Yevhen Adamtsevych

Yevhen Oleksandrovych Adamtsevych was born in the village of Solonytsia on 1 January 1904, not far from the town of Lubny, in what is now Ukraine's Poltava Oblast.[1] His father, who came from Snovsk, worked at one time at the railway station at Solonytsia , possibly as the station master. His mother was Maria Mykhailivna (née Bilan), the middle class daughter of a tailor whose five children were all educated at home.[2]

Yevhen became blind at the age of two.[1] He was educated at a school for the blind in Kyiv.[3] He lived in Romny where from 1925 he was apprenticed to the kobzar Musii Petrovych Oleksienko, who taught him to play the bandura.[4]

Adamtsevych began to perform as a soloist in 1927,[4] where he led a group of bandurists.[5] In 1927 he married Lidia Dmytrivna Paradis; her relatives did not approve of this marriage and were only reconciled years later.[2] During the 1930s, he was a travelling kobzar.[5] In 1939 he participated in the conference of kobzars which took place in Kyiv, and he participated in a 1940 conference on folk singers in Moscow.[4]

During the Second World War, Adamtsevych travelled around Ukraine, performing patriotic songs, including his own composition, the song Unwillingly.[4] During the 1950s and 1960s, he and other bandurists gave concerts in Ukraine and Russia.[5]

In October 1972, Adamtsevych and his wife moved to live with their daughter in the village of Kholmivka, Bakhchysaray District, Crimea.[4] Three weeks later, he was hospitalized with acute pain caused by a stone in his gall bladder), but died during the early hours of 20 November whilst on the operating table.[2] He bequeathed his bandura to the Taras Shevchenko Museum in Kaniv.[2]

Adamtsevych acted as a bearer of the national Ukrainian traditions of singing and playing the bandura, which he learned his repertoire directly through oral transmission. A characteristic feature of Adamtsevych's singing style was his ability to highlight syllables or words; the range of his voice covered two octaves.[4] he was known for being able to easily memorize the music and lyrics of any songs that he listened to.[2]

Adamtsevych's daughter recalled her father as being was energetic, cheerful, and neat. He did not have a haircut, but shaved his head "according to Kotovskyi". According to his daughter, "He did everything himself: he sawed and chopped firewood, repaired the house, built it, even roofed the house himself with iron, dug cellars and covered it with bricks."[2] Adamtsevich attempted unsuccessfully to teach his daughter Tetyana to play the bandura.[2]

Adamtsevych's repertoire included many historic Ukrainian folk songs, but lacked any authentic dumy (sung epic poems). Yevshan-Zillia, the single epic work in his repertoire, was structured like a duma.[4]

Adamtsevych composed the "Zaporizhian March",[2] which was orchestrated by Viktor Hutsal.[6] The march was played regularly by the Ukrainian State Orchestra of Ukrainian Folk Instruments in Kyiv. Other compositions include the songs "In Captivity" (1941), and "Thoughts about I.F. Fedka" (1966).[3]

• Skrypnyk, Anna, ed. (2006). "Adamtsevych, Yevhen Oleksandrovych". Encyclopedia of the Music of Ukraine (PDF) (in Ukrainian). Vol. 1. Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology. pp. 29–30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 January 2021.
• Zheplinsky, B.M.; Kovalchuk, D.B. (2011). Українські кобзарі, бандуристи, лірники: Енциклопедичний довідник [Ukrainian kobzars, bandurists, lyrniks: an encyclopedic guide] (PDF). Lviv. pp. 1–135. ISBN 978-966-1633-26-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)