Violinist Soroka, composer Skoryk score in Washington area concert (03/12/00)

Violinist Soroka, composer Skoryk score in Washington area concert

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - A recital by award-winning Ukrainian violinist Solomia Soroka and the featured works by composer Myroslav Skoryk received high marks from the capital area's senior music critic Joseph McLellan.

Writing in the February 26 Washington Post, the critic also praised the two pianists who accompanied Ms. Soroka during the February 23 recital at the Chevy Chase Women's Club - Myroslava Kysylevych and Oksana Lassowsky.

Admitting that, as far as he could recall, he "never heard a note composed by Myroslav Skoryk" until this recital, the reviewer added that the contemporary Ukrainian composer should be better known in this country.

"He is an original, a composer with a distinct identity, a mastery of many idioms - jazzy, folk-style and moderately avant-garde - that he uses to shape works embodying piquant contrasts, convincing climaxes and sometimes impish wit," Mr. McLellan wrote.

He called Mr. Skoryk's Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, his Burlesque in C for Solo Piano and Spanish Dance for Violin and Piano the highlights of the program. While focusing on Ukrainian composers ("a sadly neglected group in this country"), he said, the program also included landmarks in the standard repertoire for violin and piano, notably Giuseppe Tartini's "Devil's Trill" sonata and Pablo de Sarasate's "Zigeunerweisen" ("Gypsy Airs").

The reviewer noted that the violinist had "two talented pianists who took turns playing and turning pages: Myroslava Kysylevych, who soloed in the Burlesque, and Oksana Lassowsky, whose partnership in the "Zigeunerweisen" helped to produce one of the finest performances I have ever heard of that much-played work."

"Soroka is a superbly equipped violinist, at ease with the technical challenges of Sarasate or of Jeno Hubay's Czardas No. 2, but even more impressive in the gentler moments of Yevhen Stankovych's "Cradle Song" and Mykola Lysenko's pleasantly conventional Fantasy No. 2 on Ukrainian themes," Joseph McLellan wrote. "Her tone is warm and mellow on the low strings, brilliant on the high strings, perfectly controlled and expressively used."

The recital was sponsored jointly by the Cultural Fund of The Washington Group, an association of Ukrainian-American professionals, and the Embassy of Ukraine.

Solomia Soroka, who debuted at the age of 10 with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, is the first-prize winner of three international violin competitions - the Lysenko Competition, the Prokofiev Competition and the "Zolota Osin." She has soloed with many chamber and symphony orchestras, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

Ms. Kysylevych, an honors graduate from the Lysenko Higher State Music Institute in Lviv, has performed throughout Ukraine and in Eastern Europe. She is now a candidate for a master's degree in music at the University of Minnesota, studying with Lydia Artymiw.

Ms. Lasowsky, who studied piano under Annette Roussel-Pesche and Cecilia Dunoyer, was a semi-finalist at the Stravinsky International Piano Competition at the University of Illinois. She has given recitals in Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York, Buffalo, Reading and Annapolis.

| Home Page |