1997: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: The arts: music in the forefront (12/28/97)

1997: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The arts: music in the forefront

Music continued to be prominent on the cultural scene, both in terms of the calibre of individual performers, quartets and choirs and in terms of the promotion of Ukrainian music in the West.

The two outstanding events of the season were Ukraine's participation in "The Glory of Byzantium" exhibition, which opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in March, and the American debut of the Kyiv Chamber Choir, under the direction of Mykola Hobdych, in a series of performances, including Carnegie Hall on December 21.

Also, a big project finally got under way - the projected new building for The Ukrainian Museum in New York - entered the construction phase.

Among highlights of the season were the following.

MUSIC

Performers

The Luba and Ireneus Zuk Piano Duo, with the participation of Eugene Husaruk, violin, and Marcel Saint-Cyr, cello, premiered new Ukrainian works in a concert of Ukrainian chamber music titled "Music from Ukraine," held in Pollack Concert Hall in Montreal on February 10.
Harpsichordist Nadia Bohachewsky-Soree was awarded first prize at the International Bach Harpsichord competition by the Baroque music society Les Idées Heureses, which took place on May 2-4 in Montreal.
Nineteen-year-old Mykhailo Danchenko of Kyiv was the youngest contender and semifinalist at the 10th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which opened on May 22 in Forth Worth, Texas.
Concert pianist Roman Rudnytsky, professor at the Dana School of Music of Youngstown State University in Ohio, was on concert tours of Croatia, Oman, Malaysia, Great Britain and Australia.
The CD recordings of the violin sonatas of Bartok and Brahms by violinist Oleh Krysa and pianist Tatiana Tchekina were reviewed in Classic CD and American Record Guide, respectively, as an "outstandingly sensitive performance" and as being "among the very finest recordings of these works ever made."
Conductor and violinist Adrian Bryttan was appointed conductor of the Vassar Orchestra at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and of the New Jersey Youth Symphony in New Providence, N.J., this fall.
Oleksander Havryliuk, Oleksander Hryniuk, Vitaliy Baran, Denys Proshchaev, Bryan Wallick and Oleksiy Koltakov - six outstanding young pianists from Ukraine and the U.S., winners of the second Vladimir Horowitz International Young Pianists' Competition held in Kyiv in April - appeared in a series of concerts in the U.S. in October.
The Leontovych String Quartet - Yuri Mazurkevich, first violin; Yuri Kharenko, violin; Borys Deviatov, viola; and Volodymyr Panteleyev, cello - and pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky appeared in concert at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall on November 24.
Oboist Ihor Leschishin of Lviv and violinist/conductor Taras Krysa have been performing with the renowned New World Symphony in Miami Beach this season.
Due to the efforts of violoncellist Gregory Bemko and his wife, concert pianist Yoshiko Niyya, the Lake San Marcos Chamber Music Society in California, of which they are the founders, has established a concert series with performances by world-class artists. Among invited performers this year have been leading Ukrainian musicians, among them: violinist Anatoliy Bazhenov, pianists Mykola Suk and Volodymyr Vynnytsky, and cellist Natalia Khoma.

Composers

Tribute was paid to the creative legacy of Ukrainian diaspora composer Ihor Sonevytsky on the occasion of his 70th birthday with a composer's evening held at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York in January and in a series of concerts in Miami and in Washington this spring.
A concert featuring the music of Evhen Stankovych, one of the central figures of contemporary Ukrainian music, was held on November 22 at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York.

Singers

Stepán Stépan, lead baritone of the Lviv Opera, was in the U.S. in August for the opening concert of the summer series at the Music and Art Center of Greene County in Hunter, N.Y., and subsequently appeared in recital for various Ukrainian communities performing arias of the Western classic tradition and Ukrainian repertoire.
Maria Stefiuk, lead soprano of the Kyiv Opera and recognized operatic soloist in Europe, was in the U.S. for a series of concerts, which commenced with her appearance at the Music and Art Center of Greene County in Hunter, N.Y., on August 30.
Oksana Krovytska returned to the New York City Opera this season for her fifth consecutive year as leading soprano to sing Musetta in "La Bohème" and the title role in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly." Ms. Krovytska also appeared with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and CSO Chorus, the Brooklyn Philharmonic at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and in recital at Carnegie's Weill Hall.
Bass Paul Plishka, star of The Metropolitan Opera, released a popular CD titled "Christmas with Paul Plishka" on the Naxos label, where he sings a selection of Christmas songs and carols in a variety of languages, including Ukrainian.
A commemorative concert held on the 50th anniversary of Akcja Wisla and the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was held at The Cooper Union in New York on October 19. Featured were prominent performers, among them internationally recognized pianist Alexander Slobodyanik, tenor Volodymyr Grishko of the New York City Opera, pianist Vitalii Baran of Lviv - one of the winners of this year's Horowitz piano competition - soprano Alexandra Hrabova, dancer Andriy Cybyk and New York's Promin vocal ensemble under the direction of Bohdanna Wolansky.

