Ensemble Cherubim & Marika Kuzma
Biographie Ensemble Cherubim & Marika Kuzma
Ensemble Cherubim
is a chamber choir of artists from across the United States with a deep interest in Ukrainian is a chamber choir of professional artists from many ethnicities and backgrounds—all with experience in international choral music and all with a deep interest in Ukrainian culture. The Ensemble creates events that interweave Ukrainian music, poetry, movement, and visual art to create an immersive experience. It has been invited to perform at the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition of Early Music, the New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas, and at prestigious venues on both the East and West Coasts. The aim of the Ensemble is to bridge Ukrainian and American cultures, introducing its audiences to treasures that have been hidden from them for too long!
The ensemble was founded in San Francisco to create a recording for the Naxos label: Dmitry Bortniansky, I Cried Out to the Lord: Hymns and Choral Concertos. The CD, based on director Marika Kuzma’s careful research, is a dynamic reimagining of Bortniansky’s music and received a Grammy Award recommendation. In 2021, amid growing geopolitical tensions at the Ukrainian border and still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ensemble gathered to perform “An Anglo-Ukrainian Christmas” in New Haven, CT, and at the Ukrainian-American Institute in New York City. That program communicated the commonality of Christmas themes across the Ukrainian, American, and British cultures. It included poetry recitation and storytelling by the Ukrainian-American artist Vira Slywotzky and the acclaimed British film director Jonathan Lynn.
In 2022, Ensemble Cherubim performed the concert “Echoes from Ukraine” as part of the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition. That event included early chant to contemporary compositions and poetry by Ukraine’s most famous poets. The singers were joined by actors L. Peter Callender, Joy Carlin, and Patrick Russell. In 2023, the New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas invited the ensemble to perform a headline event, “Sacred Land: Songs and Poems of Resilience from Ukraine.” They repeated the program at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, DC, sponsored by The Washington Group, United Help Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Embassy.
In 2025, the ensemble was invited to offer a concert at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley as part of the Cal Performances prestigious concert series. The concert included our singers, the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, actors L. Peter Callender and Patrick Russell, violinists Karen Bentley Pollick and Cookie Segelstein, and the beloved Grammy-winning mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade. It offered a second concert with just Ensemble Cherubim in Los Angeles at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral. The programs received immediate standing ovations and left indelible impressions of the Ukraine’s rich, varied choral music.
We are currently scheduling concerts of Ukrainian carols for January 2027 on the East Coast, a reprise of our triumphant concerts last December. Ukraine has so many choral works that are unknown outside its borders—among them thousands of carols. These concerts and our new album of Ukrainian carols (a companion to Marika Kuzma’s groundbreaking book) are revelatory, heartwarming, and inspiring.
Many of the Ensemble Cherubim singers are alumni of the University of California, Berkeley, and sang in its prestigious Chamber Chorus. Many are choral artists and soloists with leading ensembles on the East and West coasts. They are often joined by prominent actors from the communities where they perform. Ensemble Cherubim’s singers and actors gather from far and wide to perform this exciting, unique material together. Their concerts have captivated and inspired diverse audiences across America.
Marika Kuzma
Music and creative director Marika Kuzma has enjoyed a multifaceted career of international scope as a performing artist and music historian. Her concerts, publications, and recordings have gained the respect of musicians, scholars, and critics around the world. Her work with Ensemble Cherubim is informed by her Ukrainian heritage and her deep research into Ukrainian culture.
As a conductor, she has led choirs and orchestras in repertoire from medieval chant to the Bach B minor Mass to the Verdi Requiem to premieres of works by Toru Takemitsu, Trevor Weston, and others. She has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Grace Cathedral, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv; St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna; and Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA. Dr. Kuzma taught at the University of California for decades, where she conducted several choirs, including its acclaimed Chamber Chorus, and as a guest professor at Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia. Concert reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Classical Voice, Opera News, Washington Post, and other media attest to her virtuosic work.
As a chorus master, she has collaborated with luminary artists such as Gustavo Dudamel with the Simón Bolivar Orchestra, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Nicholas McGegan with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Kent Nagano with the Montreal Symphony, and the Paul Winter Consort. In 2024, she prepared choirs for Keri-Lynn Wilson for a Kyiv Camerata concert at Carnegie Hall and for concerts of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Her unique voice as a musician stems from her background as both an orchestral and choral conductor, her experience as a singer and violinist, her linguistic fluency in several languages,and her work as an actor on stage and in film. She has acted at theaters including Berkeley Repertory Theater, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and the Marin Shakespeare Company, and in short as well as feature-length films.
Marika Kuzma was born in the United States into a Ukrainian family and a close-knit diaspora community. Ukrainian was her first language. She began her exploration of choral singing as a child with her family and pursued music studies across America and Europe: Indiana University, Aspen Music Festival, and the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Given the urgency of the moment in Ukraine, she is now devoting her talents and energies to raising awareness of this country and its culture under siege.
As a scholar, she recently published a groundbreaking book: Carols of Birds, Bells, and Sacred Hymns from Ukraine: An Anthology and Cultural Companion (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024). The book has earned acclaim from political historians, ethnographers, and choral musicians, and it can be purchased through Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Her previous research and critical edition of Dmytro (Dmytry) Bortniansky’s choral concertos are available through Carus International.
In her concerts with Ensemble Cherubim, Marika creates memorable experiences for her fellow artists and audiences alike. Read more about her past concerts, recordings, and publications on her website.
Maestra Kuzma “… leaves no syllable unarticulated and no musical marvel unexplored.” San Francisco Examiner
