1996: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: The cultural scene: marked by enrichment (12/29/96)

1996: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The cultural scene: marked by enrichment

The 1996 cultural season was marked by prominence, for the second year in a row, in the area of theater and a coming to the fore of contemporary Ukrainian literature as well as important developments in art. The cultural scene has undoubtedly been enriched by creative and performing artists who have emigrated to North America, seeking greater artistic renomee and material security abroad. In music and dance, they are of world-calibre.

Among the highlights of the season were:

Art Exhibitions/sales

Art historian and archaeologist Dr. Ludmyla Pekarska, head of the Department of Ancient and Medieval Kyiv at the National Museum of Ukraine, was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in April, providing documentation for hundreds of relics of the Kyivan state, previously identified as Russian. As a result of her work, some 400 Ukrainian artifacts will be shown next year in the Met's "Glory of Byzantium" exhibit, in which 25 countries will participate.
Among lenders to the "Georges de La Tour and His World" exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington on October 6-January 5, 1977, comprising 32 major paintings by or attributed to the 17th century French painter from collections around the world, was the work "The Payment of Taxes," on loan from the Lviv Picture Gallery in Ukraine.
Alexander Archipenko's sculpto-painting, "Karaffe" (1921), a work long recorded as lost and one of few works by the artist that is not in a public collection, was among the highlights of the Mauerbach Benefit Sale, an international auction offering heirless art confiscated by the Nazis between 1938 and 1945, conducted by Christie's on October 29-30 at the MAK-Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Architecture

Contemporary Ukrainian architecture, as represented in the work of Ukrainian Canadian architect Radoslav Zuk, has continued to gain international exposure, most recently at the prestigious Architekturgalerie München in Germany where the exhibit "Radoslav Zuk: Tradition and the Present - Ukrainian Churches in North America and Museum Projects in Ukraine" was held on July 26-September 21.

Museums

A museum honoring Serhii Pylypenko, a leading figure in the Ukrainian cultural renaissance of the 1920s who was later repressed by the Soviet regime, opened on August 28 in the Kharkiv State Academy of Urban Planning. The museum was dedicated to Mr. Pylypenko and his family: his wife, Tetiana Kardynalowska, a pedagogue, writer and translator; his daughter Assya Humesky, professor of Slavistics at the University of Michigan and president of the American Association of Ukrainian Studies; and his other daughter Mirtala, a sculptor and a poet who donated her sculptures to the Kharkiv museum.

Artists

The 100th anniversary of the birth of prominent Ukrainian modernist painter and graphic artist Mykola Butovych (1895-1961) was marked both here and in Ukraine with special programs dedicated to the artist: in Ivano-Frankivsk on December 1; in New York, with a presentation by Stefania Hnatenko and a retrospective of the artist's work, from the Butovych family and the UVAN collections, held at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences on June 9-23; and in Poltava on October 25-26 with a two-day conference titled "Mykola Butovych: The Man and The Artist," under the auspices of the Committee on the Return of National Cultural Treasures at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. On the occasion UVAN also committed itself to publish the artist's memoirs,"Te, Scho Pryhaduyu" (That Which I Remember), and the illustrated work "Eneida " (1953).
An exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of prominent Ukrainian artist Vasyl Diadyniuk (1900-1944), known for his work in portraiture, graphics and iconography, and a series of historical figures from Ukraine's princely and Kozak eras, was held at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on May 31-June 9.
The 80th anniversary of the birth of sculptor Leo Mol (Leonid Molodozhanyn), who earned an international reputation as one of Canada's leading sculptors, was marked by the publication in Ukraine of the monograph "Skulptor Leo Mol: Zhyttia i Tvorchist" (The Sculptor Leo Mol: His Life and Work) by Dr. Dmytro Stepovyk and Mystetstvo Publishers. (A book launch was held in the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine on December 14, 1995; the event was covered in the February issue of The Weekly).

Film, photography

The film "Atentat," (Assassination: An October Murder in Munich," directed and produced by Oles Yanchuk), portraying the struggle of the Ukranian Insurgent Army against both the Nazis and the Soviets and the assassination of Stepan Bandera, head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was screened (having premiered in Kyiv in October of 1995) in New York in January and subsequently in movie theaters and Ukrainian American community centers across the U. S.

