Retrofitting the Bandura for a Soviet Childhood: Ukraine’s National Instrument, Violent Erasures, and the Plan for a Communist Music
Chair(s): Susan Boynton (Columbia University), Ryan Bunch (Rutgers University-Camden)
Discussant(s): Anicia Timberlake (Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University), Knar Abrahamyan (Columbia University), Joy Calico (University of California, Los Angeles)
Organized by the AMS Childhood and Youth Study Group
Our invited speaker, Maria Sonevytsky, will present a paper entitled “Retrofitting the Bandura for a Soviet Childhood: Ukraine’s National Instrument, Violent Erasures, and the Plan for a Communist Music." This study addresses the Soviet regime’s creation of mass bandura orchestras for children in Kyiv, just years after the Soviet regime had executed much of the older generation of bandura players in Kharkiv for supposed "anti-Soviet activities." Anicia Timberlake (Peabody Institute- Johns Hopkins University), Knar Abrahamyan (Columbia University), and Joy Calico (Vanderbilt University) will respond to the paper, drawing on their own research on music and childhood in Communist and post-Communist societies.
Presentations of the Symposium
Retrofitting the Bandura for a Soviet Childhood: Ukraine's National Instrument, Violent Erasures, and the Plan for a Communist Music
Maria Sonevytsky
Bard College
This study addresses the Soviet regime's creation of mass bandura orchestras for children in Kyiv, just years after the Soviet regime had executed much of the older generation of bandura players in Kharkiv for supposed "anti-Soviet activities."