Maryna Krut shares Ukrainian culture through the bandura

The artist has performed for soldiers on the war’s frontlines

By Gail Johnson

Maryna Krut.

BlueShore at CapU presents Maryna Krut on January 23

AS ONE OF the world’s leading players of bandura, a traditional Ukrainian plucked instrument, Maryna Krut has appeared on stages around the globe. Based in the city of Lviv, she has also performed in the least likely of places: on the war’s very frontlines.

“I go and play for the soldiers,” Krut says in a phone interview with Stir from New York, where she’s on tour. “A lot of them are my friends. Ukrainian artists have a lot of responsibility right now. We need to understand what’s going on so that we can talk to people in the world about what’s going on.

“One month ago I played in the city of Pokrovsk, which has been completely destroyed,” she adds. “Russian troops have started to occupy this city. But I feel safe because I know we have the best men and the best women protecting us. Ukraine is my home.”

Krut will bring her contemporary take on the 64-stringed bandura to Canada’s West Coast when she appears in concert at BlueShore at CapU on January 23. She started playing the instrument, which has a sound similar to a harpsichord and which resembles a cross between a lute and a zither, when she was eight years old, going on to study it for four years in music college. Twenty years later, she is still discovering new things about it.

“Sometimes I think that I know everything about this instrument, and after that it’s a crisis in my relationship with the instrument and I realize I know nothing about this instrument,” Krut says. “I try to find something new every time: new techniques, new songs. I try to improvise. If you were to come to two of my concerts you would hear one song in two different versions. I love the instrument still.” 

One of the songs she’ll be performing in Vancouver is “Carol of the Bells”, which she says most people don’t realize originated in the Ukraine. While she draws on traditional repertoire, she also incorporates jazz, soul, and pop into her music, adding in ethereal vocals. She was a finalist in the Eurovision Song Contest. Her music is one way of sharing her country’s heritage.

“Right now, and especially over the last three years, it’s so important to show all the world Ukrainian culture,” Krut says. “Before, for a lot of years, the world didn’t know about our culture, our instruments and songs, and for me right now it’s so important to witness this. It’s so important to bring our songs from point zero to Vancouver, 10,000 kilometres away from my home.

“It’s complicated to talk about it,” she adds. “I would ask people who read this interview to come to my performance because if you hear music, you don’t need any words. I’m shy in talking about myself, but I’m not shy on-stage. Music is a universal language where people can understand the experience in my heart.”  

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