Literature

A collection of works by the legendary group of western Ukrainian poets Bu-Ba-Bu, titled "Tvory," was published in Lviv by Kameniar on the occasion of the group's 100th anniversary (i.e., the collective sum of its members' ages). Bu-Ba-Bu was formed in Lviv in 1985; its members are Yuri Andrukhovych, Viktor Neborak and Oleksandr Irvanets.
Canadian Ukrainian writer Janice Kulyk Keefer's lastest novel, "The Green Library," was nominated for the prestigious Governor General's Award. In writing about Ukraine, Ms. Keefer wanted "to stress not only what makes Ukrainian a unique and a very definitive culture but what makes the Ukrainian experience speak to other people." Among topics dealt with are the reclamation of the past, the interaction between history and personal and family history, and the idea of displacement and survival.
An anthology introducing contemporary Ukrainian writing in English translation, titled "From Three Worlds: New Writing from Ukraine," appeared in October as a publication of Zephyr Press and Glas, a Moscow-based independent literary journal. The collection of prose and poetry showcases the work of 15 contemporary writers, among them: Volodymyr Dibrova, Kostiantyn Moskalets, Evhenia Kononenko, Yevhen Pashkovsky, Valery Shevchuk, Yuri Andrukhovych, Bohdan Zholdak, Yuri Vynnychuk, Oleksandr Irvanets, Halyna Pahutiak, Vasyl Holoborodko, Natalka Bilotserkivets, Oksana Zabuzhko, Viktor Neborak and Oleh Lysheha. The work was edited by Ed Hogan, with guest editors Askold Melnyczuk, Michael Naydan, Mykola Riabchuk and Ms. Zabuzhko.
Askold Melnyczuk, author of "What Is Told," (1994) received the Massachusetts Cultural Council Award for Fiction in 1996.

Theater

For the second time since its founding in 1988, the innovative and highly acclaimed Les Kurbas Theater of Lviv, under the direction of Volodymyr Kuchynsky, was in New York at the invitation of the Harriman Institute and the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theater Studies to conduct workshops and performances at Columbia University. The company presented "Games for Faust" (in Ukrainian with an English synopsis) on February 23 and "Grateful Erodiy," a staging of a parable by the 18th century philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda, on March 22 at the Katherine Bache Miller Theater at Columbia.

The group also conducted workshops at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Saratoga International Theater Institute in New York, as well as made guest appearances at Harvard University and at Ukrainian community venues in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Featured actors were Oleh Drach, Andriy Vodychev, Natalka Polovynka and Tetyana Kaspruk.
Two of Kyiv's leading stage and screen actors, Larysa Kadyrova and Serhiy Djigourda, appeared in the Suzirya Theater's production of "The Radiance of Fatherhood," a play written by Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), which was the Ukrainian entry at the second Eastern European Theater Festival held at the Players Forum in New York at the end of April.
The New-York based Yara Arts Group, under the direction of Virlana Tkacz, presented "Wayward Wind" in a workshop production on May 9-19 at La Mama (with the full production to be presented in January 1997). Yara also conducted its ninth theater workshop at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute, featuring a reading of contemporary Ukrainian poetry titled "Spinning Spells: Poetry by Ukrainian Women." Included was poetry by Oksana Batiuk, Victoria Stakh, Ludmyla Taran and Oksana Zabuzhko.
The Ukrainian Stage Ensemble, under the direction of Lydia Krushelnytska, marked its 30th anniversary by staging Lesia Ukrainka's "Lisova Pisnia" (The Forest Song), with set design by Vladyslav Klech, in the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York on June 1-2.
The Lalka Puppet Theater of Toronto, with the aim of giving Ukrainian children something to share with their non-Ukrainian friends, presented "The Green Goofy Being and the Tanner," an English version of the Ukrainian fable "Kyrylo Kozhumiaka," updated as a puppet show and satire by puppet-maker Miroslawa Betlej. The production, featuring an all-adult amateur cast, was staged at Toronto's Ontario College of Art on March 26 and the St. Vladimir Institute on May 4-5 and 11-12.

Dance

The world-renowned Veryovka Ukrainian National Choral and Dance Company of Kyiv, under the direction of Anatoly Avdievsky,was on a three-month tour of the U.S. and Canada, making its U.S. debut on January 11 in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Ballet came to the fore this season with two Ukrainian-born dancers - Vladimir Malakhov and Maxim Belotserkovsky - in American Ballet Theater productions at the Metropolitan Opera House. Mr. Malakhov, named "best male dancer in the world" by Japan's Dance Magazine and a "new find" by the ABT, joined the American Ballet Theater in the spring of 1996, appearing in leading roles in productions of "Romeo and Juliet," "Manon," "La Bayadère," "Swan Lake" as well as in a special all-Tchaikovsky program. Mr. Belotserkovsky, leading soloist with the National Opera of Ukraine and member of the ABT corps de ballet since 1994, was appointed soloist with the ABT in May.

