Mykhailo Teliha

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Bandurist Mykhailo Teliha c. 1923

Mykhailo Pavlovych Teliha (1898 -21/II/1942)

Mykhailo Teliha was an active community leader. Trained initially as a forester and engineer (later he competed his studies as a doctor), he was born in the Akhtyrka Stanytsia in the Kuban. It is here that he first began to be interested in playing the bandura.

In 1918 he moved to Kyiv where he became a member of the Kobzar Choir under the direction of Vasyl Yemetz.

He was an active participant in the struggle for Ukrainian Liberation where he served as a field surgeon.

In 1921 he wound up in the internment camp in Kalisz, Poland where he organized and ethnographic ensemble and taught bandura. When it became known that those that were interned would be returned to Soviet Ukraine, he moved to Prague.

In Czechoslovakia he lived in Prague and Podebrady from 1923 to 1929. There he completed his studies in Medicine at the Podebrady Academy. Here he met and married the Ukrainian poetess Olena Teliha and continued his involvement with the bandura being active in the formation of a bandura school and a second Bandurist Capella in Prague.

In 1926 he was the editor of a collection of pieces for the bandura published in Prague under the auspices of the Kobzar society. The book contained 12 pieces printed on 24 pages. It was the first collection of bandura music ever published.

In 1929 he and his wife moved to Poland, where he lived in Warsaw until 1939. He performed throughout Western Ukraine during this time and recorded 6 works on 3 records for a Polish record company - "Syrena Electro". In 1939 he moved to Krakow.

His repertoire included:

   1) Zaporozhian march 
   2) Hej vydno selo 
   3) Oj lita orel 
   4) Oj ne khody Hrytsiu 
   5) Vyklyk 
   6) Vstaye khmara 
   7) Oj na hori vohon' horyt'

In 1941 during the German occupation of Ukraine he returned with his wife to Kyiv.

Teliha was arrested together with his wife 9th February 1942 by the Gestapo. Although he was offered his release, he chose not to leave his wife's side and was shot a few days later on the 21st (23rd) February in Babiy Yar, Kyiv.