Washington, DC, September 18, 2010 – The picturesque premises of St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral (Silver Spring, MD) in Washington Metropolitan area hosted the 8th Ukrainian culture Festival.

The participants and guests of the event had a chance to plunge into amazing world of Ukrainian music, to enjoy highly artistic performances of the traditional folk dances, to get the sense of craftsman’s soul in every pysanka (Easter agg) or vyshyvanka (embroidered shirt).

Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Olexander Motsyk took part in the Festival. He announced the greetings from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kostyantyn Hryshchenko and expressed appreciation to Ukrainian Americans for their commitment and hard work aimed at Ukrainian cultural heritage, traditions and language preservation.

After the opening ceremony the guests of the event enjoyed the concert featuring the music and dance ensembles not only from Metropolitan area, but also from other states.

Ukrainian band “Oberehy” and dance ensemble “Beberochyin” from New York came down to DC to celebrate the Festival together with local community along with dance ensemble “Voloshky” from Philadelphia, famous for its artistic perfection and popularity with audience. The sounds of compositions and ancient Ukrainian folk songs performed by Solomia Gorokhivska (violin), Larisa Pastuchiv-Martin (bandura), Andrei Pidkivka (ethnic flutes – sopilka, tylynka, nai, etc.) and Solomia Dutkevych (soprano) carried the listeners to a couple of centuries back to the glorious Ukrainian past. Ukrainian folk motifs were well enhanced by the stirring Latin American tunes by acoustic band “Rock Creek Jazz”.

Over the rest of September, Ukrainian Festivals will be held in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York states.