Choirs

The late Hryhoriy Kytasty, longtime artistic director of the Detroit-based Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus, who recreated the bandurist tradition within the Ukrainian émigré community, was honored on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of his birth with a grand concert at the Ukraina House of Culture in Kyiv on January 17.
The music of Maestro Kytasty was released on a CD recording titled "Hryhoriy Kytasty: Music for Solo Bandura and Songs" by his great-nephew, Julian Kytasty, director of the New York School of Bandura in New York.
The Kyiv Symphonic Choir and Orchestra, under the direction of Roger G. McMurrin, appeared in concert at the Riverside Church in Manhattan in October.
The Winnipeg-based Olexander Koshetz Choir, under the direction of Walter Klymkiw, released a CD titled "A Festival of Ukrainian Choral Music," featuring religious works, songs of Christmas and New Year, historical and patriotic songs, and folk song arrangements.
The 45-member Ukrainian Bandura Chorus, under the direction of 27-year-old Oleh Mahlay, was on a concert tour of the eastern U.S. and Canada this October.
The 20-member Kyiv Chamber Choir, Ukraine's premier a cappella choir, which has earned international recognition as one of the outstanding chamber choirs in Europe, made its American debut in a series of concerts of Ukrainian liturgical and Christmas music of the 17th-20th centuries. Among the choir's appearances were performances at The White House and the Washington National Cathedral, and in concert at Carnegie Hall on December 21. The choir, under the direction of 36-year-old Mykola Hobdych, focuses on restoring ancient liturgical Ukrainian music that was suppressed and nearly lost in recent centuries, and is also actively engaged in performing contemporary works by Ukranian composers.

Popular music/rock

Almost half a million people attended the bi-annual "Chervona Ruta" music festival, dedicated to finding and presenting the best Ukrainian musical talent in the field of contemporary song and popular music. The festival was held in Kharkiv on April 27-May 11, with the finale held in Kyiv on May 25, with 200,000 in attendance.
Alexis Kochan's Paris to Kyiv "Variances" was the latest CD by the Winnipeg-born Ms. Kochan and third-generation bandurist Julian Kytasty. The disc was released on the Olesia label.
The Kyiv band Komy Vnyz, part of a vanguard of artists and youth that forged a democratic movement as commmunism fell apart, was back with the release of its new compact disc, "In Kastus."

