DATELINE NEW YORK: Catching up on culture (02/04/96)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Catching up on culture

by Helen Smindak

February promises to bring a delightful carnival of Ukrainian dancers, singers, musicians and actors to local concert halls and theaters.

Cleaning the slate for later coverage of these events, today's stories complete my account of cultural events from the final months of 1995.

The policemen's chorus

The kind of performance that makes your pulse race, moves you to sing and dance, and inspires you to cheer and wave flags - that was the feat brought about by the Ensemble of Song and Dance of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The 75-member company, complete with chorus, orchestra, soloists and a small troupe of dancers, appeared at the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan in October.

Quite appropriately, though it occurred by chance, the group's concert took place the same weekend that President Leonid Kuchma came to town to address the 50th anniversary gathering of the United Nations.

Members of the orchestra and the all-male chorus, attired in drab blue uniforms adorned with gold braid and red-brimmed officers' caps, looked for all the world like military personnel, though they are in fact part of the Ukrainian national police force.

Singing with heart and soul (and occasionally overwhelming their listeners with their amplified sound), the chorus offered marching songs of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen after World War I days ("Hey, Tam na Hori Sich Ide") and such popular Ukrainian folk songs as "Yikhav Kozak za Dunai" (A Kozak Travels Beyond the Danube).

Impressive effects were achieved by the chorus. There was a moving rendition of Nishchynsky's "Zakuvala Ta Syva Zazulia" (The Gray Cuckoo Calls), and an a cappella performance of Bortniansky's reverential "Pid Tvoyu Mylist" (Under Your Divine Grace). The folk song "Verba" (Willow Tree in the Meadow), which began quietly, swelled to a mighty roar and faded again to a hush.

Humorous selections like "Tsyhanochka" (Gypsy Girl), complete with whistling, head shaking and tremolo bird calls, brought a rollicking element to the program.

Throughout the concert, outstanding performances were delivered by several soloists, particularly the tenor voices. Among these were Y. Savchuk, B. Kryvoruchko, O. Dudka, F. Melnychenko and A. Haidarenko (initials were listed instead of first names in the concert program). O. Kuleshov amazed the audience as he held one note for what seemed to be two full minutes, without pausing to take a breath, in the song "Oy, Susidko" (Oh, neighbor).

Instrumental numbers that spotlight a nimble-fingered flutist and a folk instrument group (violins, flute, accordion, drum and tsymbaly), and several dance presentations were interwoven between songs. Providing room for the dancers, the chorus stepped back in a V-formation to both sides of the stage. The singers remained there while adding vocal accompaniment and spontaneity to the choreography.

Dance numbers presented by a youthful ensemble of six men and six women included a graceful welcome dance with the traditional offering of bread and salt, a lively Kozaks' dance with lances, a boisterous male trio and the Hopak finale.

Ihor Dlaboha, vice-president of the New York chapter of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, noted in opening remarks that the concert was dedicated to the November 1 anniversary of the establishment of the Western Ukrainian Republic in 1918. The sponsoring organization for the ensemble's U.S. tour was the Ukrainian American Federation of Police Officers, with Col. Ihor Rakowsky serving as coordinator of the New York concert.

Founded in Kyiv in 1992, the Ensemble of Song and Dance is led by Lt. Col. Mykola Druzellko (managing director), Lt. Col. Roman Cherepakha (artistic director), orchestral director Vasyl Antonov, choirmaster Valeriy Kachanov and balletmaster Mykola Khriapin. In 1994, the ensemble was awarded first prize for clarity and originality at the international competition Slavic Bazaar.

A library of information

Let's open Volume 1 (A-F)...here's a listing on Dykanka, a town in the Poltava Oblast that was immortalized by Mykola Hohol, who called his first collection of verses "Evenings on a Homestead near Dykanka, 1931-1832."

Look into Volume II (G-K), and you find descriptions of glass, Golden Gate, hemp, composer/opera singer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, and the definition of "katsap," the derogatory name applied to Russians by Ukrainians.

