During the Glasnost and Perestroika era of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Ukrainian disapora in the UK took advantage of a slightly more relaxed approach to international travel, and invited cultural groups from Ukraine to visit the UK to perform. These visits sometimes corresponded with larger cultural festivals such as the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales, or regional arts events such as the Bradford Festival. Prior to this, other disapora arts groups had toured in Europe,...

During the Glasnost and Perestroika era of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Ukrainian disapora in the UK took advantage of a slightly more relaxed approach to international travel, and invited cultural groups from Ukraine to visit the UK to perform. These visits sometimes corresponded with larger cultural festivals such as the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales, or regional arts events such as the Bradford Festival. Prior to this, other disapora arts groups had toured in Europe, North America and Canada, but it was very rare for groups from Ukraine to do the same. This period was a time of cultural revival and a hope that Ukrainian culture could be opened up for the world to share and enjoy.

Conductor and Artistic director: Anatoly Avdievskiy; Choreographer: Oleksiy Homon. https://veryovka.com/en/
The H. H. Veryovka Ukrainian National Honoured Academic Folk Choir was founded in Kharkiv on 11 September 1943 by resolution 246 by the Council of People's Commisars of the Ukrainian SSR, with the remit to promote the development of Ukrainian folk choral and musical-choreographic art and its propaganda among the working masses. Hrigoriy Huriiovych Veryovka, a choir leader and researcher at the Institute of Folklore of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, was appointed to develop the choir, and was prescribed 84 singers, 34 musicians and 16 dancers by the resolution. The choir was given premises at 61 Sumskaya Street in Kharkiv, from where Veryovka and his colleague Oleksander Minkivskyi travelled across Ukraine to find talent to join the choir. Some of the earliest names to join the choir were Tamara Savchenko, Halyna Berezhna, Maria Hrishina, Natalka Lepetun, Lidia Zabolotna and Ivan Huriev. Sixteen singer-kobzari were recruited from Mirhorod, and an ensemble of bandura players from Poltava also joined. A concert programme was drawn up and in October 1943, Minkivskyi was appointed conductor. In November 1943, Eleonora Skrypchynska was appointed conductor, Ivan Antonovsky became the orchestra leader and Olexander Dmitrenko became the choreographer. On 6 November, after the capture of Kyiv, a branch of the choir was set up in the city and was located at Dumka, and later at the present Philharmonic. Recruitment continued through the war to the new Kyiv group and was targeted at the military as well as civilians. Some of the recruits were acquired as a result of field letters, and this included the musicians Volodymyr Perepelyuk, Mykola Nazarenko, Evgeny Bobrovnikov, Ivan Zolotarenko and Petro Osipchuk. On 20 Jan 1944, the Kharkiv and Kyiv groups were united, and on 3 June, the choir had its first public rehersal, where a choir of fifteen singers appeared. The event was attended by government officials as well as other significant guests. Veryovka then began to develop and arrange the choir, focusing on the female voices as the soul of the choir and chosing ethnographic rather than concert costumes to maintain the choir's authenticity. The choir's first public perfomance was on 6 September 1944 at Tryhosvyatilelskaya Street in Kyov (now the Institute of Philosophy), which was attended by over 300 people. The choir then began to perform in all sorts of venues and to various audiences. In 1962, Veryovka and Skrypchynska set up a training college by resolution, and enrolled their first instake of twenty five boys and girls for two years. This was the first education programme for young singers in Ukraine, and was taught by Y. D. Mishchenko and Anatoly Avdievsky. Veryovka died on 21 October 1964 and in December of that year, the choir was renamed in his honour. Anatoly Avdievsky became the artistic director in 1965 and continued to develop the choir, with particular focus on the female voices and new programmes of folk songs. The choir has been awarded various merits over the years which are reflected in its title, including Honoured in 1965, Academic in 1971, and National in 1997. Avdievsky died on 24 March 2016. Today, the choir's repertoire is wide-ranging to reflect the breadth of Ukrainian folk and traditional music. This includes historical Duma, Cossack and Chumak songs and dances, regional songs and dances from across the whole of Ukraine, and ritual lyrics sung at family, religious and social events, original compositions and songs from other nations. The arrangement and performance style is equally broad, from ethnic and folk performances to classical and contemporary arrangements. The current General Director / Artistic Director is Ihor Kuryliv, and the current Chief Conductor is Zenoviy Korinets (correct August 2022).