Iryna has met Volodymyr, a Ukrainian award winning accordionist, in Winchester where they first played Ukrainian Christmas concert together. Volodymyr fled his home city of Kharkiv, Ukraine after the full scale invasion in 2022 and sought refugee with his family in the UK. Since then they played shows across the UK and received development residency with Surge Forward in 2024.
Viola and Hurdy-Gurdy
“Over in the Hexagon I enjoyed a performance by the Ukrainian born vocalist, instrumentalist and songwriter Iryna Muha who performed in a duo with the British musician Richard Scott. It was Peacock’s idea to pair the two together and their set was a fascinating amalgam of Ukrainian, Russian and British folk influences. Muha’s own “River Trent” was written in the UK but with a Russian lyric celebrating the importance of water imagery in Russian and Ukrainian folklore. Muha demonstrated the mechanics of that fascinating instrument the hurdy gurdy before using it to accompany her singing of a Ukrainian folk song with an anti-war message.Finally the two combined to play a Bulgarian bag pipe tune on hurdy gurdy and viola, the resultant drones proving to be totally absorbing and mesmeric, the effect not totally dissimilar to modern electronic dance music. I dubbed it ‘retro-techno’” “I was impressed by this performance from two very talented multi-instrumentalists and also by the power and purity of Muha’s singing. Whether the pair will work together as a duo again remains to be seen but I’d say that there was the potential here for a successful partnership.” Review from Surge In Spring III, Midlands Arts Centre (mac), Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, 27/04/2019 The JazzMan.com
Collaboration at Rupununi Music & Arts Festival, Georgetown in Guyana
Recorded in George Town, Guyana, South America 2019 Collaborative performance of Sweet Guyana Lyrics by Dmitry Allicock Music Iryna Muha Composed for Rupununi Music & Arts Festival Georgetown connection 2019. Performed by Iryna Muha( Ukraine) , Rob Rossa (UK), Gavin Aaron Mendonca (Guyana) and Chucky ( Guyana)