The bayan is not merely a “folk accordion” but a full concert instrument with the widest range of possibilities. Unlike the piano-keyboard accordion, the bayan has button keyboards on both sides: the right is chromatic (3 rows), the left is a free-bass/stradella hybrid (allowing both preset chords and individual notes).
The modern bayan is universal: it performs Bach, Scarlatti, 20th-century avant-garde, Ukrainian folk music, and jazz. World-class Ukrainian bayanists: Volodymyr Zubitsky — composer and virtuoso, Yuriy Fedkov, Ihor Zavadskyi. The Lviv and Kyiv conservatories maintain powerful bayan schools that regularly produce international competition laureates.
