Singing Stories

Stories have always provided joy and comfort. Throughout our childhood, stories enhance the world around us and give us answers to many curious questions. Each of us grew up with them and they form an inseparable part of our human being. Wherever we go in life, the stories of our childhood live on within us. Motivated by the difficult situation caused by the war in Ukraine, in which children were left without their stories for joy and comfort, we launched the humanitarian artistic project Singing Stories, in which we tell the stories that marked many Ukrainian childhoods through the universal language of music, while simultaneously bringing together our two languages ​​and their cultural traditions. The stories are based on musical adaptations of Ukrainian children’s literature texts narrated in the language of contemporary music. Completed with reading texts from the original and a translation into Croatian, the stories have been shaped into an audio book format published by the Music Biennale Zagreb and the book&zvook audio book library.

The stories were shaped musically by Ivana Kiš, a composer particularly sensitive to the theatrical – visual, tangible and synesthetic – principle of expression, then Ivanka Mazurkijević and Damir Martinović Mrle, composers and performers who do not shy away from innovative, alternative and popular music styles and means, and Maja Rivić, composer and a performer with a velvety voice, a distinctive vocal technique and a distinctly child-like, sincere sensibility for merging art and human life, inclined to experiment with breath, voice setting, intonation and registers in relation to body movement.

The original texts in Ukrainian are read by: Iryina Pronenko, Lyudmyla Mudryk and Valeriia Movenko.

Texts in Croatian are read by: Maja Katić, Dunja Fajdić and Amanda Prenkaj. The texts were translated by: Ana Dugandžić, Dariya Pavlešen and Domagoj Kliček.

Support this valuable project with your donation. As a sign of gratitude, we will give you an audio book of Singing Stories, which you can listen to in the book&zvook mobile application.

All revenues collected through the Solidarna Foundation will be given to refugee children from Ukraine who are currently in Croatia for the needs of their artistic education and learning the Croatian language.

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After the donation, you will receive a voucher with a code by e-mail, with which you can download the audio book in three simple steps:

• Download the book&zvook application
• Register with an e-mail address
• Enter the code in the designated place -> Settings / Use the code to download the book

Thank you for the donation! Enjoy listening to Singing Stories.