Stepan Pasiuha

Stepan Pasiuha was born in the town Velyka Pysarivka, Bohodukhiv County, in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). He learned to play the bandura from Dmytro Trochenko [uk]. He had seven dumy (sung epic poems) in his repertoire:

• 1. Marusia Bohuslavka
• 2. The Widow and Her Three Sons [uk]
• 3. The Sister and Brother
• 4. Oleksiy Popovych
• 5. Captives lament
• 6. Ivan Konovchenko, the Widow's Son [uk]
• 7. The Escape of the Three Brothers from Oziv [uk]

The first three dumy were recorded on a phonograph by Opanas Slastion and sent to Filaret Kolessa in Lviv. Filaret Kolessa wrote that : "In his recitations, sung with a nice baritone, we hear the importance of the recitative above the melody. The singing and playing of Stepan Pasiuha makes a nice artistic impression."

Yehor Movchan [uk] was a student of Pasiuha, and highly praised him as a teacher of singing and playing, and also as a kobzar who demonstrated great artistry in his performance of dumy. He often spoke: "there probably was never such a kobzar like Pasiuha and in the future there never will be."

In 1915, Pasiuha was arrested and spent time incarcerated.

From graphic sources his bandura had:

• Portrait 1 – 4 basses and 14 treble strings (16 pegs)
• Portrait 2 – 6 basses and 14 treble strings

• Hryhory Kozhushko [uk]
• Yehor Movchan [uk]
• Heorhy Tkachenko

• Mishalow, V. and M.: Ukrains'ki kobzari-bandurysty, Sydney, Australia, 1986