Inextinguishable Spirit

Musicians have called their concert “Inextinguishable Spirit.” The event will feature the National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments of Ukraine conducted by Viktor Hutsalo. The program will include works by classical composers Mykola Lysenko and Mykhailo Kalachevsky as well as prominent composers of our time Yevhen Stankovych, Myroslav Skoryk, Levko Kolodub, Ihor Shamo and Yurii Shevchenko, while solo parties will be performed by Vasyl Nechepa, a well-known singer and kobza player, and folk singer Ruslana Lotsman.

Nechepa is a unique singer-musician, the only living representative of the ancient (but remade by him) Chernihiv kobza playing school, which Hnat Khotkevych, a recognized authority on the history of kobza, considered the oldest in Ukraine. Critics see Nechepa as the continuator of Parkhomenko and Hreben’s creative tradition. In addition to wonderful performing of folk songs, the kobza and lyre player has an impressive repertoire.

“Kobza playing is not archaic today! Certainly, we do maintain the tradition, but we sing not only about the past, but about the present, too,” Nechepa stressed. “Little-known ballades, legends, epics and tales of Chernihiv land, which I include in my programs, are full of reflections on the timeless, relevant and current topics: good and evil, righteousness and wickedness, faith and betrayal...”

As part of the “We Bow to You, Taras” project, kobzar has prepared a new program for the 200th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko’s birth, which he first presented to his fellow countrymen, and is going to get foreign audiences acquainted with Ukrainian song.