Dear colleagues!
As part of the Seventh Bohdan Wesolowsky International Festival of Retro Music, which receives organisational support from the State Enterprise ‘Directorate-General for Rendering Services to Diplomatic Missions’ (GDIP), we invite you to visit the presentation of the unique 2nd edition of the book Bondi or Returning of Bohdan Wesolowsky by Ihor Ostash, which will take place on Friday, 13 June 2025, 11:00 am, at the GDIP Media Center at 6-А Pyrohova St, Kyiv. The event will run in a hybrid online/offline mode.
Bondi is the nickname of Bohdan Wesolowsky, a famous Ukrainian composer, the father of Ukrainian dance music, and author of many popular songs (tangos, waltzes, foxtrots), lyric songs, and romances. The book tells the story of his life and creative work. Its readers will immerse themselves in the atmosphere of Ukrainian retro, interwar Lviv and Stryi, DP immigration, and the life of Ukrainians in Austria and Canada.
Bohdan Wesolowsky himself had a dream of becoming a diplomat. In the autumn of 1939, while in Austria, he gained admission to one of Europe’s most prestigious diplomatic schools, the Vienna Consular Academy, to study Consular and Diplomatic Service.
The composer’s creative legacy is an element of Ukraine’s cultural diplomacy across many countries. From the 1950s onward, Bohdan Wesolowsky became an iconic composer among the Ukrainian diasporic communities in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Europe, and the United States. Bondi was one of the few Ukrainian composers to create music in three languages: Ukrainian, English, and German.
Moderator: Andriana Bila, press attaché of the Bohdan Wesolowsky International Festival of Retro Music.
The presentation panel will include:
- Ihor Ostash, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, author of the book Bondi or Returning of Bohdan Wesolowsky, founder of the Bohdan Wesolowsky International Festival of Retro Music, researcher and promoter of the composer’s legacy;
- Pavlo Kryvonos, GDIP Director-General, second-class Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary;
- Stanislav Lytvynov, director of the Bohdan Wesolowsky International Festival of Retro Music, director of the documentary Bondi or Returning of Bohdan Wesolowsky.
The presentation will feature unique photographs of Bohdan Wesolowsky from Ihor Ostash’s archive, which have been restored and ‘animated’ through the artistic technology of director Stanislav Lytvynov. They will also present other creative output from the Festival, including the documentary The First Jazz (author: Ihor Ostash; director: Stanislav Lytvynov), and the retro-magazine (editor: Andriana Bila). The 2nd edition of the book Bondi or Returning of Bohdan Wesolowsky by Ihor Ostash was published thanks to the GDIP’s assistance.
Working language: Ukrainian with simultaneous interpretation into English.
To register or receive additional information, please contact GDIP representative Yelyzaveta Spivak by phone at +38 (067) 665-73-00, or via email at prepress.gdip@gmail.com, or fill out the following Google form: https://forms.gle/R1VbabfqQaYNPVDD6 .
Join us!