DATELINE NEW YORK: Folk singers, opera stars and TV luminaries (10/28/01)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Folk singers, opera stars and TV luminaries

by Helen Smindak

As the lilting voice and infectious laugh of singer/actress Mariana Sadovska rippled through the air of CB's restaurant/bar on the Bowery, jammed with enthusiastic fans of folk music on an early September evening, the dim interior lit up, metaphorically and musically.

It was an evening that brought out intoxicating and wild rhythms, yodeling, calling sounds and other unique characteristics of old-time village music in Ukraine - folk songs that the Lviv-born Ms. Sadovska unearthed during 10 summers of diligent research in the villages of Poltava, Polissia and the Hutsul and Lemko regions of Ukraine.

Teaming up with a bevy of singers and musicians with whom she has appeared in past months, the vivacious vocalist turned in a spirited, rousing performance. It was the first concert of a brief U.S. solo tour marking the finale to a year filled with workshops and performances; in mid-October, Ms. Sadovska returned to her full-time occupation with the Gardzienice Experimental Theater in Poland.

Accompanying herself on the harmonium, an organlike keyboard instrument with small metal reeds and a pair of bellows operated by the musician, Ms. Sadovska cast a spell over the audience with a wide range of ritual songs and ballads, some of them her own arrangements. There were throaty calling songs, high-pitched, loud songs with trills and quavers, songs to drive the clouds away, spring calling songs filled with longing and yearning. Explaining each number, Ms. Sadovska also imitated the rhythmic "singing" speech of villagers who provided answers to her queries for road directions.

As the evening progressed, other soloists and groups were invited to come on stage, among them the Experimental Bandura Trio of Julian Kytasty, Michael Andrec and Jurij Fedynskyj, Rumanian singer Sandra Wiegl, keyboard artist Anthony Coleman, drummer and vibraphone player Matt Moran, accordionist Ted Reichman, gusli musician Illya Temkin, clarinetist Doug Wieselman and violinist Valery Zhmud.

Singers Alla Kutsevich and Iryna Hrechko, accompanied by Yara Arts Group members - Laura Biaggi, Marina Celander, Akiko Hiroshima, Zabryna Guevara, Jina Oh and Joanna Wichowska - raised their voices in a chorus of calling songs. The evening wound up as Eugene Hutz and Sergei Ryabtsev of the punk cabaret band Gogol Bordello brought in their unique style of lusty punk rock music fused with Slavic and Gypsy strains, to which Gypsy dancer Piroshka gyrated with abandon.

Introducing her American sponsor, Thieching Tsieh of Brooklyn, who provided a one-year stipend, and her close mentor Virlana Tkacz, director of the Yara Arts Group, Ms. Sadovska also extended thanks to her sponsors, SUMA (Yonkers) Federal Credit Union, the Ukrainian National Federal Credit Union, Western Union and the MEEST Corp.

Later in September, Ms. Sadovska launched The Washington Group Cultural Fund concert series before a capacity audience at The Lyceum in Old Town Alexandria, just outside the nation's capital, with a recital illustrating the depth and breadth of emotions expressed in Ukraine's folk songs. Cultural Fund director Laryssa Courtney dedicated the concert to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Minister Counselor Volodymyr Yatsenkivsky of the Ukrainian Embassy of Ukraine greeted the audience, which included former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Green Miller and his wife, Suzanne.

TWG cultural correspondent Lesia Bihun, providing information about the Lyceum concert, eloquently describes Ms. Sadovska's artistry: from a young woman's longing for the carefree moments of her childhood in "Oy, Vershe, Mii Vershe" to the rollicking "Piemo, Piemo," in which four women wonder what kind of liquor could have made them so drunk after three days of drinking, the program moved the audience from sadness to laughter, and then further into the heart-rending grief of a young widow asking her son about the whereabouts of his father in "Vdova" and to outright hilarity over a young village woman's marital problems with a much older man in "Ozhenyvsia Staryi Did."

Ms. Sadovska's final concert in this country took place at the Europa Gallery in Brooklyn just before her departure for Poland on October 15. I have a feeling we will see her again before too long.

Opera stars galore

Two weeks ago, "Dateline New York" crowed that there were no less than 10 Ukrainians in New York's opera productions this season. Now we can exult about two more - soprano Alexandra (Lesia) Hrabova, who sang a leading role in the DiCapo Opera's October offerings of "La Bohème," and bass Stefan Szkafarowsky, who will cover two roles in the Metropolitan Opera production of "War and Peace" next February.

Undertaking the role of the seamstress Mimi in Puccini's "La Bohème" for the first time, Ms. Hrabova, a former Lviv Opera soloist, was highly praised by John W. Freeman, one of the chief editors of Opera News. According to Bohdanna Wolansky, Ms. Hrabova's personal manager, Mr. Freeman enthused that Ms. Hrabova "becomes the character she's playing."

Mr. Szkafarowsky, of Yonkers, N.Y., was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions several years ago. He has sung with the New York City Opera Company, Eve Queler's Opera Orchestra of New York, the Chicago Light Opera and other leading opera companies across the nation. Joining Vassily Gerello and Larissa Shevchenko in the cast of Prokofiev's "War and Peace," Mr. Szkafarowsky will sing the roles of both General Yermolov and the French general in February and March 2002.

UIA season opener

Late afternoon sunshine streaming through the Fifth Avenue windows of the Ukrainian Institute of America glowed over guest speakers and glinted on the blonde locks and beaded purple gown of guest artist Anna Bachynska during the Institute's official season opening on October 6.

