Hnat Khotkevych was a universal Ukrainian genius: a writer (the novel Kaminna Dusha on Hutsul themes), dramatist (plays for the Lviv theater Ruska Besida), ethnographer (field expeditions across Hutsulshchyna), composer, and virtuoso banduraist.
His contribution to the bandura is colossal: he created the Kharkiv-type bandura — better suited for complex academic playing; he wrote the Bandura Method Book (Lviv, 1909) — still in use today; and he founded bandura ensembles. In the 1930s, together with hundreds of other Ukrainian intellectuals, he was repressed: in 1938 he was shot in Kharkiv. His works, writings, and textbooks were banned for years. Today Khotkevych's name is borne by the International Competition of Performers on Ukrainian Folk Instruments in Kharkiv, the City Palace of Culture in Lviv, a children's music school in Mala Danylivka, and streets in many Ukrainian cities.
