtains close at the end of the performance.