Volodymyr Kushpet

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Volodymyr Kushpet (1948- )

Volodymyr Kushpet

Volodymyr Kushpet originally studied bandura initially under Andriy Omelchenko and then later completed his studies at the Kyiv Conservatory under Serhiy Bashtan. Along with Kost Novytsky he was one of the founding members of the KOBZA pop group and played electric bandura in the ensemble.

Later Kushpet performed in a duet with Novytsky playing instrumental classical transcriptions on the bandura. Kushpet after being introduced to Heorhy Tkachenko became extremely interested in the authentic bandura and particularly the kobza as played by Ostap Veresai. On this instrument he has managed to restore most of the repertoire performed by Veresai.

Kushpet teaches as the kobzar school in Strytivka not far from Kyiv and also at the Kharkiv Muz-Dram Institute. In recent times he has also started to teach torban at the Kyiv conservatory.