Nadiya Vatamanyuk : I was born in a quaint village called Stariy Kosiv near the Carpathian Mountains, in the region of Hutsuls. My father, Ivan, was a musician (conductor and member of a Hutsuls group). My Mother, Maria, used to sing very well. I started to sing when I was a child. During my childhood I used to listen very nice traditional Ukrainian songs. When I was 8 (in 1975) I entered a secondary music school with the speciality bandura. I finished my studies in this school in 1981. Then I continued my studies in a music high school and I graduated from this school with distinction in 1986. The same year I entered the National Conservatoire M. Lysenko in Lviv in the class of bandura professor V. Gerasimenko. I graduated from the Conservatoire in 1991. During my studies in the Conservatoire I used to work as a soloist in the folk music theatre Ostap Stakhiv and I performed a lot of concerts in Ukraine, in USA and in Canada. The programme of the theatre was composed of traditional music performances. I started to work as a music teacher in 1992. Today I am a bandoura and singing teacher in the Music School N°6 in Lviv. My students took part in numerous music events and study today in the National Conservatoire M. Lysenko in Lviv. A few of them are members of the group “Tsarivni” (among them my daughter Solomiya). I won a lot of prizes and diplomas, I have also got the acknowledgement of the Culture Department for my professional skills and the high quality work that I achieved in developing the Ukrainian traditional culture worldwide.

       Bandoura is an unique instrument, it is the music symbol of the Ukrainian people. The first written narrations date back to XV-XVI centuries, when bandura was the favourite instrument of the hetmans, Ukrainian blue bloods. Traditionally, the programme of the bandurists was composed of songs about the everyday life of the Ukrainians and of satirical songs, called later as popular songs. The main genres telling the heroic past of our people was the elegy - ballads and historical songs performed by the travelling musicians – the kobzars, most of whom were blind. Bandura changed throughout the centuries and thanks to the work of numerous masters-professionals it was transformed in a veritable concert instrument. The members of bandura group “Tsarivny” play on banduras called Lvivianki. These banduras are made by the famous master and professor Vasyl Gerasymenko in “Trembita” - music instruments factory in Lviv. Honoured Ukrainian Art Worker, professor at the National Conservatoire M. Lysenko in Lviv, master Vasyl Gerasymenko devoted himself for more than a half century to the modernisation and to the improvement of this nice instrument. This bandura has 65 strings, the diapason of almost 5 octaves and a mechanism to change easily the tone.