Court Square Theater offers a slice of Ukrainian musical culture on Tuesday, July 19, with a 7:30 p.m. benefit performance for the Poltava Kobzar Guild.
The benefit concert features Jurij Fednskyj, presenting the lost national instruments of Ukraine: the traditional torban, bandura, and kobza.
This is a free event with the opportunity to donate to the Poltava Kobzar Guild’s Ukrainian relief efforts. Visiting bomb shelters and refugee camps along the war front, the guild provides food, psychological, and spiritual relief to refugees from the war in Ukraine.
Fednskyj is a Ukrainian-American composer, singer-songwriter, producer, bandleader, cultural activist, and pedagogue. Also a luthier, Fedynsky performs on kobza, torban and traditional bandura.
He moved to the village of Kryachkivka (population 500) to work on resurrecting the almost lost tradition of “dumy,” lyrical ballads by kobzari (itinerant Ukrainian musicians, whose philosophy is to travel anywhere and everywhere, simply and effectively spreading the truth).
Tuesday’s concert will showcase traditional Ukrainian sacred songs, epic psalms, historic songs, folklore, and related genres. Fednskyj will also discuss the war in Ukraine through the nation’s poets, statesmen, and blind singers.
Located at 41-F Court Square in downtown Harrisonburg, Virginia, Court Square Theater is operated by Arts Council of the Valley (ACV). Programs are supported by 2022 Cultivating the Arts Platinum Sponsors Kathy Moran Wealth Group, Matchbox Realty, and Riner Rentals.
Online donations to relief efforts may be made at valleyarts.org/performances.
Advance donations do not guarantee seating at the event, which will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
To learn more, visit valleyarts.org.
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Crystal Graham
