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Dedicated to Ukrainian kobzars. A Kobzar (Ukrainian: кобзар, pl. kobzari Ukrainian: кобзарі) was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own were often blind, Kobzar literally means 'kobza player', a Ukrainian stringed instrument of the lute family, and more broadly — a performer of the musical material associated with the kobzar tradition[ The kobzar tradition was established widely during the Hetmanate Era around the sixteenth century in Ukraine but it came from Kyiv Rus. Kobzars accompanied their singing with a musical instrument known as the kobza, bandura or lira. Their repertoire primarily consisted of para-liturgical psalms and “kanty“, and also included a unique epic form known as dumas. The pictures were painted by Opanas Slastion. Opanas Georgievych (Heorhiiovych) Slastion (Ukrainian: Опанас Георгійович Сластьон) (1855 - 1933) was born in the Ukrainian port town of Berdyansk on the Berdyansk Gulf of the Sea of Azov(Zaporizka Oblast or Region). He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Russia (where he was also known as Afanasy Slastyon), researched the Cossack documents in the archives of the Russian ministry of defence, and later worked as a teacher at the Arts and Crafts School (later renamed the State Ceramics Vocational School) in Myrhorod, Ukraine. Being a very gifted person, he perfected his talents in singing, bandura playing, ethnography, journalism, education, design, and architecture. Opanas Slastion was a true Ukrainian Encyclopaedist. He became the first illustrator of Shevchenko's 'Kobzar' (the illustrations to “Haidamaky“). As a painter, Slastion is credited with depicting series of Cossack and kobzar portraits and scenes of Ukrainian country life. In the early 1930s, Slastion designed the shape of the standard Kiev bandura (the familiar modern shape of the instrument). Some other instruments of the bandura family (such as those made by Ivan Skliar, for example) were also modeled on Slastion's designs. Slastion was also a leading Ukrainian folklorist and from Slastion's repertoire originally recorded on wax cylinders can be found on a record released as a dedication to Lesia Ukrainka, a famous Ukrainian poet. As an architect, Opanas Slastion was one of the founding fathers of the Ukrainian style in architecture. He died during the Holodomor in Ukraine. HalynaMyroslava“Singing“/ ГалинаМирослава “Спів“
