William "Bill" Vetzal (Василь Вецал) (born May 15, 1943 in

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

) is a Canadian

bandura A bandura ( uk, банду́ра) is a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often referred to by the term kobza. Early instruments (c. 1700) had 5 to 12 strings ...

designer and manufacturer. Vetzal studied the art of bandura making from the Honcharenko brothers in

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in the 1970s. Since then he has made over 480 instruments, many of which have incorporated significant design improvements in the construction and the system of mechanisms used to retune the instrument. As a result of consistent efforts in fine craftsmanship with the incorporation of contemporary technologies Vetzal has become the leading maker of banduras in the world. Vetzal has made instruments for theUkrainian Bandurist Chorus,Chorus History
/ref> the Canadian Bandurist Capella and many notable concert bandurists in North America. His instruments are sent out to

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. He has also passed on his bandura making skills and knowledge to Ukrainian craftsmen such as A. Zayaruzny, R. Hrynkiv and Ye. Ptashkin who have traveled to Canada to study under him. Vetzal has had orders for instruments from around the world, including Ukraine. Instruments made by him are being used by prominent bandurists in Ukraine such as Volodymyr Yesypok and Volodymyr Voyt. In addition to banduras, Vetzal has also made numerous other Ukrainian folk instruments including

kobza The kobza ( uk , кобза), also called bandurka ( uk , бандурка) is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family ( Hornbostel-Sachs classification number 321.321-5+6), a relative of the Central European mandora. The term ''kobz ...

tsymbaly The tsymbaly ( uk, цимбали) is the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer. It is a chordophone made up of a trapezoidal box with metal (steel or bronze) strings strung across it. The tsymbaly is played by striking two beaters against ...

sopilka Sopilka (, uk, Cопiлка) is a name applied to a variety of woodwind instruments of the flute family used by Ukrainian folk instrumentalists. ''Sopilka'' most commonly refers to a fife made of a variety of materials (but traditionally out of ...

volynka The volynka ( uk, волинка, коза, russian: волынка, crh, tulup zurna – see also duda, and koza) is a bagpipe. Its etymology comes from the region Volyn, Ukraine, where it was borrowed from Romania. The ''volynka'' is constr ...

-bagpipes,

lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the local name of the currencies of Lebanon and of Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, including those of Italy, Malta and Israe ...

- hurdy-gurdies.

Literature

*нн – William Vetzal // «Bandura», #19-20, 1987 *Мiшалов, В. - Майстри Бандур - 2000 // ж. «Bandura», #73/74, 2000 *Mishalow, V. – Bandura makers 2000 // ж. «Bandura», #73/74, 2000

References

External links

Vetzal BanduraVideo segment on Vetzal from Kontact Ukrainian Television Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vetzal, William 1943 births Living people Bandurists Kobzarstvo Bandura makers Canadian people of Ukrainian descent Musicians from Oshawa