Toronto-based Nastasia Y carries on a family tradition of song and rebellion, at Mission Folk Music Festival
The Ukrainian-born performer distills influences from Slavic folk to jazz and R&B into her music, as heard on her solo debut, Kyiv Soul
Nastasia Y
Nastasia Y performs as part of the Mission Folk Music Festival, which takes place at Fraser River Heritage Park from July 24 to 26
NASTASIA YEROFEYEVA comes by her love of music honestly. The Toronto-based singer, songwriter, and keyboardist, who records and performs under the name Nastasia Y, has lived in Canada since the age of 11, but she was born in Kyiv, Ukraine.
“Growing up, music was a really, really big part of life,” Yerofeyeva says. “Music, in particular folk music, is really different in the way it’s experienced there. It’s a more communal style of living, in a way. For example, any birthday, any celebration, any get-together, there would always be music and singing. It would almost be weird to not sing, to maybe listen to recorded music and not sing. Or at least in my family, the way I grew up, because my dad was a singer, and he was in a band.”
Kost’ Yerofeyev was indeed in a musical group, called Ruthenia, and his activities suggest that he didn’t just pass down an appreciation for Ukrainian folks songs to his daughter, but a bit of rebel spirit as well. Bear in mind that, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine was under Soviet control, which meant that traditional folk music, while still permitted, was heavily censored. Musicians who performed songs that carried even the merest whiff of Ukrainian nationalism were arrested and could even face execution.
“They were part of a freedom movement, I would say, in the ’80s, early ’90s, right during the fall of the USSR,” Yerofeyeva says of her father and his Ruthenia bandmates. “Just the fact that they were singing all their songs, and writing all of their songs, in Ukrainian—that alone was kind of an act of resistance. It definitely had a huge impact on me, growing up.”
Nor was Kost’ the only rebel in the family. Yerofeyeva tells Stir that her mother attended the first edition of the music festival Chervona Ruta, held in Chernivtsi in 1989. “The rule was no Ukrainian flags,” she says. Many young women tried to skirt the rules—literally—by dressing in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, wearing yellow tops and blue skirts. Such brazen scofflaws were detained by the local police, but Yerofeyeva’s mother was a little more covert.
“My mom was going to the festival, and she had a flag under her belly—she was pregnant with me—and the police were like, ‘We think you have something there.’ And she said, ‘What are you talking about? I’m pregnant! Don’t touch a pregnant lady!’ She got let through, and so did a bunch of other people. Eventually, when the concert was happening, they all pulled out their flags.”
Fast-forward to 2022. Having earned a bachelor’s degree in contemporary jazz piano at Humber College and an ARCT designation in classical piano from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Yerofeyeva was by then firmly established in a career as a professional musician, both as a founder of the popular wedding/dance band StereoFlavour and as an explorer of everything from jazzy chamber-pop to edge-of-night trip-hop with DoVira.
Yerofeyeva was working on what would become the first Nastasia Y album when, in February of that year, Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “When that happened, I would say it was absolutely life-changing,” she recalls. “I was already halfway, maybe, through the album, but I couldn’t not make it, really, about what’s going on. I became more vocal about Ukraine and what’s happening and trying to untangle that, perhaps, for other people.”
Finishing the album, however, would have to wait.
“At first I actually couldn’t make music at all, which is something that would make me the happiest, usually,” Yerofeyeva says. “I would say for about a year I couldn’t really do what I used to do in the same way. First, I went to volunteer in Poland, and then I did go to Ukraine as well, because my grandpa is quite old, and he is basically the last one left on my dad’s side. So I went to connect with him and spend time with him.”
Her grandfather’s house had taken damage from Russian tanks. Despite the devastation, however, Yerofeyeva found herself reassured by the sheer resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of Putin’s aggression.
“It was when I was finally there, when I looked around and I felt this sense of ease that, even with everything that’s happening, they can’t take my home away from me no matter what happens,” she said, noting that this relit her fire, creatively speaking. “I got this feeling: ‘Okay, what am I doing? Because my talent is music. I need to go back home, finish this album, and make a small difference—whatever difference I can make—but with music, with what I can actually do.’ So that’s when I went back and finished it.”
The resulting album, 2024’s Kyiv Soul, distills a broad swath of influences, from Slavic folk to jazz and R&B, into an ever-shifting sonic stew that draws on the talents of many in the Toronto scene. Contributors include Grammy-winning producer Justin Gray, drummer Marito Marques, flutist Anh Phung, and guitarist KC Roberts.
Nastasia Y’s current live configuration, however, strips away a lot of those layers.
“It has really scaled down,” Yerofeyeva reveals. “I don’t know if simplified is the word, but it’s now a trio. So it’s myself on keyboards and vocals, and then Andrew [McAnsh], my partner; he’s not just one of Canada’s best trumpet players, he is also a drummer. Funny enough, he’s doing both, sometimes at the same time. And then there’s a bass player—a newcomer from Ukraine, actually—called Igor Biliaiev.
“It is a trio for touring, and we have been working really hard, actually, for the past couple of months, to take all this music, which was originally written for a five- or six-piece band, and to keep the energy in a trio,” Yerofeyeva continues. “And I think it’s working quite well. It does give more space for emotion as well, so I’m excited to tour with this group.” 
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