Kiev Camerata embarks on first tour of United States (10/18/98)

Kiev Camerata embarks on first tour of United States

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Kiev [Kyiv] Camerata is embarking on its first United States tour, which will begin in Baltimore on October 25 and end at the Yale School of Music on November 1. The ensemble will be led by its longtime principal guest conductor, Virko Baley, and will feature the celebrated Ukrainian pianist Mykola Suk.

Reviewing Kiev Camerata's debut recording under the direction of Mr. Baley, the prestigious American Record Guide wrote: "Kiev Camerata ... has a rich, clear tone, fine ensemble and plenty of power when necessary. The Mozart Symphony No. 29 is the high point of the disc. This is a balanced, sensitive, lively performance ... There are over 30 recordings at present ... but this one can join the best of them. Schoenberg's 'Transfigured Night' [one of the works performed on the upcoming tour] gets the large treatment, and the performance is moving and sensitive, as well as quite powerful."

A virtuoso orchestra of 32 soloists, Kiev Camerata was formed by the union of the ancient music ensemble Harmonia of the Kyiv Philharmonic Society and the Chamber Music Ensemble of the Ukrainian Union of Composers. It is the resident ensemble of Kyiv Music Fest and the International Vladimir Horowitz Piano Competition.

Kiev Camerata's repertoire features more than 200 works by composers ranging from Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Handel, Mendelssohn and Mozart to Adams, Corigliano, Crumb, Boulez and Stravinsky, and includes respected Ukrainian composers Hrabovsky, Karabyts, Silvestrov, Stankovych and others. The ensemble is also involved in deciphering and restoration of early Ukrainian music for modern instruments.

Kiev Camerata has been touring regularly for a number of years. In 1997-1998 it appeared in Germany, Austria, Greece and Russia. The American composer George Crumb wrote "I was delighted with the performance and interpretation of my music by this excellent ensemble." The German Kultur regards the Kiev Camerata "as one of the most important chamber orchestras of the former USSR."

The present tour coincides with the 60th birthday of Maestro Baley. The year-long international salute began in February with Mr. Baley leading the Cleveland Chamber Symphony in his Symphony No. 1, and continued in New York's Merkin Hall when the New Music ensemble Continuum performed a cross section of 40 years of his compositions. The concert premiered his new operatic work "Klytemnestra," after Ukrainian poet Oksana Zabuzhko's poem of the same name.

Virko Baley is the recipient of the 1996 Shevchenko Prize for Music, awarded by the government of Ukraine, as well as many American awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the State of Nevada Regents Creative Award. Mr. Baley founded and was for many years conductor and music director of the Nevada Symphony Orchestra. In 1989 he co-produced and composed the music for the film "Swan Lake: the Zone," which won top awards at Cannes, the first Ukrainian film ever to do so.

Featured concert pianist Mykola Suk was born in Kyiv into a family of musicians and received his training in Kyiv and later at the Moscow Conservatory. He gained international recognition as winner of the First Prize and Gold Medal at the 1971 International Liszt-Bartok Competition in Budapest. Since his debut at Weill Recital Hall in 1991, he has been giving solo concerts throughout the United States and Canada to great acclaim, particularly for his interpretation of Liszt. Mr. Suk is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and lives in New York City, where he is the artistic director of the Ukrainian Institute of America's Music at the Institute (MATI) series.

The Kiev Camerata concert program will include "Concerto-Triptych for Strings" by Ukrainian composer and the orchestra's music director Ivan Karabyts, Schoenberg's "Transfigured Night," Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 (with Mr. Suk), and Prokofiev's "Classical Symphony." In addition, Valentin Silvestrov's "Messenger 96" and Yevhen Stankovych's "Passacaglia No. 2" will be featured in some of the concerts.

The tour will begin with a concert at the Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, on Sunday, October 25, at 2:30 p.m. The New York debut will take place at Merkin Hall on Monday, October 26, at 6:45 p.m. as the first event of the Time out for Music series and will feature Tchaikovsky's "Serenade for Strings" and Schoenberg's "Transfigured Night."

On Tuesday, October 27, the orchestra will perform in Bethlehem, Pa., at the Zoellner Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. The following concert will be on Thursday, October 29, in Lexington, Va., at the Lenfest Theater, Washington and Lee University, at 8 p.m. On Friday, October 30, The Washington Group Cultural Fund will host the orchestra in a performance at the Dumbarton Methodist Church in Georgetown, 3133 Dumbarton St., at 8 p.m., followed by a reception for the artists.

The final concert of the tour will take place in New Haven, where the orchestra will be hosted by the prestigious Yale School of Music, in cooperation with the Yale-Ukraine Initiative. The initiative promotes the study of Ukraine at Yale through fellowships, exchanges, conferences and lectures, and is generously supported by the Chopivsky Family Foundation. The concert will begin at 3 p.m. at the Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall, 470 College St., on the Yale campus.

To order tickets ($12 to $20; students, $6) call the Yale Concert and Press Office at (203) 432-4158. A reception will follow at St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church, where there will be an opportunity to meet with orchestra members.

The tour has been made possible by collaboration and support of many organizations and individuals, including Dr. W. Howard Hoffman of Las Vegas, the International Renaissance Foundation of Kyiv, Ukraine and Air Ukraine National Airlines. The tour is managed by Mace-Lyman Goetz productions of New York.

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