Julian Kytasty, a third-generation professional bandurist honored by President Zelensky for his services to Ukrainian culture, has devoted a lifetime of exploration to the bandura and its historical traditions. The bandura (a harp-like lute) has been called Ukraine’s national instrument.

Evoking the kobzari of earlier times – blind singers who, with their guides, wandered the circuits of market days and fairs, bringing historical epics, moralistic, satirical songs, and sparkling dance tunes to the Ukrainian people– Kytasty invites listeners on a journey down the winding roads of eighteenth-century Ukraine. His program conjures the comingling of these bards with itinerant scholars and teachers from the Kyiv Academy and other schools, which brought forth music that remains fresh and compelling three centuries later. For this sacred and enlightened space, we share a particularly compelling and unique program of songs that sang of sacred subjects but were intended for performance in secular places.