Odessa orchestra to present concerts (04/07/96)

Odessa orchestra to present concerts

TORONTO - The Canadian Friends of the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra will welcome one of Europe's finest orchestras to Toronto for a historic concert commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster.

The gala charity concert, featuring the music of 20th century Ukrainian composers Mykola Kolessa, My-roslav Skoryk and Kostiantyn Dankevych, will take place in Toronto on Sunday, April 21, at 6 p.m. at Massey Hall. The concert is being held under the patronage of the Ukrainian World Congress and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

All proceeds from the concert are earmarked for medical projects treating the victims of the Chornobyl tragedy.

The concert committee, co-chaired by Valentina Rodak, Myron Bara-bash and Lesia Shymko, is pleased that this historic concert has received the honorary patronage of several distinguished individuals, including Henry N.S. Jackman, lieutenant governor of Ontario; Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall; Jukka-Pekka Saraste, music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; and Ukraine's ambassador to Canada, Volodymyr Furkalo.

As the queen's representative, Ontario's lieutenant governor will be attending the performance. Official greetings also have been received from Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and will be published in the concert program.

Canadian Ukrainian philanthropist George Yemec, a member of the Canadian board of directors of the renowned Shakespeare Globe Center, is a major financial patron of the Toronto concert.

The Odessa Philharmonic's performance in Toronto will launch a series of North American concerts, including at the U.N. General Assembly, where it will perform on April 26, the anniversary of the Chornobyl tragedy. This is the first time that a Ukrainian symphony orchestra will perform at the United Nations' invitation. The United Nations has declared that day "International Day Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident."

The orchestra also will give a special performance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on April 28. First Lady Hillary Clinton will attend the concert. The concert is a presentation of the Washington Performing Arts Society.

On April 23 the orchestra will be in Princeton, N.J., to give a performance as part of the Princeton University Concert Series.

A great deal of credit must be given to the orchestra's dynamic principal conductor, Hobart Earle, who has largely been responsible for promoting the orchestra's profile both at home and abroad. Mr. Earle, an American, is the first U.S. citizen to attain the position of music director of an orchestra from the former USSR. In 1994, he was named "Distinguished Artist of Ukraine" (Zasluzhenyi Artyst Ukrainy).

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