Wed 7/6 @ 7:30PM
Standing Rock Cultural Arts in Kent has presented musicians from various countries and cultures as part of its “Around the World” music series. This week it’s joined hands with the Kent United Church of Christ to present a solo concert by Ukrainian American musician Jurij Fedynskyj, part of his extensive summer 2022 tour.
Fedynskyj will present a program called “The Kobzar’s Prayer for Ukraine,” accompanying his vocals with three traditional Ukrainian folk instruments: the 25-stringed bandura (known as Ukraine’s national instrument), the 19-stringed kobza, and the 34-stringed torban. He made all of the in his workshop in Poltava, Ukraine.
The evening features a prayer service comprising traditional Ukrainian sacred kants and psalms, dumy (historical epic poems), and folkloric songs. Fedynskyj will also talk about the war in Ukraine today in the context of its history and the words of revered Ukrainian poets, statesmen, and kobzars (blind bards who once served as repositories and transmitters of historical and moral knowledge); and demonstrate what role a traditional kobzar might assume today.
Fedynskyj was born in North Carolina after his parents fled Ukraine during the Soviet years. At age 23, with the USSR dissolved, he moved to Kyiv to immerse himself in traditional Ukrainian folklore and music. He re-settled in the Poltava region, where he is a performer, instrument maker, educator, festival director and founder of the Poltava Kobsar Guild, because it was a historical center of kobsar activity. Since the Russian invasion, he & a small group of other musicians have been travelling to perform for soldiers and residents of some of the hardest-hit areas of Ukraine.
Prior to the 7:30pm concert there’ll be a meet-and-greet with light refreshments at 7pm. The concert is free with donations going to the Poltava Kobzar Guild in Ukraine, and their efforts to revive the kobzar tradition in Ukraine and abroad, and defend Ukraine.
More info here.