Concertgoers filled Carnegie Hall on a rainy Thursday in October 1922 for a 35-piece performance by the Ukrainian National Choir. It was the first stop on an American tour to promote Ukrainian culture ...

Dnipro, Ukraine — The cherished, century-old Ukrainian song that Americans know as “Carol of the Bells” was written for layers upon layers of voices to fill churches, concert halls and city squares.

It’s the repetition of those four notes that’s so insistent, that evokes tinsel and tinkling bells this time of year: Ding, dong, ding-dong Ding, dong, ding-dong But it’s the historic repetition of ...

Alla Dekhtyar plays piano and sings with her daughter, Natalia Aleksahina, left, and their friend Viktoriia Ametova. Dekhtyar used to direct a 30-person choir in Pokrovsk, which performed the ...

But it’s the historic repetition of that Ukrainian folk song over centuries - the one Americans know as “Carol of the Bells” that’s especially poignant and heartbreaking for a nation at war. “It’s ...