Volume III (L-Ph) offers information about Lemkos, Ukrainian modernist painter Halyna Mazepa and Hetman of Ukraine Ivan Mazepa.

So it goes through the alphabet - Olha, Pan-Slavonic, rooster (a common figure in Ukrainian folk literature and mythology; a symbol of faith in the Christian Church), Shevchenko, "Slovo o Polku Ihorevi" (The Tale of Ihor's Campaign), sweetbrier (wild rosebush whose flowers ripen into red hips that are rich in Vitamin C), Volyn, Yaroslav the Wise, Zaporozhian Sich.

What's this all about? It has to do with a five-volume, English-language Encyclopedia of Ukraine that carries over 15,000 alphabetical entries, glossy maps and thousands of illustrations. This is a reference work that can assist anyone interested in Ukraine, its history, economy, culture, geography, industry and demography, and in prominent figures of Ukraine and the diaspora.

Published in Canada in 1993, the Encyclopedia of Ukraine received it official launching in the U.S. last November at a special event hosted by the New York branch of the Shevchenko Scientific Society.

On hand for the debut were several persons involved in the preparation and funding of the encyclopedia: Leonid Rudnytzky, who heads the Shevchenko Society in the U.S. and is also president the society's World Council; Prof. Danylo Husar Struk, who served as editor-in-chief; Morris Diakowsky, president of the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies; and Walter Baranetsky, president of the Foundation of Friends of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

Scholars, consulting editors, editorial staff and cartographers - some 500 in all - produced the encyclopedia. A video depicting the work involved in the creation of the five volumes was shown the event.

The heavy volumes, together with a slim map and gazetteer book, have a medium brown cover; the front of each volume bears a gold replica of a sunflower symbol created by artist Jacques Hnizdovsky.

The project, initially visualized by the late Prof. Volodymyr Kubijovyc Sarcelles, France, was brought to fruition by a triumvirate - the Shevchenko Scientific Society (the oldest Ukrainian learned association), the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies.

This new resource complements the thematic two-volume Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia, which was prepared by the Shevchenko Society, funded by the Ukrainian National Association and published by the University of Toronto 25 years ago.

The origin of musical creativity

Do you know what country produced the largest number of famous Jewish violinists, violoncellists and cantors, the second largest number of Jewish pianists and singers, and the third largest number of Jewish composers in the world?

The answer is Ukraine.

The information was offered by Dr. Alex Yufa of Brooklyn, who delivered a talk on "Ukrainian Jews - Prominent World Musicians" at an academic conference held in December at the Shevchenko Scientific Society's quarters in New York.

The all-day conference, which delved into Ukrainian-Jewish relations, was sponsored by the American Association of Russian Jews, the Society of Ukrainian Jewish Relations and the Jewish Cultural Society. Ambassador Anatoliy Zlenko, Ukraine's permanent representative to the United Nations, was present for the morning session.

Dr. Yufa, who spent a couple of years researching the origins of great Jewish musicians, came up with a total of 1,061 Jewish persons in nine faculties with roots in Ukraine.

He added these statistics: Ukraine took sixth or seventh place in the world for Jewish musicologists, and ninth place for Jewish conductors.

Although he could not explain the phenomenon, Dr. Yufa guessed that many factors were at play - "something in the qualities of nature, environment, the land in Ukraine" must have fostered the musical talents and creativity of the Jewish people.

Among world-renowned Jewish artists who came from Ukraine, Dr. Yufa named pianists Vladimir Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter; violinists Mischa Elman, David Oistrakh and Isaac Stern; flutist Bohdan Hilash; cellist Gregor Piatigorsky; cantors Joseph Schmidt and Gershon Sirota; singer cantor Mordecai Hershman; singer Oleksandr Kipnis, and composers Anton Rubinstein and Karol Rathaus.

He said Jewish musicians in America whose parents came from Ukraine include singers Regina Resnik and Richard Tucker, composer George Gershwin and violinist Itzhak Perlman.

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