1998: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Survey on culture and the arts (12/27/98)

1998: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Survey on culture and the arts

Among significant cultural developments, the outstanding event of 1998 was the rebuilding in Kyiv of two of Ukraine's historic religious landmarks - the 12th century St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral and the 11th century Uspenskyi (Dormition) Cathedral. (See "Kyiv reconstructs ancient treasures.")

These are perhaps the most visible manifestations of the numerous initiatives taking place throughout Ukraine: to rebuild or restore churches and monuments destroyed by the Soviet regime, or to build new ones that aim to recover repressed or forgotten moments of Ukrainian culture and history.

Worthy of mention are:

the erection of a new church and a museum in honor of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky (1865-1944) in his home village of Prylbychi;
a museum-memorial complex to honor Cardinal and Patriarch Josyf Slipyj (1892-1984) built in the cardinal's native village of Zazdrist in western Ukraine;
a new memorial at the historic Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, commemorating the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen who died in the Ukrainian-Polish war of 1918-1919;
a new shrine to the Mother of God of Zarvanytsia, a pilgrimage site in western Ukranian which is to be completed next year;
the renovation of Kyiv's historic Askolda Mohyla (Askold's Tomb), used by local Greek-Catholics as St. Nicholas Church (the church was later attacked by arsonists and defaced; an investigation is pending).

Another important development was the beginning of construction of the long-awaited church and monastery complex of St. Vasylii - the first major church for Ukraine's Greek-Catholics in Kyiv. The modernistic project, overseen by the Order of St. Basil the Great in Lviv, was designed by Ukrainian architect Larysa Skoryk.

On a totally different note, the December issue of Architectural Digest carried a story on the renovation of the Soviet-era "dacha" built outside Kyiv for the former head of the Ukrainian Communist Party, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky. The lavish project was undertaken by a Ukrainian-born American businessman who emigrated with his parents after the war, and after Ukraine's independence, began to do business with his homeland.

Music: anniversary celebrations

Among highlights of the musical season were the 60th anniversary celebrations of two prominent composers - Virko Baley, founder, and for many years conductor and music director, of the Nevada Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor in Ukraine, and Myroslav Skoryk, longtime professor of composition at the Lviv and Kyiv conservatories and head of the Lviv branch of the Union of Ukrainian Composers.

The yearlong international salute on the occasion of the 60th birthday of Maestro Baley 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 selection from his 40 years of composing. The concert premiered his new operatic work "Klytemnestra," after Ukrainian poet Oksana Zabuzhko's poem of the same name.

A series of anniversary concerts for Maestro Skoryk were performed in Australia, the U.S., Germany and Ukraine. The world premiere of the composer's latest work, Piano Concerto No. 3, was performed by the Leontovych String Quartet, and the composer, on July 12 at Music Mountain in Connecticut, where it received an enthusiastic reception. The anniversary concert for Maestro Skoryk opened the summer concert series held at the Grazhda in Jewett Center, N.Y., with subsequent concerts held in Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington with the Leontovych String Quartet and pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky. The final concert, featuring three new works - Partita No. 6 for String Orchestra, Partita No. 7 for Wind Quintet, and Piano Concerto No. 3 for Piano, String Orchestra and Drum - took place on December 12 at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York with the MATI Chamber Orchestra and Maestro Baley, conducting.

During his stay in Ukraine, Maestro Skoryk was presented an award by President Leonid Kuchma and was named "Man of the Year" of his native city of Lviv for promoting Ukrainian music abroad. Concerts of Maestro Skoryk's music were held at the opera houses in Kyiv and Lviv, and a five-day all-Skoryk music festival opened at the Lviv Opera on November 3 and continued at various venues throughout the city.

Also celebrated this year was the 95th anniversary of the doyen of Ukrainian music Mykola Kolessa, distinguished professor emeritus at the department of opera and symphony conducting at the Mykola Lysenko Lviv State Music Institute.
Nick Czorny-Dosinchuk, founder of the New York School of Bandura and one of the major forces in the propagation of the bandura in Ukrainian communities worldwide, was honored with a concert by the All-Ukrainian Union of Kobzars on May 28 at the Taras Shevchenko Museum on the occasion of his 80th birthday (April 20).
After being banned during Soviet times and never seriously honored after Ukraine's independence, the legendary Lviv composer of popular music Volodymyr Ivasiuk - who was found brutally murdered in 1979, amidst allegations of KGB complicity - was honored in a memorial concert held on May 29 as part of the annual Kyiv Days celebration.

