Hello folks,

We have posted 4 new live tracks from the Detroit Malanka on 1/20/07. These can be found on our MySpace page at www.myspace.com/voronyband

Check them out!

~Vorony

Just a quick update on what we are up to in the next few weeks.

Vorony has been asked to play at the infamous Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival in Toronto. The event date is August 25-27, 2006. We will be playing a set on the main stage at 7:00pm Saturday evening, August 26. We will then be moving to the Windermere Stage at 9:30pm for a street zabava to close out the Saturday festivities. On Sunday, August 27, we will again be playing a set on the main stage at a time to be announced shortly. Over 400,000 people attended this festival last year, and they expect even more this year for their 10-year anniversary. This will be the biggest event Vorony has ever played! We hope to see some of you there!

We will also be returning to Oselia CYM in Ellenville for the Labor Day weekend festivities. We will be playing the Sunday night zabava. It's been a while since we've played Oselia, so we are definitely looking forward to coming back and seeing old friends.

To commemorate these 2 big events, Vorony will be selling a brand new T-shirt. But we need your help in choosing a design! Please visit the Vorony T-shirt voting page and check out the 4 designs we have chosen. Vote for the one that you like best and the top vote getter will be the T-shirt sold in both Toronto and Ellenville! Also, if you are a Vorony Backstage member, you will be entitled to a special discount on the T-shirt. We'll have a list of members at both shows so stop by and let us know who you are! Not a Vorony Backstage member? Sign up today - Vorony Backstage Signup

Enjoy the rest of your summer, and we hope to see you all in the next few weeks!!

~Vorony

    Vorony now has a MySpace page as well. Check it out... send us a friend request if you have a MySpace account!

www.myspace.com/voronyband

We hope everyone enjoyed a safe and happy Easter. After our break for Lent, we are ready to hit the road again and begin the busy summer season. We start up this Saturday, April 29 in Cleveland, OH for the Kashtan 25th Anniversary Zabava. Should be a great time... Vorony hasn't played in Cleveland since New Years Eve 2002. We are really looking forward to going back and seeing our old friends. If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, what are you waiting for? Check out our Calendar page for contact info regarding tickets.

Look for some exciting things from Vorony this summer. In addition to our regular picture updates after each gig, we will also be posting live tracks from each show on a more consistent basis. We will also be hosting DVD-video clips of Vorony playing at certain events throughout the rest of the year, in addition to road videos of Vorony travelling. We had the DVD camera set up at the Toronto malanka, but ended up with technical difficulties throughout the course of the night. These issues have been resolved and we should hopefully end up with some great footage this summer! Keep checking here and on our homepage, www.vorony.com

We have also designed new Vorony t-shirts that we hope to launch before the middle of the summer. And the preliminary discussions for a third Vorony album (with the legendary Bill Kinal of Montreal) have begun, but that project will probably not begin until after the end of the year. All in all, we are looking forward to an exciting summer and rest of 2006. See you on the road this summer!

~Vorony

We had an awesome weekend in LA to officially end our malanka/deb ball season. Everything about the trip was great (except the flights, which we'll get to eventually). Nick, Sean, and Matt went down early, getting there on Wednesday. Matt spent the day finding random people to play volleyball with on the beach, while Sean and Nick arrived later that evening.

Thursday was spent biking up the coast from Venice Beach up to Santa Monica. It was an incredible experience and the weather could not have been nicer. Check out our pictures for some visuals. We then went to a college basketball game (one of Sean's passions) to see USC take on Oregon in a "must win" situation for both teams. USC got demolished, but it was a great time. Quite a contrast from the amount of people Syracuse University draws for basketball games. There were only about 1000 people in the arena.

Friday, Adam and Mike joined the other 3 and went to lunch on Venice Beach. We then headed off to the rehearsal for the deb ball for a "meet and greet" session with the debs and their families. After that, we all went out partying on the famous Sunset Strip.

Saturday was spent relaxing and setting up for the ball. The ball itself was great as usual, with the West Coast crowd in typical partying fashion. Once again, as in years past, the organizers were forced to extend the zabava because people were having such a good time and did not want to leave. Finally, on Sunday, we all relaxed a bit by the pool before leaving for the airport at around 6:00.

Now, onto the flights.... we have come to the conclusion that United is the worst airline to fly. Starting in Syracuse and ending in Syracuse, we had nothing but problems. The customer service in Syracuse was terrible, we are convinced that the seats on the plane are much closer together than on other airlines, and the airline makes stops in other cities without informing you of this on your ticket. On the way home from LA, Nick and Sean were supposed to travel to Chicago, then to Syracuse. However, upon boarding the plane, they found out that the flight was stopping in Phoenix before Chicago to drop off and pick up more passengers. On the way to Phoenix, a kid had a severe asthma attack on board and paramedics rushed on the flight as we landed in Phoenix. The plane from Chicago to Syracuse was the smallest plane we have ever been on. And the flight attendant had the heat on like 90 for the entire 2-hour flight. It was terrible. Oh, and Mike's keyboard was smashed sometime on the way home as well. It's all good because he was getting a new one anyway, but it's just the principle that United was at fault for it. Other than the flights, we had a great weekend and look forward to next year.

