Nearly 20 years have passed since Nataliya Gudziy visited Japan for the first time, when she performed live with fellow members of the Ukrainian folk dance ensemble Chervona Kalyna, or Red Viburnum, named after Ukraine's national symbol.
In a series of concerts across Japan, the troupe performed traditional Ukrainian folk dances and sang songs to the accompaniment of a "bandura" — a traditional 61-string Ukrainian instrument resembling the lute, played by then 16-year-old Nataliya, or Natasha, the informal version of her name under which she now performs here.
Becoming the first and one of only two professional bandurists within Japan, she continues to share Ukraine's history along with her own, and her fellow countrymen's, experiences, hoping to raise awareness of the dangers of nuclear energy that since 1986 has affected millions of people worldwide.