The first bandore band of the University was organized by Oleg Hasiuk in 1949. Many times the band was forced to stop its activity because of its pronounced national spirit, and its members were arrested and exiled to Siberia. However, numerous prohibitions and limitations did not manage to annihilate the spirit of the band.
From 1970 to 1985 the band was led by Bohdan Zheplynskyi. Taras Zheplynskyi continued the work of his father.
Since 1997 Khrystyna Zalutska has been the artistic director of the band. The new director continued the famous, almost half a century long mastery of the band in a worthy manner. In 2000 the band was given the honorary title of “National” for its high masterly performance. Soon Zaspiv bandore band obtained international professional recognition. On the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary the band gave a gala concert in November 2000; cassettes, booklets and CDs were produced.
The band is a laureate of numerous Ukrainian and international contests and festivals, namely: the International Festival of Students’ Culture “Krakow — 2000” (Poland), “Euro Treff” (Volfenbutel, Germany), the Third Ukrainian Amateur Festival of Trade Union Groups (Kyiv, 2001), International Choir Festival “Galle — 2002” (Germany). The band was very successful at the international conference entitled “European days” (Frieburg, Switzerland) and in 2003 at the fourth benefit concert “Music in Europe” (Gissen, Germany), at the fifth International contest “Europe and its songs” (Barcelona, Spain) Zaspiv gained the first place and a gold medal. In 2004 it was very successful at the concerts in Lodz (Poland), in 2005 it took part in the 13th International festival “Catalonia Orchestras” (Barcelona, Spain), in 2006 it gave concerts in Stockholm (Sweden), in Prague (Czech Republic), in Budapest (Hungary). Zaspiv is the only band which represents the western region at the Ukrainian festival “Veresayeve Sviato” in the village of Sokyryntsi of Chernigiv region.
The band constantly refreshes its repertoire and tries to preserve folk traditions and to inculcate the love for folk songs and culture. The repertoire of the band includes: sacred music, Ukrainian and west European classics, Ukrainian folk songs, author’s songs — in general more than fifty compositions of different kinds.