Alexis Kochan

Alexis Kochan
Alexis Kochan performing with Paris to Kyiv, Winnipeg. Photo by Craig Koshyk
Background information
Born	Canada
Origin	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Genres	Folk music
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, piano, accordion, banjo
Associated acts	Paris to Kyiv.
Website	www.paristokyiv.com

Alexis Kochan (Ukrainian: ) is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer and singer. She was born in 1953 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Ukrainian immigrants.

Singer Alexis Kochan was born in 1953 and raised in Winnipeg's North End. She earned a master's degree in psychology from the University of Manitoba in 1977 while studying music and beginning a multi-faceted career as singer, teacher, producer, and recording artist. In 1978-1979 she lived in Kiev, Ukraine where she studied with the Veriovka Folk Ensemble and composer/conductor Anatoly Avdievsky. While in Ukraine she began to collect old Ukrainian folk songs that she was hearing for the first time.

Ms. Kochan's interest in giving new life to these archaic fragments led directly to her first recording, 'Czarivna' (The Princess), an album of songs connected with ancient seasonal rituals, produced in 1982 with Arthur Polson and the principal players of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In 1992 she formed Paris To Kyiv, a musical project with a rotating collection of musical collaborators. These include bandurist Julian Kytasty and jazz violist Richard Moody who have formed the core of Paris To Kyiv for the last ten years as well as many others such as Ukrainian saxophonist Sasha Boychouk, Persian master percussionist Pejman Hadadi, John Wyre of Nexus (percussion ensemble), Celtic multi-instrumentalist Martin Colledge and Serbian bassist Nenad Zdjelar. Since 1994, Kochan has released four Paris To Kyiv titles: Paris To Kiev (1994), Variances (1996), Prairie Nights and Peacock Feathers (2000), and Fragmenti (2005).

Alexis Kochan also co-directed (with Michael Alpert and Alan Bern of Brave Old World) and performed in 'Night Songs from a Neighbouring Village', a program exploring the commonalities and contrasts between Ukrainian music and the musical traditions of the Jews of Ukraine. 'Night Songs' was created for the Jewish Museum (New York) in 1994. Other performances have included Ashkenaz in Toronto (1995), Tage Der Jiddischen Kultur in Berlin (1996), the World Music Institute at Symphony Space in New York City (1999) and Yiddishkayt at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, California (2000).