Music: performances

The Kiev [Kyiv] Camerata, a virtuoso orchestra of 32 soloists under the direction of Maestro Baley and featured pianist Mykola Suk, set off on its first U.S. tour, which began in Baltimore on October 25, included a performance at New York's Merkin Concert Hall on October 26 and ended at the Yale School of Music on November 1.
Seven young winners - from Ukraine, Israel, Japan, and the U.S. - ranging in age from 12 to 22 - of the first (1995) and second (1997) International Competition for Young Pianists in memory of Vladimir Horowitz showcased their talents in a program of virtuoso piano repertoire in concerts held at New York's Weill Recital Hall on April 9, with subsequent appearances in Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cambridge, Mass.
Soprano Oksana Krovytska received critical acclaim in reviews by New York Times critics Alan Kozinn and Anthony Tommasini for the sensitivity and credibility of performance that she brought to the title role in two different productions of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" at the New York City Opera in March and November.
The "Music at the Institute" concert series, with Mr. Suk as artistic director, and Dr. Taras Shegedyn, executive director, continues to be an important artistic presence in the New York metropolitan area, marked by varied and interesting programs featuring acclaimed musicians as well as renowned guest performers.
Similarly, the summer concert series held at the Grazhda, under the auspices of the Music and Art Center of Greene County, with Ihor Sonevytsky as music director and Mr. Vynnytsky, pianist, as artist-in-residence, continued to gain recognition for the caliber of its performances.
The New Jersey Youth Symphony, under the direction of Adrian Bryttan, performed the complete film score in conjunction with the screening of the 1927 silent film classic "Flesh and the Devil," starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. The first-of-its-kind event was held at the John Harms Center for the Arts in Englewood, N.J. on February 27 and 28.
Pianist Alina Kabanova, 16, from Crimea, received a top prize at the London Piano Competition held April 8 at the Harrow School.
The internationally known Canadian musicians, pianist Christina Petrowska, and opera star baritone Louis Quilico appeared in recital at Merkin Concert Hall in New York on March 30.
Concert pianist Roman Rudnytsky, member of the piano faculty of the Dana School of Music of Youngstown State University in Ohio, was on his fifth concert tour around the world, playing recitals from June 10 until August 5.
The piano duo of Luba and Ireneus Zuk, representing Canada, performed a recital of piano works by Ukrainian and Canadian composers, at the 20th International European Piano Teachers Association Conference, held in Nicosia, Cyprus on October 1-6.
Winnipeg singer and recording artist Alexis Kochan and third-generation bandurist Julian Kytasty appeared in a program of contemporary stylings of Ukrainian ritualistic songs and Hryhoriy Kytasty's 20th century compositions at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on May 2. In November, the group Paris to Kyiv, featuring Ms. Kochan and Mr. Kytasty, with violinist Richard Moody, multi-instrumentalist Martin Colledge and percussionist John Wyre, participated in the Canada Council's showcase of Culturally Diverse and First People's Artists held at the Du Maurier Theater at the Harbourfront Center in Toronto.

Music: new releases

Ukrainian Musical Elements in Classical Music" by Yakov Soroker, a publication of the CIUS Press, is the first comprehensive account of the influence of Ukrainian motifs on the classical music of Europe and Russia from the 18th century through the first half of the 20th.
A collection of art songs by the late Ukrainian American pianist-composer Wadym Kipa (1912-1968) was published by Muzychna Ukraina in Kyiv.
The monograph "Myroslav Skoryk: A Creative Portrait of the Composer as a Reflection of Our Times" by Liubov Kyyanovska appeared in Ukrainian as a publication of Lviv-based Spolom Publishers in October.
The new international label Troppe Note/Cambria Recordings, with Maestro Baley, producer, signed an agreement with the Kiev Camerata to release a series of recordings over a three-year period, which will place special emphasis on Ukrainian music and performers.
The acclaimed Cheres ensemble, under the direction of Andriy Milavsky, released its first solo CD - "Cheres: From the Mountains to the Steppe."