ART

The highlight of the season was Ukraine's participation in "The Glory of Byzantium" exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (March 11-July 6). Some of the greatest treasures of Ukraine's medieval history, many of which had never traveled before, were exhibited in a separate gallery devoted to the arts of the Kyivan Rus' state. The entry on Kyivan Rus' in the exhibition catalogue was written by Dr. Olenka Pevny, research assistant at the department of medieval art at The Metropolitan. The curators and organizers of the exhibition helped to correct misconceptions about Kyivan Rus' and contributed to an awareness of Ukraine and its rich cultural heritage.
A traveling exhibition of prints by the late renowned artist Jacques Hnizdovsky toured Ukraine under the sponsorship of the America House in Kyiv.
New York artist Laryssa Lawrynenko worked as senior editor of the 400-page Reader Digest book "Through Indian Eyes: The Untold Story of Native American Peoples" - one of the most extensive collections of American Indian art and artifacts ever published.
The work of Aka Pereyma was the subject of a documentary film shot by filmmaker Valerii Pavlov of Kyiv, and was exhibited in Ukraine and at the Archetype Gallery in Dayton, Ohio, in April.
An art exhibit focusing on three women artists - Sophia Lada, Halyna Cisaruk and Halyna Mordowanec-Regenbogen - was held at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago on May 10. Titled "Three Journeys," the exhibit referred to the artists' personal quests for spiritual connection and relates to contemporary issues of self-discovery, identity and empowerment.
An exhibit of contemporary icons by Ukrainian and Greek artists was held at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on May 5-18.
Temporarily Toronto-based artist Taras Polataiko, cited as "one of 10 artists to watch worldwide" by the prestigious ARTnews in 1995, continued to draw attention to himself and his projects. His latest work, "Mole: Installation," was shown at the Art Gallery of North York in Toronto on May 1- June 30.
Canadian artist Christopher Griffin's solo exhibition titled "Selo" - 51 paintings and 20 ink drawings dedicated to the theme of a Ukrainian village, drawn while on a cycling tour of the Kolomyia region - were on exhibit at the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation on June 3-18.
A mosaic of Ukrainian culture was featured as part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's special programs on July 9 under the sponsorship of the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in Philadelphia.
An exhibition of folk costumes and textiles from the Sokal region in northwestern Ukraine titled "The Preservation of a Heritage: The Village of Uhryniv of the Sokal Region" was held at The Ukrainian Museum in New York in September-February 1998. The exhibition was based on the collection of Iryna Kashubynsky of Parma, Ohio, who in 1972 returned to her native Uhryniv and areas where its inhabitants had been resettled as part of Akcja Wisla to collect and preserve Uhryniv folk art.
Performance and graphic artist Yuri Onuch (formerly of Warsaw and since 1987 of Toronto) was named executive director of the newly created Center for Contemporary Art - International Charitable Foundation in Kyiv in September.
The paintings - "Night Flight: Turks with Crusaders" by Delacroix, and "Still Life with Lobsters" by 17th century Dutch painter Pieters, which were stolen from the Ukrainian National Museum in the city of Poltava, Ukraine, on March 18 were recovered in Lancashire, England, on November 14.

ARCHITECTURE

Construction of the new $5 million building for The Ukrainian Museum in New York got under way with the blessing of the cornerstone on November 2. The fund-raising campaign has been intensified in order to raise the remaining $2.5 million. George Sawicki of Greenfield, Sawicki, Tarella, Architects, PC is the architect in charge of the new museum project.
A symposium on modern Ukrainian church architecture was held at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg on September 26-27 with the aim of examining "the evolution of style, iconography and building methods in response to liturgy and enculturation in a new land." Among the presenters were Julian Jastremsky, Walter Daneka and Radoslav Zuk.
Philadelphia architect Zenon Mazurkevich designed a new cathedral for the city of Kolomyia in western Ukraine.

DANCE

The Syzokryli Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, under the direction of Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky, appeared in concert in a program of Ukrainian folk dancing, character and modern dance at Lincoln Center in New York on May 11.
Vladimir Malakhov, in his third season as principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater, corps de ballet member Irina Dvorovenko, and ABT soloist Maxim Belotserkovsky - three Ukrainian dancers with ABT - appeared in this season's productions which opened May 12 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Their performances received excellent reviews by leading dance critics in The New York Times (May 17) and the Wall Street Journal.
The Kyiv Ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine in collaboration with guest artists of Canada's Shumka Dancers joined forces to bring a sumptuous production of "The Nutcracker: A Ballet Fantasy" to Canadian audiences in December.

THEATER

"Virtual Souls," created by the Yara Arts Group and artists from the Buryat National Theater, under the direction of Virlana Tkacz, premiered at La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York on January 16-21.
The first Ukrainian production of Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot," was staged this summer at Kyiv's Experimental Theater, a theater in residence at the University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The production, under the direction of Ala Zamans, was noteworthy for its fresh, dynamic staging in contrast to mimicking Beckett's sense of the absurd.
Ukrainian director Anatole Fourmanchouk staged two vaudevilles - "The Proposal" by Anton Chekhov and "Counting the Ways" by Edward Albee at Michael Howard Studios/New York Art Theater in January and February.
The Lviv Ukrainian Drama Theater aka The Zankovetska Theater, under the direction of Fedir Stryhun, embarked on its first tour of Ukrainian communities in the U.S. at the end of May with the staging of two Ukrainian operettas: Yaroslav Barnych's "Sharika" and "Natalka Poltavka."

FILM/PHOTOGRAPHY

A documentary film on Ukraine in World War II, to be directed by Slavko Nowytski of Washington, was commissioned by the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Center.
A photographic series of portraits of the Hutsuls of the Carpathian region by Lida Suchy of Rochester, N.Y., was featured in an article titled "The Hutsul" in the November issue of the National Geographic.

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