With Christine Karpevych at the piano, Ms. Bachynska paid honor to the nation and the city with rich-voiced renditions of "The Star Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America." A tribute to the victims of the World Trade Center tragedy by the Rev. Patrick Paschak, vicar general of the Stamford Diocese, Ukrainian Catholic Church, and the stirring singing of "Vichnaya Pamiat" by the Rev. Andrei Kulyk, pastor of All Saints' Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Manhattan, were followed by the singing of the Ukrainian national anthem by Ms. Bachynska and the audience.

The occasion, also marking the 10th anniverary of Ukraine's independence, included a collage of color photos of the first independence day in Ukraine and a film highlighting the country's historical and cultural treasures. Held over from a late September exhibit for visitors to admire was the work of four prize-winning artists from Odesa: photo artist Elena Martuniuk, graphic artist Ksenia Tokarenko, sculptor Michael Reva and painter Sergei Belik.

Valeriy Kuchinsky, Ukraine's permanent representative to the United Nations, who brought warm greetings to the Ukrainian American community from Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, Anatolii Zlenko, pointed out that Ukraine was the first country to decry the World Trade Center terrorist acts and to offer the United States air passsage over Ukraine in America's war against terrorism.

Natalia Martynenko of the Consulate General of Ukraine in New York, who will help plan the institute's cultural programs this season, thanked everyone for their support and assistance in preparing this anniversary event.

Ms. Bachynska's program included a song of sadness and bitter tears over a broken heart "Chotyry voly pasu ia...i hirko plachu" (I cry bitterly as I watch over the oxen) and the merry tune "Doschyk, Doschyk" (Rain, Rain).

A graduate of Lviv's Lysenko Conservatory, where she studied operatic singing and choir directing, Ms. Bachynska has been active in the Ukrainian American community since she arrived in the United States in 1990. She has given a music course for children at the Grazhda Ukrainian Center in Hunter, N.Y., for 10 summers and has served as musical director of St. George's Ukrainian street festival for the past six years.

Surveying the season's activities from September through January, UIA President Walter Nazarewicz said events will include outstanding Music at the Institute programs, art exhibits (Patricia Stillman, Yuri Khymych), a literary reading (author Askold Melnyczuk), a showing of the film "A Friend of the Deceased," a craft show highlighting the work of 12 exceptional artists, as well as a number of symposia, benefits and social functions.

Ukrainian stars on TV

Olympic champion skater Oksana Baiul, featured in an intimate portrait on Lifetime television on October 19, was seen on Lifetime's "Strong Medicine" program twice during the past week and appeared on cable's E! network in "The True Hollywood Story" on October 26. The Dnipropetrovsk-born figure skater, pictured in the October issue of Blades On Ice, has been busy this year with such skating events as Art On Ice with the Scorpions in Zurich, Switzerland, a gala in Germany and a charity fund-raiser at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last Sunday.

New Jerseyan Vera Farmiga, recently seen in the romantic drama "Autumn in New York" and other Hollywood films "The Opportunists" and "Fifteen Minutes," is currently starring in the new NBC series "UC: Undercover." In this action-adventure series, shown on Sundays at 10 p.m., she is a member of an extremely unorthodox Special Operations Group of five elite undercover agents. She says that as undercover agent Alex Cross there's the opportunity to play other people "so it's never the same character."

Kyiv-born Mila Kunis, aleady a successful actress and model in her teen years, is in her fourth season on "That 70s Show," a half-hour hit comedy set in suburban Wisconsin in the era of Led Zeppelin eight-tracktapes, Tab colas and Farrah Fawcett posters. Funny and frequently poignant, the Fox show airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

Versatile character actor and Emmy nominee John Spencer plays the role of Chief of Staff Leo McGarry to President Josiah Bartlet in the sophisticated, one-hour drama series "The West Wing," which NBC airs on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.

The show, which holds the record for most Emmys won by a series in a single season, gives a behind-the-scenes look into the Oval Office as seen through the eyes of an eclectic group of frenzied staffers and the devoted first family. Mr. Spencer, son of John and Mildred Speshock of Patterson, N.J., proudly claims to be "half Ukrainian;" the family of his mother, Mildred Bincarowski Speshock, came from Ukraine.

The sauve and all-business demeanor of Canadian-born Alex Trebek has kept him as host of "Jeopardy," TV's most serious IQ test, since 1984. "Jeopardy," which airs on ABC Monday to Friday at 7 p.m., is called the second most popular game show of all time by TV Guide's editors. The progeny of a French mother and a Ukrainian father, Mr. Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1940.

Robert Urich, whose paternal grandparents came from the Rusyn/Ukrainian village of Lukov-Venecia in northeastern Slovakia, makes his own "kolbasi," bakes "paska" and serves "babulky" on Christmas Eve. His work on television has included more than a dozen series, but he is best known as the star of "Spenser: For Hire." Although he usually plays rough-hewn men of action, he is currently portraying Jerry McKenney, the best friend and agent of TV superchef Emeril Lagasse, in the NBC half-hour comedy "Emeril," Tuesdays at 8 p.m.

Two TV stars whose purported Ukrainian connection has not yet been fully examined by "Dateline New York" are Cora-Ann Mihalik, newsanchor of WOR-TV, whose ancestors were born in Nizny Orlik village in Slovakia's Rusyn-Ukrainian region, and Sherry Stringfield, an original cast member of "ER" when the medical drama debuted in 1994. Ms. Stringfield has signed on for the three remaining years of the series on NBC after a five-year absence that took in marriage and the birth of a baby girl. Thursdays at 9 p.m. she will be reprising the role of Dr. Susan Lewis on "ER," the most-nominated drama in Emmy history. An early "ER" segment which highlighted a Ukrainian Christmas celebration was said to have been prompted by Ms. Stringfield's ethnic roots.

Helen Smindak's e-mail address is [email protected].

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