DATELINE NEW YORK: The news from A to Z (continued) (03/28/99)

DATELINE NEW YORK: The news from A to Z (continued)

by Helen Smindak

Jovovich for L'Oreal

Movie actress, model and folk singer Milla Jovovich is sporting a different hair color these days - "Cardinal," a rich auburn brown, identified as No. 67 in L'Oreal's new Feria haircolor line.

As L'Oreal's spokesperson, Ms. Jovovich has been tossing her tresses seductively in recent TV commercials.

Cardinal is a deeper, subtler shade of red than the pinkish hue of the actress's looks in the 1997 movie "The Fifth Element," in which she starred with Bruce Willis. Quite different, too, from the red coif she wore in Spike Lee's 1998 paean to a high school football star and his imprisoned father, "He Got Game," which won two thumbs up from film critics Siskel and Ebert.

The Feria commercial, according to L'Oreal, touts "a multi-faceted, multi-ethnic and multi-gender collection designed for women and men who are daring enough to be different."

In an earlier L'Oreal ad, Ms. Jovovich filmed a memorable commercial for L'Oreal Rouge Pulp, acting the part of a pouting, wise-cracking, cigarette-dangling model.

The Kyiv-born actress, who posed for magazines, starred in films and got herself a record deal by age 15, released a mandolin-enhanced CD in 1995 called "The Divine Comedy," which includes the Ukrainian folk song "Oy u Hayu, pry Dunayu, Soloveiko Klyche."

Kytasty and Buryat music

It was a rare and exotic combination, listeners agreed, as the voices and instrumental music of bandurist Julian Kytasty and Buryat throat singer Battuvshin vibrated on consecutive evenings at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bouwerie and the La Mama Theater in the East Village.

Five traditional folk instruments were brought into play - the Ukrainian bandura and the old-time kobzarska bandura, the Buryat limbe (flute), the morin khvoor (bowed instrument known as a horse-head fiddle) and the hunkhoor, a similar instrument that is plucked.

Mr. Kytasty is well-known as the artistic director of the New York School of Bandura, as he is for frequent recitals that display his mellow voice in traditional folk songs and ancient Ukrainian dumy. The Buryat singer Battuvshin (he uses only one name), who was in town to take part in the Yara Arts Group's new production "Flight of the White Bird," is an expert in traditional Buryat throat singing, which produces a deep guttural sound or drone (sometimes two sounds at the same time: one low, the other high).

At St. Mark's, where the artists performed epic and sacred songs at the invitation of St. Mark's Poetry Project, Mr. Kytasty used recent English translations by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps in two epic songs (dumy). In one of these, copying authentic Ukrainian "brother and sister" style, Mr. Kytasty's Ukrainian version was interwoven with the English translation, sung by Cecilia Arana. Another duma, a lament of captives, was sung in English by Mr. Kytasty to music he had created.

Excerpts from "Flight of the White Bird" - an all-sung work featuring the music and legends of the Buryat people who live in Siberia near Lake Baikal - were performed by Battuvshin, a dozen Buryat artists, and Tom Lee and Meredith Wright of the Yara Arts Group.

For the LaMama evening, Mr. Kytasty and Battuvshin presented some solo works, teaming up instrumentally and at times vocally to perform traditional Kobar music, an arrangement of an old kobza dance melody and a couple of Mongolian pieces. Buryat and Mongolian epic songs, presented by Battuvshin and two Buryat colleagues, capped the unusual evening with a flourish.

Pianists in their prime

The past weeks have brought Manhattan audiences a trove of great piano music by virtue of such outstanding keyboard artists as Vitalij Kuprij, Alexander Mikhailuk and Volodymyr Vynnytsky, all born in Ukraine.

Mr. Kuprij, currently studying at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, made an auspicious Carnegie Hall debut on March 7. He performed with the 100-member New York Youth Symphony in a program that included Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1. An award-winning pianist, the 25-year-old artist is also a rock musician who has recorded CDs with his band, Artension, and solo instrumental albums. He has toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe, and has given rock concerts in Japan.

Mr. Mikhailuk, 29, the first-prize winner of the 1998 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, gave a solo recital at the 92nd Street Y on March 2. His New York debut program included Schubert, Chopin, Bach-Busoni, Shostakovich and Stravinsky works. Two weeks earlier he presented a similar program in a concert at Dowling College in Oakdale, Long Island. He has concertized widely in Europe, and is presently studying in Germany.

Mr. Vynnytsky, an established music personality who is a visiting member of the piano faculty at the State University of New York at Purchase, joined forces with violinist Daniel Phillips and cellist Vagram Saradjian for a concert at the Ukrainian Institute of America. The trio presented works by Schumann, de Falla, Rachmaninoff, Skoryk and Stankovych. Mr. Vynnytsky, a U.S. resident since 1991, and Mr. Saradjian have collaborated as a duo in recent years, making a critically acclaimed debut at Carnegie Hall after winning the Distinguished Artists Award in New York in 1994.

Pocheptsov the artist

At the age of 7, George Pocheptsov is winning fame and fortune as a sophisticated visual artist.

Young George, who began painting (with markers) before he was 1 year old, has produced over 60 paintings, some of which are priced as high as $6,600 and $7,000. And there's a waiting list for his impressionistic, Chagall-like acrylic paintings, according to Boot Harris, owner of the Discovery Gallery in North Bethesda, Md., which exhibits the Pocheptsov works.

During the 21st annual Art Expo held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan on March 4-8, George made a personal appearance at the Discovery Gallery booth and was mobbed by the media and Expo visitors. Some 50 newspapers clamored for interviews, Mr. Harris told "Dateline." The precocious artist and his paintings were shown on NBC's "Today" show on March 3.

