Peter Deriashnyj Петро Деряжний | |
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Birth name | Petro Fedorovych Deriazhnyi |
Genres | Ukrainian folk, dumas and classical music |
Occupation(s) | bandurist, composer, conductor |
Instrument | bandura |
Peter Deriashnyj (born Petro Fedorovych Deriazhnyi [lower-alpha 1] ) is a Ukrainian Australian bandurist, composer of secular and sacred music, and choral conductor. He specializes in the Kharkiv style of bandura playing, but also plays folk and rock guitar.
Deriashnyj was born in Calden, Germany and grew up in Newcastle, New South Wales and moved to Sydney to further his professional career and musical education. He studied music theory, composition and voice in Sydney and later became conductor of the Hnat Khotkevych Ukrainian Bandurist Ensemble (1972–), the Boyan Ukrainian Choir (1982–1996), the Suzwittia Women's Ensemble (1986–1991), the Strathfield Orthodox Parish choir (1980–2007); and musical director and conductor of the Ivasiuk Folk Ensemble (1984–2000). [1] [2]
Deriashnyj emigrated to Australia with his parents, Fedir and Maria and sister Lidia. In November 1950 they arrived in Melbourne on the passenger liner Goya initially living in migrant camps in Bonegilla and Nelson Bay before settling in Newcastle, New South Wales.[ citation needed ] After completing his education in Newcastle he moved to Sydney in 1966 to pursue studies in electrical engineering at the Sydney Institute of Technology graduating in 1972, [3] also formal musical studies in classical guitar, music theory, composition and voice.
At age 10, Deriashnyj began to learn to play the bandura from his father, a known performer on and maker of banduras Fedir Deriashnyj. At age 17, he began to study guitar. [4]
In July 1968, he began to study the Kharkiv style of bandura from Hryhory Bazhul who in the early 1930s in Ukraine had studied bandura under Hnat Khotkevych. In 1969 he wrote his first composition for the bandura "Krai Kozachiy", followed by "Zaspivayu" to the words by Taras Shevchenko, and "Slava Otamanu". [3] He also began to write arrangements of traditional songs for the Kharkiv style bandura. He gave up guitar for bandura, and in 1971 he became the artistic director of a small group of young bandurists originally formed by Hryhory Bazhul, the Hnat Khotkevych Ukrainian Bandurist Ensemble of Sydney. Under Deriashnyj's direction the group expanded in numbers and included choral vocals in their performances. Their first solo concert took place in 1969 in Wollongong, dedicated to the Ukrainian bard Taras Shevchenko. In 1971 he also formed the Sydney School of Bandura to introduce the younger generation to the art of this instrument. [5] Students of the School of Bandura were able to learn both the Kharkiv style and the Chernihiv style but since Kharkiv banduras were difficult to procure and the more plentiful Chernihiv type banduras were being brought from Ukraine, gradually more students played the Chernihiv style. The Sydney School of Bandura was the only one in Australia to teach the Kharkiv style. [6]
From 1970, the Bandurist Ensemble toured the eastern states in Australia with concerts and performances and as a quartet performed in Perth, Hobart, Adelaide, Melbourne and Geelong. In 1978 the quartet recorded an LP entitled Bandura and Song. The members of the quartet were Neonila Babchenko-Deriashnyj (soprano), Lidia Deriashnyj-Beal (alto) and Peter Chochula (bass). [3] [6]
By 1986 Deriashnyj became a significant cultural figure within the Ukrainian diaspora in Sydney, as the artistic director of the Ukrainian Bandurist Ensemble, the Ivasiuk Folk Ensemble, the Boyan National Choir and the Suzwittia Women's Ensemble. He also conducted the church choir of the parish of the Holy Intercession in Strathfield, simultaneously. [7]
In 1984, Deriashnyj prepared a concert in memory of Ukrainian songwriter Volodymyr Ivasyuk, who lost his life in suspicious circumstances. The success of this concert provided the initiative for the participants to form a new vocal ensemble in Sydney, New South Wales. [7]
In 1988, the ensembles and choirs under his direction celebrated the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine with concert performances in Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, and Canberra. [7]
In 2010, during the visit to Australia of Dymytrii (Rudiuk), Metropolitan of Lviv and Sokal, they sang the high mass (arhiyereyska) in Brisbane and Newcastle Orthodox parishes. At the Divine Liturgy in Newcastle, they were awarded a patriarchal citation for service to the Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian people by the Metropolitan on behalf of Filaret, Patriarch of Kyiv and all of Rus-Ukraine. [8]
In 2010 they travelled to Canada to conduct and sing for the first Divine Liturgy for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, in the Parish of St. Peter and Paul in New Westminster and to perform in Canada's National Ukrainian Festival at Dauphin, Manitoba, and in the Kyiv Pavilion at the Folklorama Festival in Winnipeg. [8]
Deriashnyj played the duma "Dedication to the victims of the Holodomor" during Holodomor-Famine commemorations by the Ukrainian community at the site of the Holodomor memorial in Adelaide in 2010, [9] and at the Ukrainian Orthodox Centre in Canberra in 2011. [10]
A bandura is a Ukrainian plucked-string folk-instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often called a kobza. Early instruments had 5 to 12 strings and resembled lutes. In the 20th century, the number of strings increased initially to 31 strings (1926), then to 56 strings – 68 strings on modern "concert" instruments (1954).
