UIA to feature music of Stankovych (11/16/97)

UIA to feature music of Stankovych

NEW YORK - A concert featuring the music of Yevhen Stankovych, one of the central figures of contemporary Ukrainian music, will be held on November 22 at the Ukrainian Institute of America.

Performing at the concert are violinist Anatoliy Bazhenov, pianist Naida Magomedbekova, clarinetist David Gresham and composer/conductor Virko Baley leading the Music At The Institute (MATI) Chamber Ensemble with the Flux Quartet - Tom Chiu and Cornelius Dufallo, violins; Kenji Bunch, viola; and David Eggar, cello.

The concert, sponsored by Dr. W. Howard Hoffman, is being held as part of "Music at the Institute's" presentation of "Composer's Choice."

The program features the Sonata Piccolo for violin and piano (1977, U.S. premiere); Triptych "In the Highlands" for violin and piano (1972); String Quartet (1973); "A Humble Pastoral" for violin, viola and cello (1996); and Chamber Symphony No. 5, "Secret Calls" for clarinet and strings (1995, U.S. premiere).

Composer Yevhen Stankovych was born in 1942 in Svaliava, in the Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine. A prolific composer, since 1966 he has authored 10 symphonies, six chamber symphonies, an opera ("When the Fern Blooms"), four ballets, a large number of works in the oratorical, vocal chamber and instrumental chamber genres, as well as incidental music to six music theater plays and over 100 films.

Stankovych studied at the Kyiv Conservatory under Borys Liatoshynsky and later under Myroslav Skoryk. Beginning with his first compositions, Stankovych declared himself as a composer of dramatic temperament. While his technique is contemporary, folkloric themes are paramount in his works (for example, the opera "When the Fern Blooms" (1978) and "Kaddish: Requiem for Babyn Yar" (1991).

Stankovych's uniqueness lies in his pronounced affinity with the vernacular, his blending of folk motifs with orchestral colors, reproducing the unique aspects of the folk song and of multilayered polyphony.

Stankovych believes that a composer cannot create music in isolation from his cultural lifeline, and works to extend that lifeline to his audience.

Stankovych's elaborate polyphonic textures and meditative lyricism are reminiscent of the strict instrumental style of Baroque music, while the full-bodied affected melodies with an obvious post-Romantic coloring give the music warmth and expressiveness. Stankovych's music is remarkable in many respects, showing his emotional freedom, consummate technical mastery and flexibility of form.

As the Soviet Union collapsed, Stankovych wrote several monumental works commemorating Ukraine's victims. His "Kaddish: Requiem for Babyn Yar" was the composer's gift to the memory of Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis in Kyiv in September 1941 (the work was premiered in September 1991 in Kyiv); "Requiem For Those Who Died of Famine" commemorates the 6 million who perished of hunger in 1932-1933 in Ukraine (premiered in 1993 in Kyiv); and "Black Elegy" is a remembrance of the victims of the Chornobyl tragedy (premiered in 1991 in Winnipeg).

Stankovych is the recipient of several major awards. His Chamber Symphony No. 3 was selected by UNESCO's World Tribune as one of the 10 best works of 1985. He has been recognized with several awards in Ukraine, including the country's highest award for artistic creativity, the Taras Shevchenko State Award.

The composer's works have been performed in Canada, the U.S., Germany, France, Switzerland, Finland, Spain, China, the Philippines and Yugoslavia, in addition to the former USSR. His works have been recorded on the Melodiya, Analekta, ASV, Naxos and Troppe Note/Cambria labels.

Last year Stankovych was composer-in-residence in the canton of Bern, Switzerland.

Maestro Baley is the founder and music director of the Las Vegas Chamber Players and Nevada Symphony Orchestra, and principal guest conductor and artistic advisor of the Kyiv Camerata. He has recently returned from Moscow where he conducted the Russian National Orchestra with double chorus and soloists in Vyacheslav Artyomov's "Requiem," a work dedicated to the victims of communism in Russia, at Tchaikovsky Hall on November 7. The work became the first requiem mass to be broadcast over Moscow State Radio in 1988. While in Ukraine Maestro Baley conducted the Kyiv Camerata in a recording session of the ensemble's third CD.

Tickets for the "The Music of Yevhen Stankovych" concert, to be held at the Ukrainian Institute of America, 2 E. 79th St., are $20; $10, senior citizens; $5, students. For tickets call the institute at (212) 288-8600.

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