Photographer: Anastasia Duchess (St. John's Episcopal Cathedral, Los Angeles, 2025)
Listen to our recordings here
Our Choir
Ensemble Cherubim is a chamber choir of professional artists from many ethnicities and backgrounds—all with experience in international choral music and all with a deep interest in Ukrainian culture. The Ensemble creates events that interweave Ukrainian music, poetry, movement, and visual art to create an immersive experience. It has been invited to perform at the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition of Early Music, the New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas, and at prestigious venues on both the East and West Coasts. The aim of the Ensemble is to bridge Ukrainian and American cultures, introducing its audiences to treasures that have been hidden from them for too long!
The ensemble was founded in San Francisco to create a recording for the Naxos label: Dmitry Bortniansky, I Cried Out to the Lord: Hymns and Choral Concertos. The CD, based on director Marika Kuzma’s careful research, is a dynamic reimagining of Bortniansky’s music and received a Grammy Award recommendation. In 2021, amid growing geopolitical tensions at the Ukrainian border and still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ensemble gathered to perform “An Anglo-Ukrainian Christmas” in New Haven, CT, and at the Ukrainian-American Institute in New York City. That program communicated the commonality of Christmas themes across the Ukrainian, American, and British cultures. It included poetry recitation and storytelling by the Ukrainian-American artist Vira Slywotzky and the acclaimed British film director Jonathan Lynn.
In 2022, Ensemble Cherubim performed the concert “Echoes from Ukraine” as part of the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition. That event included early chant to contemporary compositions and poetry by Ukraine’s most famous poets. The singers were joined by actors L. Peter Callender, Joy Carlin, and Patrick Russell. In 2023, the New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas invited the ensemble to perform a headline event, “Sacred Land: Songs and Poems of Resilience from Ukraine.” They repeated the program at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, DC, sponsored by The Washington Group, United Help Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Embassy.
In 2025, the ensemble was invited to offer a concert at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley as part of the Cal Performances prestigious concert series. The concert included our singers, the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, actors L. Peter Callender and Patrick Russell, violinists Karen Bentley Pollick and Cookie Segelstein, and the beloved Grammy-winning mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade. It offered a second concert with just Ensemble Cherubim in Los Angeles at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral. The programs received immediate standing ovations and left indelible impressions of the Ukraine’s rich, varied choral music.
We are currently scheduling concerts of Ukrainian carols for January 2027 on the East Coast, a reprise of our triumphant concerts last December. Ukraine has so many choral works that are unknown outside its borders—among them thousands of carols. These concerts and our new album of Ukrainian carols (a companion to Marika Kuzma’s groundbreaking book) are revelatory, heartwarming, and inspiring.
Many of the Ensemble Cherubim singers are alumni of the University of California, Berkeley, and sang in its prestigious Chamber Chorus. Many are choral artists and soloists with leading ensembles on the East and West coasts. They are often joined by prominent actors from the communities where they perform. Ensemble Cherubim’s singers and actors gather from far and wide to perform this exciting, unique material together. Their concerts have captivated and inspired diverse audiences across America.
“I strongly urge you and your friends and acquaintances to attend this concert… The music is extremely moving and beautifully sung, combined with the participation of dramatic readers and multimedia presentations. A powerful and memorable presentation of centuries of music from Ukraine.”
Walden Moore, organist and choral director, faculty of Yale Institute of Sacred Music
Ensemble Cherubim is currently scheduling concerts of Ukrainian carols for January 2027 on the East Coast, a reprise of our triumphant concerts last December in California’s Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley and St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Los Angeles. Ukraine has so many choral works that are unknown outside its borders—among them thousands of carols. These concerts and our new album of Ukrainian carols (a companion to Marika Kuzma’s groundbreaking book) are revelatory, heartwarming, and inspiring.
Stay tuned for news of concert dates and the release of our album!
Please end our essay with the quote from Walden Moore that starts “I strongly urge you…”