Music

A project to publish the works of Artem Vedel, the original manuscripts of which are housed at the Central Library of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv, was initiated this spring by Maestro Volodymyr Kolesnyk in collaboration with composer Zenon Lawryshyn, with the Ukrainian Music Society of Alberta undertaking the administrative tasks of the publication process. The completed publication, to be titled "Masterpieces of Ukrainian Classical Spiritual Music: Artem Vedel, 1767-1808," will bring to light one of the most prominent Ukrainian composers of the 18th century whose work was censored by the Russian government for close to two centuries, allowing Vedel's music to take its rightful place within world musical tradition.
Composer of avant-garde music Leonid Hrabovsky's 1993 work for voice and chamber ensemble titled "And It Will Be" (I Tak Bude), a 10-minute work built around eight poems by Mykola Vorobyov, was premiered in New York by Continuum, with Joel Sachs conducting, in a gala concert at Merkin Concert Hall on February 24.
Composer Virko Baley's work "Dreamtime" was performed at New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall by the California E.A.R. Unit, under the direction of Rand Steiger, on March 18.
The work of Myroslav Skoryk, one of Ukraine's most prominent composers, was performed in Weill Recital Hall on October 1. Featured were eight chamber works, including the premiere of Partita No. 6 for String Quartet, performed by the Leontovych String Quartet. Performing were pianists Mykola Suk and Volodymyr Vynnytsky, baritone Oleh Chmyr, cellist Vagram Saradjian and the composer himself.
The Carnegie Hall debut of 20-year-old pianist Alex Slobodyanik with the New York Youth Symphony, under the direction of Miguel Harth-Bedoya, took place on February 18.
A recital featuring winners of the First International Vladimir Horowitz Piano Competition held last spring in Kyiv was held at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on March 2. Among the young pianists touring the U. S., Israel, France and Ukraine were Artem Liakhovych, Oleksiy Yemtsov, Oleksiy Koltakov and Shai Cohen.
The statesman of Ukrainian music, Prof. Mykola Kolessa, returned to the U.S. for the second time, at the invitation of the Ukrainian Music Institute of America, appearing at concerts held in his honor in Port Charlotte and Hollywood, Fla., in April. Featured performers were soprano Oksana Krovytska and pianist Mykola Suk.
Twenty-two year old Ukrainian pianist Vitaliy Samoshko was top finisher at Montreal's 26th International Music Competition held on May 27-June 8.
The Olexander Koshetz Choir of Winnipeg, one of the largest and oldest community-based Ukrainian choirs in Canada, celebrated its 50th anniversary with commemorative concerts on October 11-13, with Anatoly Avdievsky of Ukraine and Larry Ewashko of Ottawa as guest conductors as well as soloists past and present.
The Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of American conductor Hobart Earle, made its Washington debut in a concert commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on April 28. The concert was presented by the Washington Performing Arts Society. The orchestra also appeared in commemorative concerts in Toronto on April 21, at the United Nations on April 26, and in Princeton, N.J., on April 23.
Oksana Krovytska, in her third consecutive season as a lead New York City Opera soprano, appeared as Violetta in NYCO's production of "La Traviata" to excellent reviews in the spring.
Odesa-born mezzo-soprano Maria Guleghina appeared in "Andrea Chenier" with Luciano Pavarotti and Juan Pons on opening night at the Metropolitan Opera on September 30.
Soprano Victoria Loukianets, formerly principal soloist of the Kyiv National Opera, member of the Bolshoi Opera, and since 1994, with the Vienna State Opera, made her American debut at the Metropolitan Opera on October 2 in the lead role in "La Traviata."
The concert "Stars of Tomorrow," sponsored by the New York Grand Opera Guild under the direction of Maestro Vincent La Selva, featured a group of 10 outstanding singers, among them New York soprano Elena Heimur and baritone Oleh Chmyr of Ukraine. The concert was held at New York's Weill Recital Hall on February 15.
The U.K. rock band The Ukrainians (only half of whom are of Ukrainian origin), who play a highly intense and original mixture of Ukrainian folk music and rock to predominantly non-Ukrainian audiences throughout Europe, were on their first tour abroad promoting their latest CD "Kultura" in Canada, playing in Toronto on August 7.
The rock band Deep Purple of 1970s fame played at the open-air concert Autumn Rock Marathon held in Kyiv on September 15. The appearance preceded the group's concert tour in the U.S.

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