The Kiev Bandurist Capella is a male vocal-instrumental ensemble that accompanies its singing with the playing of the multi-stringed Ukrainian folk instrument known as the bandura

Bandura

Bandura refers to a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of a box zither and lute, as well as its lute-like predecessor, the kobza...

.

The group was initially known as the Kobzar Choir and was established in August 1918 under the direction of the renowned bandurist

Bandurist

A bandurist is a person who plays the Ukrainian plucked string instrument known as the bandura.-Types of performers:There are a number of different types of bandurist who differ in their paricular choice of instrument, the specific repertoire they play and manner in which they approach their...

 virtuoso Vasyl Yemetz

Vasyl Yemetz

Vasyl' Kostovych Yemetz was born in the village of Sharivka, 40 km from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Son of Kost' and Yevdokia . Married to Maria Horta-Doroshenko...

. Despite an intermittent periods of non-activity, the group continues to actively perform to this day.

Preamble

The idea of organizing a bandura ensemble came to V. Yemetz after seeing a performance by four kobzar

Kobzar

A Kobzar was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment.-Tradition:Kobzars were often blind, and became predominantly so by the 1800s...

s in Okhtyrka

Okhtyrka

Okhtyrka is a city in Ukraine, a raion centre within Sumy Oblast. It is situated near the Vorskla River, on an eleven-mile spur of the Kiev–Kharkiv railway line. It is home to Akhtyrka air base...

: Ivan Kuchuhura Kucherenko

Ivan Kuchuhura Kucherenko

Ivan Iovych Kuchuhura-Kucherenko Ivan Iovych Kuchuhura-Kucherenko Ivan Iovych Kuchuhura-Kucherenko (July 7, 1878—November 24, 1937 was a Ukrainian minstrel (kobzar) and one of the most influential kobzars of the early 20th century...

, Pavlo Hashchenko

Pavlo Hashchenko

Pavlo Ivanovych Hashchenko was a Ukrainian kobzar and bandura player.Hashchenko was originally from Poltava province but lived most of his life in the village of Konstantynivka, Bohodukhiv county, Kharkiv province....

, Petro Drevchenko

Petro Drevchenko

Petro Semenovych Drevchenko was also known by the surname of Drevkin and Drygavka.-Biography:Drevchenko was born in 1863 in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire to a family of servants. From the age of 12 he lived in Kharkiv, in the area of Zalutin. At the age of 13 he came down with...

 and Oleksander Hamaliya on 20 August 1911. In some of the pieces, the kobzars were joined by the lira

Lira (instrument)

The lira, or relia, is a variant of the hurdy-gurdy, an instrument which can trace its history back to the 10th century. Regarding the origins of the lira in the region there are two schools of thought:...

 player Sampson Vesely. This performance seemed to have been the catalyst for the formation of the first Kobzar Choir.

Initially, Yemetz tried to organize a Bandurist Capella in Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

 from his students in 1913. His next attempt was with his students in the historic Kuban

Kuban

Kuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, Volga Delta and the Caucasus...

 region in 1913-1914 in Yekaterinodar, but none of these attempts were fully successful. This could have been possibly due to the youth and inexperience of Yemetz himself. In 1914, Yemetz travelled to Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 where he had the chance to see the bandura ensemble that was organized by Vasyl Shevchenko

Vasyl Shevchenko

Vasyl' Kuzmych Shevchenko - was one of the most active Ukrainian bandurists and torbanists at the turn of the 19-20th century.-Biography:There is not very much detailed information about him. We do know that he was a high school teacher in Moscow teaching singing, having also worked as a stagehand...

. He was also aware of the student bandura ensemble organized by Mykhailo Domontovych in Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 in 1905.

Organization

In April 1917, Yemetz first visited Kiev travelling there as a delegate to the First Ukrainian Congress. After a brief return to Kharkiv, he settled in Kiev. In May 1918, he placed advertisements in the Kievan newspapers Vidrodzhennia, Robitnycha hazeta and Narodna volia asking for interested persons to approach him with the intent of organizing a kobzar ensemble.

A number of bandurists answered these advertisements and they had their initial gathering in June of that year. Altogether 18 people came to the first meeting. Each had varied playing levels, musical knowledge, and technical proficiency. Each played different styles of bandura made by various makers. The Chernihiv

Chernihiv

Chernihiv or Chernigov is a historic city in northern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chernihiv Oblast , as well as of the surrounding Chernihivskyi Raion within the oblast...