Art and exhibits

Among a host of interesting events and outstanding exhibits held during the year:

The international exhibition "Treasures from the Ukrainian Steppes," a joint effort of the Institute of Archaeology of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and host museums in Canada and the U.S., had its world premiere in Montreal at Pointe-à-Callière, where it opened on October 7. The exhibit, which gives a representative overview of the history and archaeology of the Ukrainian steppes from the Paleolithic era to late antiquity, presents some 350 highly significant pieces, including many that have been recently discovered. The exhibit will travel to museums in the U.S., where it will be on view through the year 2001.
The exhibition "Jacques Hnizdovsky: Selected Portraits," curated by The Ukrainian Museum Director Maria Shust, with most of the work on display from the private collection of the late artist's wife, Stephanie, opened at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on September 24.
An exhibit of socialist realism paintings from Ukraine from the late 1940s through the 1960s was held at the Georgetown Art Guild in Washington (May 19-July 31), while recent paintings and works on paper by Ukrainian artists, Oleh Nedoshytko, Roman Romanyshyn and Roman Harasuta, as representative of highly personal painting and artistic styles formerly forbidden under the Soviet regime, were simultaneously on exhibit at the Alla Rogers Gallery in Washington (May 19-June 17).
Daria Dorosh's exhibit of digital prints, titled "Scraps and Shadows" was on view at the A.I.R. Gallery in New York in May.
Christine Holowchak Debarry's watercolors were featured in the September issue of American Artist and in the fall/winter issue of Paelagram, the magazine of the Pastel Society of America. The artist also conducted workshops at the Flying Colors Workshop in Acapulco, Mexico, in March.
Among significant art exhibits held at The Ukrainian Museum in New York were: an exhibition of the works of noted Ukrainian-born artists Volodymyr Makarenko, a resident of Paris, and sculptor Petro Kapschutschenko, a longtime resident of Argentina and now the U.S., held October 11-25; and an exhibit of linoprints forming the series "Symbols and Emblems" by noted Ukrainian artist Bohdan Soroka, chairman of the department of graphic design, Lviv Academy of Art, which was held in November. As part of a series of exhibitions titled "In Celebration of Private Collectors," the museum presented an exhibition of lithographs by Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964), as well as oil paintings and watercolors by Alexis Gritchenko (Oleksa Hryshchenko, 1883-1977), which opened on December 6. The works displayed were from the collection of Zenon and Olena Feszczak of Philadelphia and are now a part of the museum's fine arts collection.
An exhibition of The Woskob Collection, primarily promoting the work of young artists from Ukraine, was held at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on November 14-December 27. Honored guest at the exhibition opening was Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate. Works on exhibit were from the private collection of Alex and Helen Woskob of State College, Pa.
The group exhibition "New Figures, New Faces," curated by artist Petro Lopata, with a focus on figurative art, showcased the work of young, mostly Canadian, artists of Ukrainian heritage. The exhibit opened at the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation in Toronto on December 27.

Dance and ballet

The Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company of Ukraine, under the direction of Myroslav Vantukh, was on tour of North America from April 24 through July 1, performing in 38 cities across Canada and the U.S. in celebration of its 60th anniversary. The performances received excellent and enthusiastic reviews.
In their annual celebration of Central and East European folk music and dance, the Duquesne University Tamburitzans appeared in concert at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York on October 17.
Vladimir Malakhov, principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater and Maxim Belotserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko, principal soloists with the company, performed in major roles during the season at Lincoln Center in New York, continuing to be commended by audience and critics.

Theater

The Les Kurbas Theater of Lviv, under the direction of Volodymyr Kuchynsky, returned to the U.S. to present performances from its current repertoire, as well as to conduct lectures and workshops. The theater premiered Lesia Ukrainka's classic Don Juan play "Kamianyi Hospodar" (The Stone Host) in Maplewood, N.J., in March on the 30th anniversary of the play's original American premiere.

