DATELINE NEW YORK: Musically speaking (11/02/97)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Musically speaking

by Helen Smindak

It's a given fact that music is a very important element in the lives of Ukrainians, whether that involves performing it, listening to it, brooding with it, reveling in it or dancing along with it. Here in New York City, this fact was underscored in October, as artists from the U.S. and Ukraine appeared in concerts, and on TV, offering folkrock, folklore, classical, operatic, bandura and traditional Ukrainian music.

During a recent weekend, I had the pleasure of attending concerts on three separate days, that featured Ukrainian performers. On Friday it was New York-born singer and composer Lisa Mathews, backed by the up-and-coming rock band Love Riot at the World Trade Center. Saturday brought lyric soprano Maria Stefiuk of the Kyiv Opera with a recital at the Ukrainian Institute of America. Sunday's grand finale was the 45-man Ukrainian Bandura Chorus, appearing at Town Hall - the chorus's first appearance in New York in several years.

On another weekend, the Duquesne University Tamburitzans topped off a colorful tour of Eastern European folklore with a dynamic suite of Ukrainian songs and dances that brought the SRO audience to its feet. Also, the Promin vocal ensemble and several top-notch singers and instrumentalists from Ukraine offered a subdued but extremely lovely program at The Cooper Union, part of a solemn two-day commemoration of the tragic Akcja Wisla, the Polish government's forcible resettlement in 1947 of more than 140,000 Ukrainians from southeast Poland to other parts of Poland.

It will take more than one Dateline to transmit all this data, so let's start with the Bandura Chorus and Love Riot.

Our beloved bards

The Ukrainian Bandura Chorus, combining two Ukrainian musical traditions - choral singing and the national musical instrument, the bandura - never fails to transport me to seventh heaven.

Over the past 40 years, I have relished performances in London, Ontario; in Toronto, where the bandurists appeared with actor Jack Palance (who strummed a mini bandura as he sang "Vziav By Ya Banduru"); in Detroit, at a concert presented by the Ukrainian Youth League of North America; and on several occasions in New York, including a Carnegie Hall concert in 1966.

In 1991 I happened to be visiting Lviv with my husband when the chorus appeared in that city during a triumphant tour of Ukraine. The Opera House was packed with jubilant, newly independent and tearful Ukrainians (and more than a few foreign tourists) cheering the musicians who had found refuge in America - and a haven for their banduras and their music - after joining the exodus of Ukrainians to the West during World War II.

This fall, anticipating the return of the chorus to the Big Apple and their performance at Town Hall, I wondered whether the group had retained its vitality and special attraction. I knew that many of the original members had retired, that maestro Hryhoriy Kytasty had departed this earth; other conductors had come and gone, and now the chorus was directed by a young Ukrainian American attorney with an extensive background in music, bandura-playing and teaching. With many new singers and instrumentalists, one of them as young as 15, would the chorus still beguile listeners with its unique art form?

If anything, the chorus is more vigorous and disciplined than I remember, and yes, still quite overpowering. Under the expert and polished direction of 27-year-old Oleh Mahlay of Parma, Ohio, the chorus presented a two-hour program of songs and music that ranged from an 11th century Kyivan chant through epic ballads, bandura solos, and odes to Mazepa and Chornobyl, to happy-go-lucky folk songs and dance tunes.

Opening reverentially with an a capella segment, the Kyivan-chant setting of the "Beatitudes" from the divine liturgy blended voices and bandura music impressively as it ranged through pianissimo and forte passages. Liudkevych's solemn "Prayer of Mercy," beseeching guidance and protection from the mother of God was suitably restrained and hushed. The chorus provided back-up (in English) for the deep voice of baritone Jarema Cisaruk as he sang the well-known American hymn "Amazing Grace."

Images of scorched earth were portrayed with sadness in Julian Kytasty's original work, "The Chornobyl Carol." In "A Song about Mazepa," soloist Mykhailo Newmerzyckyj and the chorus conveyed the grief of Hetman Ivan Mazepa as he bid farewell to Ukraine after the Kozaks' defeat at the Battle of Poltava in 1709.

Ukraine's troubled past was illuminated further in a song about the Chumaks, the salt traders who carted their produce to the cities from the Black Sea, and another about the freedom fighters who struggled to liberate Carpatho-Ukraine in (1938). Omelan Helbig's fine tenor reflected the despair of a mother as her Chumak son departed on a grueling trip.

The unforgettable words of Ukraine's poet laureate, Taras Shevchenko, touched hearts as tenor Teodosiy Pryshliak and accompanist Orest Skliarenko, with choral background music, offered the poignant "Dumy Moyi" (My Thoughts).

Reflecting the lighter side of Ukrainian life was a well-chosen array of spirited selections that exhibited the bandurists' superb enunciation and their marvelous technical versatility on the bandura - among them, a humorous love song, "Whose Courtyard is This?," and a toe-tapping "kolomyika" tune plus a medley of folk songs that had bandurists' fingers flying across the strings of their Poltava banduras. The proud warriors of the Zaporozhian Sich were remembered with a traditional Kozak drinking song and a lusty march-tempo battle song, "Play, bandura!"

In a segment that recalled bandura minstrels of old, Marko Farion appeared alone on stage to present a traditional duma, an epic ballad delivered narrative-style to the accompaniment of his bandura.

