SONG LIST

1. The Girl Has Sold Her Heart
2. The Journey–Begins
The Journey–Defiance
3. My Songs,
My Little Songs
4. Hrenchanyky
5. A Sundown
(Theme and Variations)
6. Hutsulka
(Dark Days, Dark Nights)
7. Kolomyka–Dance in E minor
8. Between Two Mountains A
Star Rose
9. Spring Song
10. The Journey–Contentment
11. Four Trees In Winter

To listen to a sound clip, please click on an underlined song title. Sound clips are in mp3 format.

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FOUR TREES IN WINTER

"Four Trees In WInter" is a musical Ukrainian/Canadian reflection based on personal healing and family history. Several years ago I experienced bouts of vertigo and the accompanying anxiety.

It was a difficult time for me and I turned to my music for healing. I grew up listening to Ukrainian folk music but it never factored into my playing—until now.

During my moments of anxiety, listening to Ukrainian music struck a deep chord in me. The passionate melodies and melancholy harmonies affected the essence of my being. Suddenly I was home.

At that point a feeling of self-empowerment swept over me and I began my healing. But it wasn't easy, as the work of who I am and where I came from began.

My father suffered through one of the worst ethnic cleansings in history, where seven to ten million Ukrainians died in an orchestrated famine from 1932 to 1933.

The tragic emotions created an unbearable silence that has permeated generations.

Somehow and somewhere my new compositions released in me the power to look at life with joy, compassion and gratitude.

Healing begins when we are silent no more.

Let the passion of music warm our hearts.

All music composed and arranged by Stephen Zurakowsky