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, the theater revived one of the first works from its repertoire, Lina Kostenko's historic verse novel "Marusia Churai," which was presented in New York on February 22. Also presented were a program dedicated to the memory of the late literary critic and political dissident Ivan Svitlychny in Washington on February 24; and a special program of the works of the Ukrainian poet Bohdan Ihor Antonych (1909-1937) that was held at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on March 28. In addition, workshops and lectures were held at universities and educational institutions along the East Coast, including the performance of Hryhorii Skovoroda's 18th century philosophic dialogue "Grace-given Erodii" at Yale University on March 3.
As part of the "Week of European Culture" held in Lviv this spring, the Les Kurbas Theater hosted theaters from Austria, Denmark, Georgia, Latvia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine in "Yarylo's Games," an eight-day international theater festival devoted to the theme of use of music in theater.
The Yara Arts Group, under the direction of Virlana Tkacz, in collaboration with the artists from the Buryat National Theater of Siberia, presented "Flight," an all-sung work featuring the music and legends of the Buryat people that was staged at the Buryat National Theatre in Ulan Ude in summer and at La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York on April 24-May 3.

Yara conducted its 11th annual theater workshops for the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Studies in July. The group also did a poetry presentation in October at The Year 2020 Conference on the future of the Ukrainian community. Yara's work with poetry was praised in Ukrainian papers in Crimea and North America.
The English-language version of Ukrainian American author's Yuriy Tarnawsky's one-act play "Not Medea," from the play cycle "6x0," was staged on June 6 and 7 at Mabou Mines in New York, under the direction of internationally known actor and director Gregory Hlady with actors Tania Mara Miller and Laila Salins. The Ukrainian-language book of plays, which appeared as a publication of the Kyiv-based Rodovid publishing house, was officially presented to the reading public at the Writers' Union building in Kyiv on October 14 and at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York on December 19.
Mr. Hlady, who currently resides in Montreal, was in Kyiv in October at the invitation of the Les Kurbas Center where he ran a series of workshops with actors selected from all over Ukraine. As part of the workshop, Mr. Hlady staged the Ukrainian-language version of Mykola Hohol's story "The Terrible Revenge" on October 1-10 at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Kyiv-based TheatreClub's production of "The Old Woman," an avant-garde interpretation of the Slavic absurdist tradition in the manner of Hohol, was on tour of Canada's Fringe Festivals, beginning in Toronto in early June and continued westward until late September. The play, directed by Oleh Liptsyn, was premiered in Kyiv in 1995 and subsequently performed across Europe.
The Ukrainian Stage Ensemble, under the direction of Lydia Krushelnytsky, presented the drama-montage "Zhinka Kriz Viky" (Woman Through the Ages), based on the works of the poet/playwright Lesia Ukrainka, at the Fashion Institute of Technology on June 6. The ensemble also gave a stage presentation of the humorous and satirical writings of Edward Kozak and the humorous play of Wasyl Sofroniv-Levytsky in a program titled "In a Crooked Mirror - Humorous Anecdotes," on November 22.

Film and film industry

The film "Assassination: An Autumn Murder in Munich," directed by Oles Yanchuk, was shown at the 1997-1998 Freedom Film Festival during its Los Angeles run in February 27-March 3.
The film "Eternal Memory: Voices From the Great Terror," a historical documentary treatment of Stalinist purges and terror in the former USSR during the 1930s and 1940s, was screened at the 1998 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater on June 17, 19 and 23, followed by subsequent screenings for the Ukrainian community. The film was directed and produced by David Pultz for New York-based Wellspring Films, with narration by Meryl Streep.
Marian Rudnyk of Monrovia, Calif., former astronomer and planetary photogeologist with NASA, free-lance science writer and cartoonist, worked on special visual effects and digital animation in James Cameron's blockbuster hit "Titanic." (See "The noteworthy: people and events.")
Yar Mociuk, a 43-year veteran of the film industry and president of Filmtreat International Corporation, received an Emmy Award and was honored by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Achievement in Technical Advancement, Pioneering Development of Film Scratch Removal Systems for Telecines, at a ceremony held October 12 at the Marriot Marquis in New York.

