Animara and Ulyana Chyornaya: The Handpan World of Music and Emotion

Have you recently come across a video of a young woman playing the handpan under the name Animara? Wondering who’s behind that name? Who is she, really? And has she released albums or tracks featuring this percussion instrument?

I first discovered the Animara project in 2021 and was immediately curious about its origins and its mission. Before long, I found myself drawn to the values this project aims to share, so I dug deeper. Here’s everything I’ve been able to uncover about Animara, a project focused primarily on the hang drum, better known today as the handpan.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• What the Animara project actually is and who the key figures are
• Who Ulyana Chyornaya is, the female face most often associated with Animara
• The discography of this international musical project

As a result, you’ll discover what there is to know about Animara, which may help you decide whether you’d like to take part, directly or indirectly, in this collaboration of musicians and artists.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the Animara project together.

What is the handpan project known as Animara?

Upon researching Animara, you’ll discover that—contrary to first impressions—it isn’t a single musician but an artistic project uniting several individuals around the handpan. Founded by Russians Sergey Ardasenov and Alexander Trunov, the initiative was created with the goal of becoming a global structure built around this percussion instrument.

Animara is both a handpan school, an international network, an artistic showcase, and a music-production platform that brings multiple musicians together. That can feel counterintuitive because Animara first became widely known through social media, especially YouTube videos featuring the young musician Ulyana Chyornaya. As a result, even though she isn’t officially Animara’s spokesperson, many people associate her with the project and assume “Animara” is her stage name.

In its early days, the Animara project was just a blog and a small room in central Russia, with only three handpans shared among several students eager to learn how to play this sound instrument. No official, reliable sources give an exact start date, but the first steps can be traced back to late 2013. The two founders explain that they discovered the instrument and learned proper hand positioning techniques through their many trips to different countries around the world.

Animara’s first instruments were purchased abroad at a time when the handpan was still relatively rare, and you sometimes had to wait several years to get one. Today, the project has grown internationally, with a network of schools in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia; Minsk, Belarus; Cartagena, Spain; and Bali. The official website also states that more than 20,000 students have discovered and learned the handpan through Animara.

So who is Ulyana Chyornaya, the handpan (hang drum) player at the heart of the Animara project?

If the Animara project has put one artist and one face in the spotlight, it’s definitely Ulyana Chyornaya. She is the youngest member of the team behind this project and is, in fact, a professional violinist with perfect pitch. Based on the information available about her, she picked up the handpan at a remarkable speed, largely thanks to the strong musical foundation she developed through the violin.

Ulyana Chyornaya has shared dozens of videos on Animara’s YouTube channel, some surpassing one million views. They’re often short clips of her playing the handpan or longer videos centered on relaxation and calm. You can listen to one of her most well-known tracks in the video below:

What is the discography of the Animara project?

Animara has released several singles, such as “Anthem” and “Fragile.” It’s also worth mentioning the album Forest of Fireflies, released on March 8, 2022. It includes 6 tracks with a runtime of about 30 minutes and brings together several percussionists, including collaborative work with artists like Denis Cherny and Alexey Kravtov, highlighting the artistic openness at the core of Animara’s creative approach.

Compose beautiful melodies with an excellent handpan

Animara is a unique case in the world of the handpan. While many well-known names refer to a single performer, Animara represents a collective vision where multiple artists work hand in hand, even if Ulyana Chyornaya tends to stand out. Thanks to this article, you now know much more about this border-crossing project that has helped many players discover the handpan.

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Would you like to meet the youngest and most famous handpan player of all time? Her name is Sprites, a little girl who was just 9 years old when her talent made her famous online. She is sure to become one of the greatest handpan artists in the years to come.