-style was chosen over the Kharkiv-style by Yemetz as being easier for every one to initially master. A standard tuning had to be chosen which initially also proved problematic. Some of those initially interested dropped out because they could not read music and thought that playing from music was not traditional.

The group was initially known as the Kobzar Choir (Kobzarsky khor) and later Kobzar Capella (Kapela Kobzariv). Yemetz states that the word bandurist was not used at all at that time.

First performance

After a few months of rehearsing, the ensemble was ready for their concert début. This also proved problematic because none of the bandurists had the money to pay the rent required for a concert hall in Kiev. This obstacle was overcome by the direct intervention of Hetman

Hetman

Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....

 Pavlo Skoropadsky

Pavlo Skoropadsky

Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi 3 May 1873, Wiesbaden, Germany – 26 April 1945, Metten monastery clinic, Bavaria, Germany) was a Ukrainian politician, earlier an aristocrat and decorated Imperial Russian Army general...

. Before their first independent concert, they had a chance of performing as a group at the Hetman's Palace. After hearing them perform, Hetman Skoropadsky was so moved that he made sure that the rental fee was paid for the use of the second largest hall in Kiev after the Opera Hall

Kiev Opera

The Kiev Opera group was formally established in the summer of 1867, and is the third oldest in Ukraine, after Odessa Opera and Lviv Opera. Today, the Kiev Opera Company performs at the National Opera House of Ukraine named after Taras Shevchenko in Kiev....

 - the Bergonie Theatre (now known as the Lesya Ukrainka

Lesya Ukrainka

Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka better known under her literary pseudonym Lesya Ukrainka , was one of Ukraine's best-known poets and writers and the foremost woman writer in Ukrainian literature. She also was a political, civil, and female activist....

 Theatre). The première concert of the Kiev Kobzar Choir took place on 3 November 1918.

The program given by Yemetz for the first concert included the following pieces:

1. Kozatskiy pokhid (Hey nu khloptsi do zbroyi) arrangement V. Yemetz - (Instrumental)
2. Pro Morozenka (solo)
3. Ta lita orel - arrangement V. Yemetz
4. Duma - Pro smert' kozaka bandurysta (solo)
5. Hey na hori ta zhentsi zhnut' - arrangement V. Yemetz
6. My hajdamaky
7. Ya siohodni shchos' duzhe sumuyu (solo)
8. Vyklyk - Arrangement V. Yemetz - Instrumental
9. Hopak (by M. Kropovnytsky) - Instrumental
10. Tarasova nich (solo) - V. Yemetz
11. Oy shchozh to za shum - uchynyvsia - arrangement V. Yemetz
12. Kyselyk (solo)
13. Ta vzhe rokiv dvisti
14. Hey ne dyvuyte dobriyi liudy
15. Oy za hayem, hayem
16. Horlytsia - Instrumental
17. Hrechanyky

"Kozatskiy Pokhid (Hey nu khloptsi do zbroyi)" and "Vyklyk" are still played by many bandurists in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 although the pieces are often ascribed to bandurist Mykhailo Teliha

Mykhailo Teliha

Mykhailo Pavlovych Teliha Mykhailo Teliha was an active Ukrainian community leader and distinguished musician. He was born in the Akhtyrka Stanitsa in the Kuban. It is here that he first became interested in playing the bandura in 1913...

, a Kuban Cossack and a member of this initial Kobzar Choir. Teliha was also a student of Vasyl Yemetz. These works were recorded by Teliha by a Polish record company "Syrena Elektro" and were published in a collection of bandura works in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 in 1926.

The concert was a resounding success. The music section of the Directive of Culture and Art of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine commissioned a project to fund the chorus, open a bandura school, a hostel

Hostel

Hostels provide budget oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available...

 for blind kobzars, a workshop for the manufacture of banduras, and the formation of a kobzar museum.

Other concerts followed in the Shuliavka neighbourhood and in what is now known as the Kiev Philarmony on European Square of Khreschatyk

Khreschatyk

Khreshchatyk is the main street of Kiev, Ukraine. The street has a length of 1.2 km. It stretches from the European Square through the Maidan and to Bessarabska Square where the Besarabsky Market is located....