Photography

The show "Ukraine: A Photo Exhibit," featuring the photography of nationally recognized American photographer Wilton S. Tifft, was held at the Ukrainian Catholic Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington on March 14-29.
"Simply Ukraine" ("Prosto Ukraina"), a collection of some 200 photographs spanning more than 30 years by photographer Tania Mychajlyshyn-D'Avignon, was published in Kyiv by Artex Management.

Literary events

The memory of Ivan Svitlychny, literary historian, critic and poet at the center of the 1960s "Shestydesiatnyky" movement of national revival in Ukraine, was honored on February 24 at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington. Leading the commemoration were Ambassador Yuri Shcherbak, Mr. Svitlychny's sister, Nadia Svitlychna, and five actors from the Les Kurbas Theater of Lviv.
An evening of poetry by the Ukrainian poet Oleh Lysheha, currently a Fulbright scholar at Penn State University, was hosted by the Yara Arts Group at the Mayana Gallery in New York on April 29. Mr. Lysheha read his poetry in Ukrainian and members of the Yara Arts Group read translations of his work in English.
The Mayana Gallery, under the direction of Slava Gerulak, continues to serve as an informal forum for Ukrainian writers and artists to present their works to an interested public in New York.
Pen New-England's Freedom-to-Write Committee presented its first annual Vasyl Stus Freedom-to-Write Award to Kurdish poet and publisher Recep Marasli on May 17 at Radcliffe College.
The publication of Yuri Andrukhovych's carnivalesque tale "Recreations," first published in Ukrainian in 1992 and now available in English in an edition published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, (with translation by Dr. Marko Pavlyshyn), coincided with his appearance at this year's prestigious International Festival of Authors in Toronto on October 22-29. He subsequently appeared in a number of East Coast cities in the U.S., including Boston, New York and Philadelphia. "Recreations" has established Andrukhovych as a sophisticated, comic writer with penetrating insight into the contradictions of post-Soviet Ukrainian society.
Literary evenings hosted by Lviv poet and writer Viktor Neborak of the Bu-Ba-Bu group, are held monthly at Lviv's Museum of Ethnography. The program, which has existed since December 1995 and is broadcast by a local TV channel, serves as an independent forum where Ukrainian writers can meet with an interested public to read and discuss their works. Among this year's participants were: Kyiv-based poet Vasyl Herasymiuk, poet and former Suchasnist editorial board member Moisei Fishbein, Harvard University literature professor George Grabowicz, New York Group poet Mr. Tarnawsky and the poetry group LuHoSad.
The book "The Magic Egg and Other Tales from Ukraine," a re-telling in English by Barbara J. Suwyn of traditional Ukrainian tales, came out as a publication of Libraries Unlimited, Englewood, Colo. Edited by Natalie O. Kononenko, the book is supplemented with an overview of Ukraine's history, an introduction to Ukrainian folk literature, and other background information.

Literary scholarship

Oleh S. Ilnytzkyj's "Ukrainian Futurism, 1914-1930: A Historical and Critical Study," published by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute last year, is the first major monograph in English devoted to this vibrant literary movement and its leader, Mykhail Semenko. (Its release was noted in The Weekly during 1998.)
Two Ukrainian-language anthologies of modern Ukrainian drama edited by Dr. Larissa Onyshkevych, "An Anthology of Drama of the Ukrainian Diaspora: The Twins Shall Meet Again," (Kyiv/Lviv: Chas publishers, 1997) and the CIUS publication "An Anthology of Modern Ukrainian Drama" issued in Kyiv by Takson Publishers were both presented this fall at the Ivan Franko Lviv State University and subsequently at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York and in Philadelphia.
An anthology of Ukrainian Canadian and Ukrainian prose in translation, "Two Lands: New Visions," edited by Solomea Pavlychko, research assistant, Institute of Literature at the Ukrainian Academy of Science and editor-in-chief, Osnovy publishers, and Ukrainian Canadian writer and scholar Janice Kulyk Keefer, was published by Coteau Books of Regina, Saskatchewan. The launch was held in Toronto on November 1.

| Home Page |