Cleveland Bandura Trio on a Lviv park bench (1990) Тріо Бандуристів Клівленду Львів

The summer before Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union, the Cleveland Bandura Trio (from L to R: Marko Farion, Oleh Mahlay, Mykola Deychakiwsky) performed along with Cleveland's “Kashtan“ Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, at the International “Hromada“ Folk Festival in Lviv and throughout Halychyna. Here they played an impromptu performance in the park in front of the Lviv Opera House on August 6, 1990 - on a park bench near the spot where later the Taras Shevchenko monument was erected. Their repertoire consisted of historical songs, religious canticles, partisan songs and other songs of freedom that had been banned for years by the Soviet regime.