. Yemetz was also invited to teach bandura at the Ukrainian Music Institute in Kiev which later became the Kiev Conservatory

Kiev Conservatory

The Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music is a Ukrainian state institution of higher music education. Its courses include postgraduate education.-History:...

. Numerous performances followed for the members in the Ukrainian Army.

Their final performance took place at a concert dedicated to the memory of Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...

 in Kiev in 1919. After this, the political situation in Kiev changed dramatically and the group disbanded. Yemetz travelled to Prague where he established a bandura school and a second bandurist chorus in 1923 which initially received excellent reviews in the Soviet Ukrainian music magazines in 1925.

Membership

Yemetz states that the Kobzar Choir initially had 7 only members:

• V. Yemetz (director), moved to Prague, then the United States.
• Hryhoriy Kopan (1887—1938), a student of V. Potapenko; arrested and shot in 1938.
• Khvedir Dibrova, Kuban Cossack; shot in 1919.
• Fedir Doroshko (1888—1938), arrested and shot in 1938.
• M. Panchenko, arrested and disappeared, later presumed shot.
• Andriy Slidiuk, post office worker; shot in the spring of 1919 in Starokonstantynivka.
• Mykhailo Teliha, Kuban Cossack; emigrated to Prague, shot by Germans in 1942.

Yemetz does not remember the participation of Oleksiy Dziubenko (who by other accounts joined the Kiev Bandurist Chorus in 1925) nor Hryhoriy Andriychyk, Josyp Snizhniy, or Vasyl' Potapenko

Vasyl' Potapenko

Vasyl' Potapenko born in Berezna, Mensk region, Chernihiv province was the guide-boy for the blind kobzar Tereshko Parkhomenko. As a guide-boy he was a participant of the ХІІth Archeological congress held in Kharkiv in 1902. He travelled to Halychyna by himself after discovering that Hnat...

.

Bandurist and professor Mykola Shchohol gives the names of the members of the reconstituted group formed in 1923 as:

• Hryhoriy Andriychyk, arrested in 1937.
• Fedir Doroshko, shot 1938.
• Hryhoriy Kopan, shot 1938.
• M. Panchenko, arrested and disappeared
• Marko Kashuba, also a student of V. Potapenko and the organizer of a bandurist chorus in Kharkiv in 1925. Arrested and shot in 1938.
• H. Tsebrenko, shot in 1938.

Of the original members whom Yemetz remembered, only three were in the re-established group: Doroshko, Kopan and Panchenko.

The fate of the participants of the first Kiev Kobzar Choir does not seem to be a very happy one:

• Hryhoriy Kopan (1887—1938), a student of V. Potapenko; was arrested by the GPU
  State Political Directorate
  The State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
  
   in 1930 and again on 19 March 1938. He was shot on 28 April 1938 at 23.00.
• Fedir Doroshko, arrested on 15 February 1937 as a leader of a counter-revolutionary group and shot on 28 April 1938 at 23.00.
• Andriy Slidiuk, post office worker; was shot by the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1919.
• Khvedir Dibrova, Kuban Cossack from Krasnodar
  Krasnodar
  Krasnodar is a city in Southern Russia, located on the Kuban River about northeast of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. It is the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai . Population: -Name:...
  
  , and student of Vasyl Yemetz. Shot in 1919.
• M. Panchenko, arrested and later disappeared.
• Mykhailo Teliha (1900—1942), Kuban Cossack; emigrated to Prague, and later performed throughout Western Ukraine and Poland. He was shot by the Nazis in 1942 with his poetess wife Olena in the Babi Yar
  Babi Yar
  Babi Yar is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and a site of a series of massacres carried out by the Nazis during their campaign against the Soviet Union. The most notorious and the best documented of these massacres took place on September 29–30, 1941, wherein 33,771 Jews were killed in a...
  
  massacre in Kiev.

The only one that survived and did not die a violent death was director Vasyl Yemetz (1891–1982), who emigrated from Ukraine, moved to Prague and then settled in the United States.

There are no known photographs of the first Kiev Bandurist Capella known as the Kobzar Choir, however a photograph of a poster from 1919 was included in Omelchenko's Candidates dissertation on the history and development of the bandura.