Taras Kompanichenko — bandura

Taras Kompanichenko has been working in the field of ancient music of Ukraine for three decades. He has the skill of playing unique traditional musical instruments such as Ostap Veresai’s bandura (kobza), ancient bandura, lyre, Renaissance lute, baroque lute, and early 20th-century bandura. Such a variety of instruments makes it possible to better, more fully and more organically present the Ukrainian cultural heritage from ancient times to the present, using an instrument appropriate to the historical era. At the same time, Taras Kompanichenko creates the latest epic, musical and poetic works, performs them on the kobza, the old-world bandura, and the lyre, thereby demonstrating the existence of the continuity of the musical tradition from ancient times and connecting eras distant in time and space into a single cultural Ukrainian spiritual world.

As a performer of the traditional authentic kobzar repertoire, Taras Kompanichenko is a laureate and first winner of the First National Competition of Kobzar Art named after Hryhoriy Kytasty in 2002. As a connoisseur of ancient Ukrainian music, the nominee is a regular participant of the International Festival of Early Music in Yaroslavl “Song of Our Roots” (Poland) and a participant of the international musical projects “Brotherhood of Old Polish Lute” and “Academy of Traditions”. In order to properly present Ukrainian music at such international venues as the most famous European festivals, or conferences or Days of Ukrainian Culture held by Ukrainian consulates for the promotion of Ukrainian culture in the world, one should thoroughly know the musical material. So, a feature of Taras Kompanichenko’s work is a scientific approach in the selection of material, a good knowledge of the history of Ukraine, the historical context in which our culture was created, and the use of verified sources. So, to create a repertoire of Ukrainian music of the 16th-19th centuries, scientific works based on the study of manuscripts and printed sources are used.

As a solo performer and together with “Khoreia Kozatska” band, Taras Kompanichenko presents a unique spiritual musical heritage, reproducing songs from the “Pochaiv Bohohlasnyk” of 1790-1791. The performer’s repertoire includes more than fifty different thematic works from the 16th-18th centuries, which were included in the musical anthology. These are songs for various holidays of the Christian church year, songs for individual Saints, songs with a philosophical content, penitential songs, etc. The most valuable achievement, along with the artistic presentation of these works, is the presentation of the literary language of ancient Ukraine, in which the works in the Theophany were written, which is a brilliant illustration of Ivan Ohienko’s scientific works in the field of the history of the Ukrainian language and the history of the church. The music of the 17th and 18th centuries, performed by “Khoreia Kozatska”, sounds like a unique performance of party spiritual concerts and a modern, relevant performance of Hryhoriy Skovoroda’s poetic works.