Ukrainians Lesya and Halya Telnyuk began composing at the age of 13. They created rock ballads, elegies, and songs for choral performances based on the verses of classic Ukrainian poets. They began their first serious attempt at arranging their own songs with composer Alexander Melnyk. They then began their professional music career in the year 1986.
Career timeline
In 1987, one year after their debut, the sisters became the laureates of the national competition "New Names". They won multiple awards at the first and second "Chervona Ruta" festivals in 1989 and 1991 with songs based on the verse of Pavlo Tychyna. In the early 1990s, the sisters released the albums "Moment" and "Lesya and Halya," in collaboration with composer Andryj Shust. They then adopted a new sound in collaboration with pianist and composer Ivan Davydenko and later with Eugene Bortnychuk, Oleg Putyatin, and Igor Sereda, leading to the album "Silence and Thunder." In 1997, the Sisters, along with ex-Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, recorded the track "My Futile Love". On the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Ukrainian poetVasyl Stus, the programme "Swinging evening broken even..." was created. It was a series of unique performances by Raisa Nedashkivska in cooperation with the son of the poet Dmytro Stus and actress Halyna Stefanova, as well as composer Sergyi Moroz. The programme "On the Edge", which was dedicated in memory of the poet, was seen and heard by Canadian students. In 1998, the group was awarded the Vasyl Stus Prize for the preservation and promotion of Ukrainian culture. In the early 2000s, the Telnyuks began to dabble in the theatre when the controversial play UBN was staged in Lviv Drama Zankovetska Theatre, led by Fyodor Nikolayevich Strigun and directed by Myroslav Hrynyshyn. Halyna Telnyuk was credited with screenwriting while the composer of the music was Lesya Telnyuk. UBN has become a cultural and political phenomenon, and the original version is played at Lutsk Drama Theater. For many years, the Sisters worked with Nina Morozevich, a teacher in Bandura at Odessa State Conservatory and leader of trio Mallows at Odessa State Philharmonic. Together they collaborated on several tracks. In Canada, the Telnyuk Sisters became acquainted with the artist Igor Polishchuk and within a few years, they released "Above Us The Sky", a fusion of music, poetry, and painting. This multimedia show also consisted of pictures, songs, and videos that played in ten cities in North America. During their tour, the duo was known to be breaking the language barrier due to their music's beauty and power. The duo participated in many joint projects such as Ukrainian Lullabies, Kruty: Concert for the Angels, Festival in Montreal. Live Voice of Vasyl Stus, and Kobzar. The sisters worked with Dmitro Stus and Roman Semysal on 2008 project Stusove Circle, about Vasyl Stus. Then in December of the same year, they performed on the Komu Vnyzconcert tour. The program "Wind of Centuries" was seen and heard in: Odesa, Kherson, Krivyj Rig, Kirovograd, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk. In 2009, the Sisters participated in Antonych Fest, the centenary celebration of the birth of B.-I. Antonych held by artists and youth organisations. In addition to performances on the concert stage festival on October 7, they presented a CD titled Forever: Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, with 5 interpretative songs on Antonych's poetry, and Ukrainian and French language tracks written with bands Dead Rooster, AbыMS and Olexandr Melnyk. In 2010, their film Telnyuk: Rehearsal premiered. It consisted of rehearsal recordings and was the first in Ukraine by director Alexander Antennae in the concert program of the Sisters' Yellow Dandelion. The sisters also released their album "SONMO". In the spring they toured several cities around Ukraine, concluding with a concert at the Kyiv Operetta which was attended by President Viktor Yushchenko. The Sisters have also created a number of sketches of songs based on poems by Oksana Zabuzhko.
