Oksana RoDak
Kobzarska Sich 2026 Music Director
Oksana Rodak is a conductor, bandurist, and music educator with extensive experience across Canada, the United States, and Europe. A graduate of the University of Toronto, she earned both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees under Dr. Doreen Rao and also holds a Certificate in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Her advanced studies at the National Music Academy of Ukraine focused on choral conducting, piano, voice, and bandura, working with maestro Pavlo Muravsky, Vitaliy Lysenko, Serhiy Bashtan, and Kostiantyn Novytsky. She also studied bandura with Hryhory Kytasty.
Passionate about nurturing young musicians, Oksana serves as Director of the ODUM (Association of American Youth of Ukrainian Descent) Bandura School in Chicago and as Artistic Director of Voices in Plainfield, a community youth choir. In these roles, she guides students in developing their skills and confidence through music. She has also held leadership roles as Artistic Director of Young Naperville Singers, Conductor with Anima (Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus), and Coordinator of Children’s Music at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, and has served as adjudicator at The Marta Krawciw-Barabash Ukrainian Music Festival.
Oksana began playing bandura at a young age in the Hnat Khotkevych ODUM Bandurists’ Ensemble of Toronto, founded by her mother, Walentina Rodak. She later directed ODUM Bandura Summer Camps in London, Ontario. She has been recognized with the Master Teacher Diploma from the CME Institute for Choral Teacher Education, the Leslie Bell Conducting Prize, and the Glenn Gould Memorial Scholarship. Oksana is a member of the Chicago Bandura Ensemble and serves as Artistic Director of the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America.
TARAS MYRONYUK
Sacred Music Director
Taras Myronyuk, Ph.D., Master of Theology, is a musicologist, choral conductor, and educator. He studied choral conducting at the National Music Academy of Ukraine and has led the choirs of the Holy Protection Church and Mykola Prytyska Church in Kyiv, and served as assistant conductor with the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Choir under Roger McMurrin.
He earned his Master’s degree from the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy. His honors include the International Literary Prize of the Voskobiinyk Family Foundation for his memoir Vasyl Zavitnevych – Ukrainian Church Conductor in the USA and “Best Conductor” at the XIV International Ad Gloriam Dei Competition in Poland. Dr. Myronyuk is the musical editor of sacred choral works, including the two-volume Song Kobzar on texts by Taras Shevchenko, and has been a Senior Lecturer at Borys Hrinchenko University of Kyiv since 2013.
Irene Kytasty-Kuzma
Junior Bandura Workshop Director
Irene Kytasty-Kuzma grew up in a family of bandurists, conductors, composers, and singers. She began playing bandura with her father and brothers in metro-Detroit and attended bandura camps from an early age. By age 14, she was teaching at the ODUM Bandura Camp in Ontario, Canada, and assisting at the School of Bandura in Warren, Michigan. Her studies at the University of Michigan led to degrees in Elementary Education and English Literature, followed by a Master’s in International Administration from the School for International Training in Vermont. She raised three daughters who have become excellent performers, instructors, and administrators in bandura programs. In 2014, Irene founded the Women's Bandura Ensemble of North America, creating advanced opportunities for female students. WBENA is now recognized as a high-level performing ensemble, performing across the United States and Canada. Along with her lifelong bandura friends, Irene established the Bandura at Bobriwka workshop, to provide opportunities for youngsters to fall in love with bandura.
Kateryna Myronyuk
Bandura Instructor
Kateryna Myronyuk received her professional musical education at the Denys Sichynsky Ivano-Frankivsk Music College (bandura with Olesya Holonevska, voice with Mykhailo Stefanyuk) and at the National Music Academy of Ukraine (bandura with Kostiantyn Novytsky and Roman Hrynkiv, voice with Diana Petrynenko). She holds qualifications as a concert performer, bandura instructor, conductor of a bandurist capella, and Master of Musical Arts. She also completed postgraduate studies at the Maksym Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology.
For eight years, she was a soloist with the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Choir, touring the United States and Europe, and worked as a junior research associate at Borys Hrinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University. Since 2025, she has taught bandura and voice at the Hryhory Kytasty School of Bandura and conducts the children’s choir “Ave Maria” at the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church. She recorded the solo CD The Language of the Bandura About Love. Her artistic philosophy is to use the bandura to open hearts to beauty and inner harmony while fostering cultural grounding and openness to the world.
Mariia Bakhador
Bandura Instructor
Mariia Bakhador graduated from the Pavlo Chubynsky Academy of Arts (Kyiv, Ukraine), specializing in music education and conducting. She is an instructor at the Detroit School of Bandura.
After learning about the camp in Pennsylvania, she was immediately drawn to its concept and the opportunity to experience a unique place surrounded by mountains and water. This environment brings together many inspiring people and fosters a deep sense of passion and love for the bandura tradition. These two weeks in the mountains, filled with music and emotion, have become a meaningful source of inspiration, sustaining her throughout the year and leaving lasting memories of each camp season.
Through closer connections with the instructors of “Kobzarska Sich,” she joined the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America, marking an important step in her artistic journey shaped by the bandura tradition.
Teryn Kuzma
Ensemble Director and Vocal Instructor
Ukrainian-American soprano, Teryn Kuzma, is a versatile performer of classical, contemporary, musical theater, and folk repertoire.
Most recently, Teryn has performed with On Site Opera, the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, Trinity Church Wall Street, and starred in the world premiere of “Ruinous Gods” at Spoleto Festival, USA. She is a strong advocate for overlooked Eastern European music, and often includes it in her repertoire. She did so this past spring as a semifinalist at the Washington International Voice Competition. Her upcoming engagements include singing as a staff soprano and soloist with the Brick Presbyterian Church, and singing roles with Heartbeat Opera and other contemporary opera companies in 2027.
Teryn is also an accomplished instrumentalist on the 65-stringed bandura, and is devoted to sharing it with new audiences wherever she performs. Based in NYC, she proudly serves as the Assistant Conductor of the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America and the Artistic Director of the New York School of Bandura.