Jurij Fedynskyj returns to the podcast and we had a great conversation discussing the current situation in Ukraine, his experience sending his 4 children and 7-month pregnant wife out of Ukraine and into safety in the US, and his current work in music, spirituality and service for the Ukrainian people in a time of crisis with global implications.

Jurij is a Ukrainian-American musician, researcher and instrument maker, who for decades has been reviving the lost music and spiritual tradition of the Kobzar. The kobzar were traveling musicians, storytellers and spiritual leaders, who for centuries went all around Ukraine spreading their art and wisdom.

With the rise of Stalin and the Soviet Union control over Ukraine, the kobzar were killed, their instruments destroyed, and their traditions almost forgotten. Almost. Jurij and his colleagues work to recreate lost traditional instruments, including the kobza, the bandura and the torban.

For the past five years, Jurij traveled around the Western World many times over, practicing the kobzar tradition, hoping to enrich the world, sharing the truth about what Ukraine really is, through historic songs which have preserved the emotions, and national character of Ukraine. In this episode, he talked about his plan to travel across Ukraine, bringing the kobzar tradition to its original land.