Anastasiya Voytyuk wheels out a Ukrainian folk instrument at the Lilypad on Sunday, 11 August 2024.

Pianist Yotam Ishay and special guest Harshitha Krishnan perform in support.

Sing-alongs abound!

The booker behind the local live music series Illegally Blind (puts together the Fuzzstival and more), Jason Trefts, is raising money to start a non-profit organization, staffed by brain tumor survivors, “that will provide free short-term care coordination services for people in the Boston, MA area recently diagnosed with a brain tumor.”

The mission of the project hits close to home for Trefts. In his own words, “I was diagnosed with an incurable Astrocytoma at 24 years old. I have spent the decade-plus since navigating chronic disabling conditions while working in the human services field.”

“Astrocytoma” is a type of brain tumor. And while Trefts has been dealing with that, he has also been working in care coordination himself, observing first hand how important the work is. His proposed non-profit would make more of that important work happen for more people. Find out the details and donate at the Still Around Gofundme.

Just an aside, I saw a poster for a Still Around benefit show at Arts at the Armory back in May, didn’t mind what the benefit was benefiting, and just figured it was a jokey reference to the fact that all the college kids had gone home for the summer making all the locals part of the “Still Around” club. Because I’m an idiot. Obviously the phrase means a whole lot more.

It was a night of music without the easy center of a headliner for proper orientation. What was happening, where were we going, what was all this leading up to on a Sunday night at the Lilypad?

No worries, there were at least three musicians on hand to trade performing duties in various combinations: pianist Yotam Ishay, bandura player Anastasiya Voytyuk, and vocalist Harshitha Krishnan. Plus, a little audience participation throughout.

Let me steal a bit from my Cambridge Day writeup. I was fascinated most of all by an instrument I had never seen before (or at least never seen played before): the bandura.

“Anastasiya Voytyuk, also known as BanduraGirl, used her unusual instrument to both educate and entertain. The bandura is a Ukrainian plucked-string folk instrument, sporting anywhere from 31 to 68 strings, combining elements of the lute (when it comes to plucking) and the zither (when it comes to strumming across the face), to produce a sound that is at once earthy and ethereal.

“The bandura has a politically-charged history. One thing that both Tsarist Russia and the Bolsheviks could agree on is that the folk traditions accompanying the instrument gave life to notions of Ukrainian independence that posed a threat to Russian rule. Bandurists were routinely harassed, arrested, and murdered in the first half of the twentieth century as part of the general effort to tamp down subversive nationalist sentiments.

“The instrument was gradually reintroduced to respectability under the watchful eye of Soviet authorities in the second half of the twentieth century, by which time the lamp light for Ukrainian independence had presumably been extinguished, or the Politburo simply had bigger fish to fry on the hot skillet of the Cold War. You can imagine for yourself what the instrument represents in the hearts and minds of Ukrainians in the present moment.”

In other news, the new mural on the wall at stage right is progressing nicely. No pictures this time. But I did stumble on a bit about the artist Dan Masi at the Lilypad website. Check it out.

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