OBITUARY: Mykola Dosinchuk-Czorny, tireless promoter of bandura (07/11/99)

OBITUARY

Mykola Dosinchuk-Czorny, tireless promoter of bandura

by Petro Matiaszek

NEW YORK - Following a brief illness and with his family at his side, renowned bandura promoter Mykola (Nick) Dosinchuk-Czorny passed away at a hospital here at noon on Saturday, July 3. He was 81 years old.

The son of a Ukrainian Orthodox priest, Mykola Dosinchuk-Czorny was born on April 20, 1918, in the village of Kurash, Sarny county in the marshy region of northern Ukraine commonly known as Volynske-Polissia.

In the late 1930s, Mr. Dosinchuk-Czorny left the Orthodox seminary in Kremianets and relocated to Lviv to join the Ukrainian national political revival under way there. Like many of his peers, Mr. Dosinchuk-Czorny saw an opportunity in the tremendous political instability and uncertainty of the time and worked zealously toward the re-creation of a Ukrainian national state. Forced to flee western Ukraine at the close of World War II, Mr. Dosinchuk-Czorny arrived in the United States in 1949.

Mr. Dosinchuk-Czorny devoted his entire life in the United States to Ukraine and its subtle voice - its unique national instrument, the bandura. He recognized the bandura as something uniquely Ukrainian, something no other nation or ethnic group possessed. For Mr. Dosinchuk-Czorny, the bandura was a veritable ambassador of his country's separate identity at a time when the world knew little or nothing about Ukraine. He believed that if the world could hear Ukraine's voice, people would know that it was still alive and yearning to be free.

Though he never played the bandura, he established the New York School of Bandura in 1973 to provide a permanent learning center of bandura music for countless young Ukrainian Americans. He also founded and served as the editor-in-chief of the world's first and only bilingual periodical dedicated to the instrument, Bandura Magazine.

In the late 1980s Mr. Dosinchuk-Czorny traveled to Ukrainian communities across South America, delivering almost 300 donated banduras to young bandurists there.

Through his countless articles and interviews, he helped bandurists around the world recognize that they were part of a greater community and a greater cause. In recent years, following the restoration of Ukraine's independence, Mr. Dosinchuk-Czorny traveled every summer to his homeland to seek out young talented bandurists, providing them material assistance and help in promoting their work.

Mr. Dosinchuk-Czorny is survived by his wife of 46 years, Stefania; daughters, Irene Andreadis and Lydia Matiaszek; sons, Ostap and Oleh Wengerchuk; granddaughter, Andrea Wengerchuk; and family in Canada, the United States and Ukraine.

A memorial panakhyda was held on July 6 at the Peter Jarema Funeral Home in New York City. The funeral was held on July 7 at St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church, in New York followed by burial at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church Cemetery in South Bound Brook, N.J.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Bandura Magazine, 84-82 164th St., Jamaica, N.Y. 11432.

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