Christmas with Bandura in SAN diego, CA

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 Ostap Stakhiw is a renowned Ukrainian bandurist and a National’s Artist of Ukraine. He began his professional career in the Lviv Philharmonic and the “Vatra” ensemble, and later as a founder and leader of the “Folklore Theater of Ostap Stakhiw.”  Ostap Stakhiw is a respected educator and accomplished bandura and vocal performer. He created and presented original theatrical concert programs and toured widely across Ukraine, the United States, Canada and globally. His work has been featured in numerous films and video productions. Dedicated to preserving the art of the bandura and served as a jury member for festivals and competitions. Ostap Stakhiw is a medalist at the 2001 World Championship of Performing Arts and the founder of BandurArts.

Ola Herasymenko is renowned Ukrainian bandurist and a Merited Artist of Ukraine. The daughter of Vasyl Herasymenko, she graduated of the Lviv Conservatory, she performed as a member of a bandurist trio, creating several dozen arrangements later published in three collections in the United States. She worked as a senior lecturer and accompanist for the folk instrument orchestra at the Lviv Conservatory and has continued her artistic work in the United States. In Northern California, she and her husband lead the Ukrainian Heritage Preservation Society, host a program on the Society’s Ukrainian Community Radio, founded a bandurist ensemble at the Ukrainian School in Sacramento, and directs the Ukrainian music ensemble “Elegiya.”  Recorded several CDs and served as the editor-in-chief of the journal Bandura. 

 Solomia Stahiv is a Ukrainian musician and accomplished bandura player. She graduated from a bandura and piano program in Lviv, Ukraine and played in the National Bandura Ensemble “Zoryanytsia” under Honored Artist of Ukraine Zinovia Sychak. Now based in North America, she performs as a solo bandura artist throughout the United States and Canada and is part of the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America (WBENA), sharing and promoting bandura music and Ukrainian culture. She is also an active member of BandurArts.

 Luke Lashchuk Miller is a second-generation Ukrainian American and began studying the bandura at age 13 under the late Andrij Kytasty of the renowned Kytasty family of bandurists. In 2003, he was invited to join the 107-year-old, NEA-honored Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus. With the ensemble, he has toured Western Europe and North America, and in 2018 returned to Ukraine for the Chorus’s 100th Anniversary Tour. Luke, his wife Olenka Kleban, and their two children remain active contributors to both the local and national Ukrainian arts community.   

 Olenka Kleban is a Ukrainian folk singer and pysankar as well as sculptor and mouldmaker. She became a core member of Kosa Kolektiv in the early 2010s, where her emerging contemporary art practice naturally expanded into collaborative work with fellow artists who shared her passion for Ukrainian cultural traditions. Her involvement with Kosa Kolektiv also deepened her connection to Ukrainian folk singing, allowing her to develop her voice within a community dedicated to preserving and reimagining ancestral music. In 2020, Olenka moved to San Diego, California, where Olenka continues to cultivate her musical practice as a folk singer and teaches pysanka-making through the House of Ukraine, a cultural organization serving San Diego County.

 Born in San Diego and raised in Weaverville, Marko Ritachka began playing the bandura at a young age, learning from his parents, Roman and Olesia. Throughout his childhood and teenage years, he performed at Ukrainian cultural events across the West Coast and beyond, as well as at local festivals and community venues. Now based in San Francisco, he continues to share Ukrainian music and dances with the Zolotiy Maky ensemble. Outside of music, Marko works as a software engineer. He is grateful for the chance to keep the bandura central in his life and to introduce its sound to new audiences. A