page_title: Kuban bandurists
section_title: The Bandura in the 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Kuban bandurists / The Bandura in the 20th century
context_page_description: A Kuban bandurists is a person who plays the Ukrainian plucked string instrument known as the bandura, who is from Kuban, a geographic region of southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River.
  The tradition of the kobzar in Kuban migrated from central Ukraine. According to the historian and archivist Ivan Kyiashko the Kuban Cossacks played on the kobza, violin, jaw harp, hurdy-gurdy, basses, tsymbaly, and sopilka.
  The Cossacks were especially respectful to itinerant blind singers who played the bandura or kobza. To them, the blind kobzar was a living reminder of their past. In previous eras they themselves were veterans of past battles and campaigns. Their repertoire retold the stories of past battles in the many epic ballads known as dumy.
context_section_description: In May 1913 Hnat Khotkevych toured the Kuban with concerts performances. He was invited by Mykola Bohuslavsky to return to Yekaterinodar to run a summer bandura school. Khotkevych declined the invitation, however he suggested a young and promising University Student from Kharkiv - Vasyl Yemetz. That summer, the first summer kobzar school was organized in Yekaterinodar. Among his students were Antin Chorny, Oleksiy Obabko who continued running the kobzar school after 1916. The next generation included the bandurists Sava and Fedir Dibrova, Vasil Lyashenko, Dokia Darnopykh, Petro Buhay, and the son of the otaman of the Okhtiskaya stanitsa Mykhailo Teliha (who was shot by the Nazis in 1942 in Kiev in Babiy Yar), composer of the renowned Cossack March.
caption: Bandura maker Antin Chorny.
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