"Godfather of Bandura" honored by Ukrainian colleagues (06/28/98)

"Godfather of Bandura" honored by Ukrainian colleagues

by Yarema A. Bachynsky and Roman Woronowycz

KYIV - The All-Ukrainian Union of Kobzars held a concert on May 28 at the Taras Shevchenko Museum honoring Nick Czorny, known to many as the "godfather of the bandura," on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

For many years Mr. Czorny has been one of the major forces behind the propagation of the bandura, Ukraine's national instrument, in the various places that fate scattered Ukrainians. Most diaspora communities have been touched by the hand of this individual - long-time administrative director and founder of the New York School of Bandura, which recently marked its 25th anniversary.

Whether it is transferring banduras by the dozens collected in North America to South American Ukrainian communities in a semi-covert fashion (Mr. Czorny enlisted participants of several tour groups as members of "bandura ensembles" in order to avoid undue interference from overinquistive customs officials), or fund-raising through frequent and persistent visits with Ukrainian credit unions and community organizations, Mr. Czorny has been quietly effective in promoting the bandura both within and outside Ukrainian circles.

To achieve the goal of establishing bandura schools and ensembles in places like Prudentopolis, Brazil, where the population is approzimately 80 percent of Ukrainian origin, and throughout Argentina, which has a large Ukrainian community, Mr. Czorny employed the services of Julian Kytasty, well-known bandura aficionado (and one of those who honored Mr. Czorny at the Shevchenko Museum concert), and other bandura experts. Mr. Kytasty and his associates spent months on end in the early 1980s teaching bandura lovers techniques and training skills. As a result, in such places as Buenos Aires and Missiones Province in Argentina, and Curitiba in Brazil, bandura music is alive, well and flourishing.

Mr. Czorny also is publisher of Bandura magazine - the only periodical dedicated exclusively to this instrument and the art of bandura playing around the world. Established in 1981, this quarterly journal has a print run of 1,200 - 700 of which are delivered to Ukraine, 150 to South America, and the remainder among other countries where the bandura is played and studied. Prior to the appearance of this magazine, the New York School of Bandura had published Kobzarskyi Lystok, a newsletter for the Ukrainian community.

Mr. Czorny was born in the northwestern Ukrainian region of Volyn. He is a veteran of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA); he fought the Germans in 1943 and eventually was forced to escape to the West. Following World War II, Mr. Czorny moved to New York City, where he has lived ever since.

Since Ukraine's declaration of independence in 1991, Mr. Czorny had made annual, six-week trips to the "Land of the Kobzars," actively supporting the numerous bandura organizations involved in restoring this instrument to its former glory. As in the United States, Mr. Czorny's activities in Ukraine are multi-faceted, and include shipping Bandura magazine to local bandura circles and assisting in every way possible.

An audience of approximately 100 gathered to recognize Mr. Czorny and his work. Some of Ukraine's leading bandurists representing both academic conservatory and traditional kobzar revival styles caught and kept the listeners' attention. Following an opening by Volodymyr Horbatiuk, head of the All-Ukrainian Union of Kobzars, those attending had a chance to listen to such leading soloists as Mykola Lytvyn, Yaroslav Chornohuz, Volodymyr Kushpet and duet performances by students from the Kyiv Conservatory, as well as the pair of Kyiv bandurist Kost Novytskyi and Ukrainian Canadian Oksana Rodol-Zatsenko.

Other performers included Julian Kytasty and Nick Deychakiwsky, former student of the renowned Hryhoriy Kytasty and presently director of the Eurasia Foundation office in Kyiv. Julian Kytasty, who flew in from the United States for the concert, has recently resumed directorship of The New York School of Bandura.

The musical component of the program was interspersed with narrative about Mr. Czorny's life and work. Such a melding of music and biography, together with the high energy level and feeling evident in every performer's presentation made for an interesting and fitting tribute to an individual who has devoted the better part of his life to ensuring in his words, "that the bandura, which is the most effective expression of the Ukrainian soul, be heard and understood by ever more people."