Taras Kompanichenko’s Chorea Kozacky awarded a Taras Shevchenko Prize

Chorea Kozacky, a Ukrainian band led by renowned kobzar, banduryst and lirnyk Taras Kompanichenko, has been announced a laureate of the 2023 Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in the Musical Arts nomination.

The awarded Chorea’s musicians also include Maksym Berezhnyuk, Severyn Danyleyko, Yaroslav Krysko and Serhiy Okhrimchuk.

The band, which performs Rus-Ukraine’s music from various epochs, received the prize for its audio album “Songs Of The Ukrainian Revolution,” produced on the initiative and in cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, according to the UINR. The album, available free on the UINR’s YouTube channel, includes songs by classics of Ukrainian literature and music.

“The creative work of […] Taras Kompanichenko and his band-mates keeps up the centuries-old traditions of the People’s Culture, even when they perform songs created in the 20th century,” Serhiy Trymbach, the chairman of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, commented on Facebook. “For example, the “Red Viburnum” – Taras sings it so that I hear and even see kobzars from the 17th or 18th century. Or maybe the 19th, and then another Taras and Kobzar, whose last name is Shevchenko, is emerging nearby.”