Russian Folk Songs
by Jonnie Pekelny
Folk and pop-folk songs from Russia. We will be learning songs that originate in the culture of the Russian village and city working class, with forays into composed music with a similar sound.
Jonnie Pekelny is a native of St. Petersburg, Russia. Although she spent her childhood in the big city, Jonnie's mother made it a point to learn the songs of the Russian villages and to teach them to her daughter.A singer from an early age, Jonnie grew up with the sweet, fiery, humorous, irreverent and honest songs of rural and working Russia. Although she later went on to study and sing other genres (obtaining a minor in music from U.C. Santa Cruz and performing solo and in group ensembles that included classical and pop and other folk traditions) that first musical love has stuck. Jonnie still loves and performs the songs of this disappearing cultural treasure.
In addition to collecting and performing Russian music, Jonnie currently sings with the Loose Canons, a Bay Area women's World Music chorus.