A kobzar was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment, played on a multistringed kobza or bandura.
A bandurist is a person who plays the Ruthenian plucked string instrument known as the bandura.
Hnat Martynovych Khotkevych was a Ukrainian theater and public figure, engineer, inventor, writer, historian, translator, ethnographer, art critic, playwright, screenwriter, composer, musicologist, violinist, pianist, baritone, bandurist, and teacher. He was shot by the KGB, like many other members of the Executed Renaissance, during Joseph Stalin's Great Terror in the Soviet Union.
The Poltava Bandurist Capella was vocal-instrumental ensemble who accompanied themselves on the multi-stringed Ukrainian bandura. It was initially established in February 1925, based on a male church choir who sang in the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Cathedral in Poltava under the direction of Fedir (Khvedir) Popadych. The ensemble was disbanded in October 1934.
Ivan Iovych Kuchuhura-Kucherenko was a Ukrainian minstrel (kobzar) and one of the most influential kobzars of the early 20th century. For his artistry he was awarded the title "People's artist of Ukraine" in 1919 and later "People's Artist of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" in 1926.
The Kyiv 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.
Leonid Hryhorovych Haydamaka was a Ukrainian bandurist. has left his impression on the development of bandura art in the 20th century.
Mykhailo Oleksandrovych Domontovych was a Ukrainian writer, kobzar, and bandurist.
Kobzars and bandurists were a unique class of musicians in Ukraine, who travelled between towns and sang dumas, a meditative poem-song. Kobzars were usually blind, and required the completion of a three-year apprenticeship in specialized Kobzar guilds, in order to be officially recognized as such. In 1932, on the order of Stalin, the Soviet authorities called on all Ukrainian Kobzars to attend a congress in Kharkiv. Those that arrived were taken outside the city and were all put to death.
Vasyl Kostovych Yemetz was a Ukrainian bandurist. He was founder and initial director of the Kobzar Choir in 1918 - the direct protégé of the Kyiv Bandurist Capella and the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus.
Hryhory Ivanovych Bazhul was a Ukrainian bandurist and publisher of articles on bandura history from Poltava, Russian Empire. After World War II he emigrated to Australia settling in Sydney.
Hryhory Pavlovych Nazarenko was a bandura player.
Victor Yuriiovych Mishalow is an Australian-born Canadian bandurist, educator, composer, conductor, and musicologist.
A Kuban bandurist is a person who plays the Ukrainian plucked string instrument known as the bandura, who is from Kuban, a geographic region of southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River.
The Ukrainians in Kuban in southern Russia constitute a national minority. The region as a whole shares many linguistic, cultural and historic ties with Ukraine. Тhe area where Ukrainians live in Kuban is sometimes unofficially referred to as Raspberry Ukraine or Malynovyi Klyn.
Kharkiv-style banduras are banduras that allow for the playing of the Kharkiv style, i.e. using the left hand to play melodic figures primarily over the side of the instrument as opposed to the Kyiv style where the left hand primarily plays the basses. To allow for the added required dexterity of the left hand, the instrument is held parallel to the body of the player.
The Hnat Khotkevych Ukrainian Bandurist Ensemble is a vocal and instrumental Ukrainian folkloric performing ensemble in Sydney, Australia. It was founded in June 1964 by bandurist Hryhory Bazhul and since May 1971 was directed by Peter Deriashnyj.
Peter Mytrofanovych Kravchenko was a Ukrainian artist and public figure.