Memorial service for singer Kvitka Cisyk held in Winnipeg (07/05/98)

Memorial service for singer Kvitka Cisyk held in Winnipeg

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz

WINNIPEG - As the mournful and melodic "Vichnaia Pamiat" wafted to the dome along with the incense, the bells of St. Mary the Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral rang out. No one attending the panakhyda knew Kvitka Cisyk personally, and yet on a warm Sunday evening, May 31, around 30 Winnipeggers gathered to honor the singer's memory.

When Oksana Bondarchuk, Donna Babick, and other members of the Boyan SUMK Musical Theatre heard of Kvitka's death on March 29, they wanted to show their respect and admiration for this Ukrainian American singer in a special way. Boyan was created in 1994 and consists of SUMK members of all ages, their parents, and others who love Ukrainian culture. The theatre is based at St. Mary the Protectress Ukrainian National Orthodox Cathedral in Winnipeg.

A panakhyda and memorial service were organized by members of Boyan at the cathedral. The Rev. Michael Skrumeda conducted the service, with Rev. Deacon Oleksander Harkavyi in assistance. All present stood holding large candles and singing the responses. The traditional funeral bowl of fruit and three kolachi on the tetrapod symbolized the journey from this life to the next.

After the panakhyda, a memorial was held in the church hall. A table decorated with a rushnyk - a Ukrainian ritual cloth - flowers, candles, and a portrait of Kvitka was at the front of the hall, and the fruit and kolachi from the panakhyda were served to those present. The Rev. Skrumeda spoke about how even in rural Manitoba Kvitka's voice sang over the radio waves, from the Ukrainian radio program on CKJS in Winnipeg. He introduced Bohdana Bashuk, director of the Ukrainian radio program, former producer of the mainstage shows at the National Canadian Ukrainian Festival in Dauphin, and moderator of "Open for Discussion," a program on WTN (Women's Television Network).

Ms. Bashuk also had never met Kvitka, but during the Ukrainian North American Contemporary Music Awards in Edmonton in 1988 (the centenary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada) where the radio host was one of the producers, Kvitka received four awards for her first album: favorite non-dance arrangement of a folk song ("Ivanku"), outstanding production, outstanding album recorded in 1980-1983, and favorite female performer. Kvitka could not attend to receive the awards because of her illness.

Ms. Bashuk spoke of Kvitka's amazing voice and career, and her influence on Ukrainian music both abroad and in Ukraine. Artists from Ukraine, including the organizers of the first Chervona Ruta Festival, said they strove to reach her level of artistic achievement. Her singing and interpretation of folk and art songs became an example. In a radio interview with Ms. Bashuk, the late Nazarii Yaremchuk, in Winnipeg for his own cancer treatment before his death, said no one else anywhere performed the songs of his friend Volodymyr Ivasiuk the way Kvitka did.

When first diagnosed, Kvitka had been given a few months to live, but this turned into seven years. A few years ago, her husband Ed Rakowicz sent out a request via the Ukes group on the Internet for people to write to Kvitka to inspire her and raise her spirits. The Ukrainian Radio Program on CKJS in Winnipeg sent out this message, and listeners either wrote to Kvitka directly or sent cards and letters to the station, which were then passed on. When the news of her death came, Ms. Bashuk devoted her whole program to Kvitka (in between announcing the results of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections). The songs relieved the sorrow, but not her "Zhuravli." How many times had Kvitka's recording of "Zhuravli" been played after an announcement of someone's death? How ironic, that the last song on that program was "Zhuravli" for the singer herself.

The mourners gathered in Winnipeg, stood for a moment of silence, then broken by Kvitka's "Zhuravli."