Taras Zhitinsky

Studying the life of Taras Zhitinsky, his biography testifies to the following, whatever you say, genes are a great thing. Born into a family of repressed UPA soldiers in the Karaganda region, Taras Zhitinsky only in 1981 was able to return to his homeland - the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. There he graduated from the Ivano-Frankivsk Institute of Arts and received three very important victories for himself: the third prize in the category "pop music" at the festival "Chervona Ruta" in 1991, and in the 92nd - the grand prix of the festival "Crystal Lion "And a special award at the" Slavianski Bazaar ". His creative assets of those times also included extremely successful, so to speak - spectacular, performances at the now legendary forums "Oberig" and "Melody". Taras played his concert set really powerfully at the celebration dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the creation of the UPA in 1992. There, an amazing charisma, a strong voice and a very expressive manner of singing were revealed - three components, wherever he performed, brought him success.

During the 90s, Taras Zhitinsky recorded and published two interesting albums - "Black Swan" and "Vabank", and in 1996 a new life begins for him: he unexpectedly moves to London, where he quickly establishes relations with the diaspora, but does not part with his favorite guitar for a day. The main "skates" of Zhitinsky's repertoire were Cossack songs, historical thoughts and songs of the UPA.

Taras wanted to prove (first to himself, and then to his compatriots) that, living in another country and in an English-speaking environment, one can fully develop one's own culture and be interesting to the local public as a representative of Slavic culture. Therefore, it is not surprising that Taras in England has supporters among the Anglo-Saxons.

The next step was the publication in 2009 of two positions at once - the albums "Cossack Ballads" and "The Batiars Rode". The first, both in style and in mood, continues the disc by Taras Zhitinsky “Songs of the Cossacks” of 2018, but already at the angle of courageous baldness, elegiacity. Here Taras sang the famous song by A. Veremchuk "Korennoy" and one of his own - "There on the pond."

For several years in Great Britain Zhitinsky has created a group called "Countrymen", composed of our "former" ones, which plays both a folk song and the author's repertoire.

"One hundred percent pilgrim" - this is how Taras Zhitinsky himself defined his fate and way of life. “I always feel on the road, ” he explains. - Stops can be longer or shorter, but the main thing is to fill them with meaning, that is, with creativity. And move on. " Most of Taras Zhitinsky's musical compositions can be listened to online either on the singer's official website or on the youtube website.