Julia Úlehla:
Understories
Thursday, July 3, 2025, 8:15 pm, Festival Boat
Julia Úlehla: vocals
Aram Bajakian: guitar
Josh Zubot: violin
Peggy Lee: cello
Úlehla continues to research the Moravian-Slovak singing tradition of her family as a kind of auto-ethnography. Her musical project Dálava, a continuation of Slovácko’s singing traditions - but also an independent development - grew out of her engagement with the ‘living songs’ researched by her great-grandfather. The result of this emotional and musical process will be released in April 2025 under the name ‘Understories’ as an album on the New York label Pi Recordings - and forms the basis for Úlava’s performance.
Julia Úlehla sees the ensemble’s new compositions as a renewal, a new life, a new phase in her creative journey. It’s no longer about mere reproduction, but about letting go and following the direction that emerges from the music itself. “It feels like a step away from the rationality of academia and research, towards a kind of wisdom that comes from intuition. Perhaps something that feels more feminine,” Úlehla explains. Her identities as an artist, mother, descendant of a long line of traditional singers, and scholar all influence each other – and this dissolution of arbitrary boundaries is one of the driving forces behind the new freedom in her work.