Mykola Budnyk

Kobza made by Ruslan Kozlenko (2005, Kyiv, Ukraine) one of students of M. Budnyk

Mykola Petrovych Budnyk Ukrainian: Мико́ла Петро́вич Будник was a luthier and traditional performer in the Kobzar tradition. He was active in authentic construction and recreation of historic folk instruments, and involved in the movement for authentic performаnce practice on Ukrainian folk instruments. Budnyk was also known as a painter and poet. He was born in 1954 in Skolobiv, near Khoroshiv, Zhytomyr region, and died January 16, 2001, in Irpin', Kyiv region.

1980 - began to learn to play the bandura and the traditional kobza legacy with Heorhy Tkachenko with a small group of contemporaries: Volodymyr Kushpet, Victor Mishalow, Mykola Tovkaylo and others. He began producing old-type bandura, kobza and lira using traditional technology and methods. After Tkachenko's death he took the leadership position of this movement.

Budnyk initially studied traditional kobzar performance from Heorhy Tkachenko from 1978, and initially made himself a traditional bandura. He had a natural aptitude to authentic instrument construction and made banduras for many of Tkachenko's students. He later made a number of other authentic Ukrainian folk instruments and also began to teach others how to make and play these instruments in an authentic manner. The Kobzar guild he co-created revived traditional performance practices such as street-performance (busking) (Ukrainian: кобзарювання ). Much of the repertoire, such as the para-religious psalms and kants, which were previously suppressed in Soviet times as well as the epic form known as dumy were also reintroduced.And that is very important.

Veresai Bandura often referred to as a kobza - a Ukrainian Lute-like instrument, described by Mykola Lysenko from Ostap Veresay - Ukrainian blind epic singer approx. in 1871