Join us in Cleveland on April 29 for the Kashtan Dance Group's 25th Anniversary zabava. It should be a great time! Have a great Lent season and a happy Easter!

~Vorony

The last couple of gigs have gone really well for Vorony. Starting last weekend in New Britain, CT, Vorony began their final stretch of gigs before the break for Lent.

New Britain was a great time, as always. Sadly, we learned that it is organizer Chris Iwanik's last year as main organizer. It has been a hell of a run with Chris in charge, and we appreciate all that he has done for us. We hope that somebody takes over the duties of putting on this malanka, because it would be a shame to let it die. As for the gig itself, we had another great show with Zolota Bulava. The stage was a bit cramped, but we managed just fine. The Montreal crowd that was there was nice and rowdy, and it made for a great time. Kolomeyka went on for about 35 minutes, with both ZB and Vorony alternating music. At one point, while ZB was playing their Kolomeyka, there were 8 musicians on stage - the 4 members of ZB plus Mike on keys, Sean on sax, Nick on 2nd guitar, and Orest from Montreal on 2nd accordion. When we started our Kolomeyka, Orest stayed on stage with us and Dubas joined him on accordion as well. If you weren't there, you missed a sick Kolomeyka!

We also played in Detroit (Troy to be exact) this past weekend for the Ukrainian Engineers Society's Deb Ball and WOW what a crowd! There was a nice mix of older folks and younger folks at the zabava, and they danced the entire night. Doesn't hurt that 3 out of the 5 members of Vorony are engineers too, so we were an instant hit! Unfortunately, the hotel made us shut down the zabava at a little after 12:30, but that didn't stop the crowd from having a good time. We put on some music while we were tearing down our gear, and the crowd continued to dance, even with the house lights on. When the hotel made us shut off the music, the group stayed in the hall and had an improv Spiv session in the middle of the dance floor (of course we joined in on the fun). Great group out in the midwest and we look forward to going back there for their malanka next year!

We are off this coming weekend, and then out to sunny Los Angeles for their deb ball on Feb. 25. If you are going to be there, stop up to the stage and say hi! Pics from New Britain and Detroit will be posted very soon both here and on our website, www.vorony.com. You will also be able to download audio from the Detroit show on our website!

Well, it was a hell of a weekend in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Vorony played for a sellout Malanka crowd of 1350. We had a great time and met a lot of great people. We have already been asked to play for the event again next year, so we'll see everyone again in 2007!

Vorony and Zolota Bulava alternated sets throughout the night and kept the large crowd entertained. A 45-minute Kolomeyka with a special guest accordionist, Orest from Montreal, kept the crowd wanting more. Vorony brought in the New Year with a rocking version of "Shout" and followed up with an Irish tune, "The Night Patty Murphy Died". Later in the night, Vorony kept the momentum flowing with a cover of the Barenaked Ladies tune, "Brian Wilson". Immediately after that, we brought the house down with The Killers' "Mr. Brightside." The entire dance floor remained packed while we slowed it down with U2's "One". Whether it was a polka, waltz, American tune, or tango, Vorony kept the crowd dancing.

Unfortunately, due to the set-up of the event, we were unable to record audio from the show. However, we have hundreds of pictures from the weekend that will be up on our website in the very near future. In the meantime, check out the CYM Toronto Malanka photo album here on our Multiply site.

See everyone in New Britain in a couple weeks!

Head over to www.vorony.com this week to download clips from our latest show... New Year's Eve in Syracuse, NY. We will also be posting pictures from the weekend soon.

It was a fun zabava with a fantastic turnout and a great way to start off our "Malanka Tour 2006." We played until almost 3:00 am with the dance floor still packed. Thanks to all who made New Year's weekend in Syracuse a tremendous success!

If you are a member of www.vorony.com, you will be able to download the full-length show... unedited and exactly the way it was played on New Year's Eve. Not a member? Join today... it's free!

Wishing everyone the best in 2006! We'll see you soon!

-Vorony

Nick and Sean from Vorony have recently completed a short, 5-song Ukrainian Christmas CD. Recording in a state-of-the-art studio built in Nick's basement, the CD consists of the following songs:

1. Dobryj Vechir Tobi
2. Try Tsary
3. Boh Sya Razhdaye
4. Vo Vyfleyemi
5. Nova Radist Stala

Nick played acoustic and electric guitar on the album, and was also behind the engineering console for the project. Sean sang the vocal parts and also played the bass and keyboards. Both Sean and Nick were responsible for production and mixing.

If you would like to hear your favorite Ukrainian Christmas songs played with a more modern flair, log onto www.vorony.com and listen to the clips. The CD is available for purchase for just $5, and will be available in both a digital download and CD format.