George came to the United States from Kyiv with his parents four years ago. His father has since passed away, and George makes his home in Potomac, Md., with his mother, Dubrova Pocheptsov, who earned a doctorate in education in Ukraine but has begun formal studies here for a degree.

Pocheptsov paintings, as well as prints priced from $150 to $450, are available from the Discovery Gallery, (301) 365-8181.

Polischuk scores again

A new work by American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Robert Hill, "Post No Scriptum," with a score of the same name by Dmitry Polischuk, will premiere March 30 at a benefit performance at the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse on East 68th Street.

The five-movement ballet will be danced by the ABT Studio Company, a small classical company that prepares young dancers to enter the American Ballet Theatre and provides opportunities for the emergence of new and established choreographers and composers.

Mr. Polischuk and Mr. Hill have collaborated before, last year on the ballet "Pulsar" and just this past February on a new pas de deux used in ABT's first masterclass of the season. Performed by ABT dancers Gillian Murphy and Marcello Gomes, the pas de deux comprises the final movement in "Post No Scriptum" and was used to demonstrate the process of creating a new work.

Mr. Polischuk is becoming well-known as a versatile composer for ballet and drama. He wrote the music and conceived and prepared all the sound effects for the Actors' Studio Free Theater drama "When Cuba Opens Up," directed by Bill Hart at Raw Space on 42nd Street last fall.

In the U.S. since 1991, the composer, who is originally from Vinnytsia, Ukraine, has been working with choreographer Margaux Sappington's Daring Project company, in particular the ballet "The Calling." The company will appear at the Joyce Theater in May. He is presently at work on the full score of an ABT ballet, "Baroque Game," to be premiered at City Center in October.

Smishkewych builds a career

Wolodymyr Smishkewych, a 24-year-old tenor from Cranford, N.J., is on the way to a promising career as an opera singer and a specialist in early music, and ethnic and indigenous music.

Mr. Smishkewych appeared last month in a program of French liturgical music during the New York Collegium's second program of the season at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer. New York Times music critic Bernard Holland used the adjectives elegant and delightful in his review of the Collegium performance. Commenting on the "first-rate 16-voice choir," Mr. Holland singled out eight featured singers, including Mr. Smishkewych.

The young tenor holds bachelor and master of music of degrees in voice performance from Rutgers University, where he was heard in several operas, including Massenet's "Wether," Puccini's "La Boheme" and Weill's "Mahagonny."

While pursuing studies in early music performance practice at Indiana University's Early Music Institute, he was heard in Handel's "Aggripina" and as soloist with the Indiana University Baroque Orchestra. An avid participant in ethnic and indigenous music, he has also performed with several chamber and folkloric ensembles in the U.S. and abroad.

As the progeny of a Ukrainian father and a Spanish mother - both of whom came from provinces called Galicia - the tenor is fluent in Ukrainian, Galician and Spanish. He says his research and performance specialty is Spanish early music.

Upcoming projects include U.S. and European performances with Theatre of Voices and a production of Stravinsky's "Threni" with Netherlands Opera, directed by Peter Sellars in June and December.

The projected fall 1999 release of a CD by the New York Ensemble for Early Music, "Music for the Millennium: A Mass for St. Marcial by Ademar de Chabennes," will add to his discography, which includes "A Byzantine Resurrection" (a collection of Greek chants on the Focus label) and the New York Ensemble's "Nova, Nova" (Ex Cathedral label).

VV - volume and vigor

A frenzy of sound, a solid mass of young people standing wall to wall and a shaking floor blasted into my consciousness when I entered the semi-dark Coney Island High Club in the East Village with a group of friends. The Kyiv-based band Vopli Vidopliassova was in town for a one-night stand and the crowd was completely caught up in the Ukrainian fervor and ethno-music rock sound, even though most of the fans appeared to be from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn's Russian enclave.

Fronted by Oleh Skrypka, the four-man band included the songs "Vesna" and "Hey, Liubo" from its 1997 CD in the evening's giddy menu. The music and the Ukrainian lyrics drove the crowd wild, and an enthusiastic fan jumped up on the low stage, waving a somewhat shabby Ukrainian flag.

After midnight, when the passion and fury subsided as the band took its leave and disappeared backstage, I squeezed a path to the stage in an attempt to speak to Mr. Skrypka. The way was barred by their "manager," who insisted the group needed to recoup. "No pictures, no interview. The band will come back in December," he said firmly.

Vopli Vidopliassova (the name comes from a character in a Dostoyevsky novel) first synthesized Ukrainian ethno-music with rock and performed in Ukrainian back in 1988. Immensely popular in Ukraine, the band worked in France for several years, then returned to Ukraine in 1998. It is often referred to as VV, pronounced becomes "Veh, Veh" in Ukrainian.

Zankovetska Theater actors

The Lviv-based in Zankovetska Theater, its artistic director Fedir Stryhun and his wife, actress Taissa Lytvynenko, made Astoria, Queens, the last stop on their recent U.S. tour. The 14-member group appeared at the Holy Cross Ukrainian Catholic Church hall in "Vertepna Vystava," a collection of traditional and contemporary Christmas-season rituals and carols.

Zankovetska Theater actor Sviatoslav Maksymchuk, though not a tour participant, came to the U.S. ahead of the touring group to attend to publicity matters and plans to stay until mid-May. The renowned actor has been giving one-man theater performances before Ukrainian audiences in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Here in New York City, he recited Ivan Kotliarevsky's "Eneida" - a parody of Virgil's "Aeneid," written in the Ukrainian vernacular - at a program dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Kotliarevsky's poem. (He is scheduled to appear at the Ukrainian National Home this afternoon, immediately following the Ukrainian Orthodox Federal Credit Union meeting [around 4 p.m.].)

PART I

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