Instrumental techniques were spotlighted in Julian Kytasty's solo rendition of "Musical Moment" and the bandurist ensemble's unique use of the bandura in "Echo of the Steppes," where continuous ripples of high notes drew images of stiff breezes sweeping through tall grasses. Both selections were composed by Hryhoriy Kytasty, the longtime artistic director of the chorus (and uncle to Julian Kytasty).

Vocal soloists, apart from those already mentioned, included Roman Kassaraba, Boris Kekish, Ihor Kushnir and Andriy Soroka.

Those who were lucky enough to hear the chorus during its October tour in the northeast U.S. and Canada will remember its magnetism and technical artistry. For others less fortunate I recommend the capella's newest CD, "Ukrainian Steppe," which includes many of the songs offered in the concert program. The CD and other audio products are available at Ukrainian music stories or directly from The Ukrainian Bandura Chorus of North America by contacting its business manager: Wolodymyr Murha, 15356 Ellen Drive, Livonia, MI 48154; telephone, (313) 953-0305.

Love Riot blooms

Lisa Mathews and her Love Riot band have been making waves in the Northeast U.S. for the past four years. Their music has been described as "genuine communication, the sound of musicians who listen as keenly as they play" (J.D. Considine of The Baltimore Sun) and "melodic adult rock ... layers of acoustic guitar and violin woven around the subtly sensual vocals of Lisa Mathews" (Steve Morse of The Boston Globe).

Love Riot's first CD, "Maybe She Will," is creating a stir in today's music circles, too, and on radio stations across the country. The Album Network described it as "romantic music that's part rock, part folk, and always strong in both song and performance." The Philadelphia Weekly said the CD "exudes a cool and complete sound ... that isn't often heard from newcomers in the music world."

Everyone seems to like the band's toned-down but intense style, and the lead singer's clarity and strong vocal presence. Compliments have come from a host of music critics who write for The Washington Post, Musician Magazine, the Baltimore City Paper and other Northeast publications.

Ms. Mathews, whose real name is Lisa Kruk Anderson (the Kruk comes from her Ukrainian parents, the Anderson from her husband of four years, musician Miles Anderson), broke into the music business some 10 years ago when she answered a "singer wanted" ad in the Village Voice placed by guitarist Mikel Gehl of Baltimore.

Along with Mr. Gehl's friend, bassist Mark Evanko (his name sounds Ukrainian, but he says he's of Czech descent), they joined some other musicians to form an '80s rock band called Beyond Words. When that band dissolved, the trio started Love Riot, using only vocals, guitar and bass. A year later violinist Willem Elzivir, who also plays the mandolin, came on board, and the group recorded a self-released cassette "Muscle."

In 1994, on a whim, the drummerless quartet entered Yamaha's MusicQuest Competition, an international competition for unsigned bands. After participating in the nationals in Los Angeles, the band was flown to Japan for the international finals. Love Riot won by a unanimous vote, beating out 25,000 - that's right, 25,000 - other bands.

The grand prize - a trophy - did not bring immediate fame, but the group persisted, writing new songs, rehearsing daily and taking its show on the road, this time with a drummer, Ron Campbell. Audiences and critics began to sit up and take notice, and Love Riot signed a three-album deal with Squirrel Boy Records of San Jose, Calif., which released the CD "Maybe She Will" in 1996.

Dateline caught up with Ms. Mathews in the cafe of Borders Books and Music store at the World Trade Center, where I listened for over an hour to Love Riot's compelling and original sound - a blend of acoustic and electric, moody ballads and drum-driven rock, coffee-house guitar and gypsy violin. The lyrics, most of which were written by Ms. Mathews, have a conversational quality found in folk music.

Ms. Mathews' voice is both sweet and sensuous; some say her straightforward phrasing sounds a bit like early Joni Mitchell, but her throaty wail recalls k.d. lang. As she plays her electric guitar, she sings of love and relationships from a variety of perspectives in a personal, but not autobiographical, way, songs like "Home" and "Some Other Time."

Performing before audiences, delivering charming commentary between numbers, the 30-something singer reveals a warm, natural quality that endears her to listeners. She is slender and tall (over 5 feet 8 inches), and her long brown hair falls over her face as she leans over her guitar.

She thinks she got her love for music from her mother, the former Alice Kuciw, who used to sing in the choir of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Church in New York and with Steven Marusevich's Ukrainian Chorus, performing as a soloist in Ukrainian operettas, operas and concerts with singers Mary Lesawyer, Mary Bodnar and George Bohachevsky, and pianist Olga Dmytriw.

Ms. Mathews, who took her stage name from her brother Mathew, grew up in Astoria and Bayside, Queens, as the daughter of Alice Kuciw Kruk and Eugene Kruk, a commercial artist. She is a graduate of Hunter College, where she studied English and music, and played cello in the school orchestra. After her father passed away, the family moved to Maryland (her mother later remarried and is now Alice Tercijonas).

Frequently seen on TV in Baltimore, Ms. Mathew and Love Riot recently appeared on the show "Rodricks for Breakfast" at the newly opened 77th Hard Rock Cafe. Last Memorial Day weekend she was invited to sing the national anthem at the Baltimore Orioles stadium, Camden Yard. She is currently touring with her group in Ohio, West Virginia and upstate New York.

You can catch her on NBC's Friday night show "Homicide: Life on the Streets" on November 7 at 10 p.m.; she and her band are an important part of the show's action. Failing that, try your favorite music store for the "Maybe She Will" CD or Love Riot's CD single being released by Squirrel Boy Records in early November, featuring the song "Killing Time" from the Homicide show.

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