DATELINE NEW YORK: The Kyiv-New York express (11/03/02)

DATELINE NEW YORK: The Kyiv-New York express

by Helen Smindak

The Ukrainian Institute of America is bringing the city of Kyiv - or at least several essential elements of it - to New York during the next year. In the process, the institute may wind up with its most exciting season since its founding in 1948.

During the season opener last month, when members and friends gathered for a reception at the historic Stuyvesant mansion on Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, UIA President Walter Nazarewicz announced that the board of directors had designated 2003 as the "Year of the Renaissance of Kyiv." To this end, several important cultural and artistic events will be held at two-month intervals throughout the year, beginning with the institute's "Man of the Year" award to the mayor of Kyiv, Oleksander Omelchenko. The award will be made at an elegant Plaza Hotel dinner on December 9.

Honoring the mayor as the chief architect of the new beauty of Ukraine's capital, the presentation will be the first since the "Man of the Year" award was bestowed on philanthropist George Soros in 1997. Former recipients of the award, initiated in the 1980s, include actor Jack Palance, Maj. Gen. Bohdan Krawciw, Judge Bohdan Futey, historian Omeljan Pryitsak, poet/artist Sviatoslav Hordynsky and actress/singer/director Lydia Krushelnytsky.

Ten businessmen from Kyiv, and several local politicians and dignitaries are expected to attend the dinner. World boxing champion Volodymyr Klychko has promised to fly in for the Plaza dinner following a December 7 fight on the West Coast, along with his brother, boxer Vitaliy Klychko.

A multi-media exhibition is being organized at the institute to spotlight the emergence of Kyiv as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Targeted specifically at a non-Ukrainian audience, it will run from December 6 until January 31, then move on to Chicago and Washington. A weeklong showing of Ukrainian fashions is planned to coincide with New York's Fashion Week in spring 2003.

Speaking on behalf of UIA directors, Mr. Nazarewicz told this reporter: "We're planning all these events, plus a noontime press conference on December 9, as well as a special journal, to publicize Ukraine's wonderful history and culture - and to counter all the negative things we hear about Ukraine."

Though the highly ambitious program involves intensive planning and work, the institute is continuing its excellent Music at the Institute (MATI) series and other cultural activities. Already under its belt for this season are two well-attended events: the celebration of Ukraine's 11th independence anniversary and the welcoming of Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko, who was in New York to attend the 57th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Both events were held in collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations and the Consulate General of Ukraine in New York.

The MATI series, held under the direction of renowned pianist Mykola Suk, opened in mid-October with an ensemble from the Netherlands, Musica Ad Rhenum, a group of musicians inspired by the power and virtuosity of Baroque music. Coming programs will feature the music of Eastern Europe (December 7), Brahms (January 26) and the Vienna Piano Trio from Austria (February 22).

In addition, jazz pianist John Stetch will introduce melodies from his latest CD "Ukrainianism" during a concert on November 15.

A recent evening of culture and cuisine, with proceeds earmarked for the UIA building fund, showcased "Ukrainian fusion" food prepared by Soyuzivka's popular chef, Andrij Sonevytsky, and a selection of Bulgarian, Crimean and Georgian wines, and assorted beers and vodka. "Fusion" delicacies included pumpkin pyrohy encased in Asian-type dough, stuffed cabbage rolls, apple and currant blintzes and kovbasa quesadillas. Guests were serenaded by a band of musicians - Slavko Halatyn, Oles Kuzyszyn, George Hrab Jr. and Mr. Sonevytsky - while munching on fusion food and appraising an exhibit of recent work by artist Andriy Babytsch of Toronto.

Kathy Nalywajko, chairperson of the event, says the evening kicked off a new Friends of the Institute program beamed at new friends and supporters of the institute. "We're offering people two events free of charge and a place on our mailing list, for just $100 for the season, and I'm glad to say we had a most gratifying response from people during the evening."

Mr. Babytsch, born in Ukraine, is a colorist who works in oils and pastels; portraits and landscapes comprise his subject matter. Tones and shades of color relay his feelings in landscapes, while simplicity of detail and a well-defined spectrum of color mark his portraits. During the third convention of the International Artists Pastel Society in 1999, he was showcased in the magazine Pastel International as master pastellist of the world. A resident of Canada since 1948, he has been president of the Ukrainian Association of Visual Artists of Canada since 1994.

The institute building, which also serves as a home for the Ukrainian Research and Documentation Center, hums with other activities as well: social functions of the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America and the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America, and a weekly pre-school music class directed by Marta Sawycky. It serves frequently as the locale for shoots of Hollywood movies, most recently the Kirk Douglas-Michael Dougles film "A Smack in the Face" (not yet released).

Stage ensemble Kyiv-bound

While the mayor of Kyiv and several businessmen are getting set to travel from Kyiv to New York, the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble and director Lydia Krushelnytsky are preparing to fly to Ukraine's capital city for a four-day competition of Ukrainian theatrical groups from the diaspora. The troupe will be competing with a dozen or so theater groups that will converge on Kyiv from Germany, Russia, Slovakia, Croatia and other countries during the week of November 11. The Stage Ensemble's entry is "Zhinka Kriz Viky" (Woman Through Time), portraying women in Greek mythology. It's a montage from the works of Lesia Ukrainka, which the ensemble has previously performed in New York, Philadelphia and Canada.

Where are they now?

Virlana Tkacz, director of the dynamic Yara Arts Group, is in Kyiv this semester teaching on a Fulbright Fellowship (for a semester), and seems to be just as active there as here. During the October 19-20 weekend, Ms. Tkacz directed a concert version of "In the Beginning Was Song," a dialogue of traditional songs from Ukrainian and Hebrew, performed by Mariana Sadovska of Ukraine and Poland, and Victoria Hanna from Jerusalem. The concert was staged for the Fulbright Conference and for a new music and poetry series "Kolo Nas," inaugurated and run by Ms. Tkacz in Kyiv. Joining Ms. Tkacz soon will be four actresses from the Yara Arts Group in New York - Marina Celander, Zabryna Guevara, Akiko Hiroshima and Jina Oh - who will rehearse the group's Ivan Kupalo material with Ms. Sadovska for the Diaspora Festival (the same one in which the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble is participating.) After that, they plan to visit villages they've been to in past summers, to perform for the women who taught them Kupalo songs, and then begin work on creating a new Kupalo presentation show for 2003 that will be presented at the LaMama Theater on June 3-28.

Olga Talyn, the singer/actress who portrayed Mme. Giry in the phenomenal Broadway show "Phantom of the Opera," is taking a break from the exhausting grind of show business. After spending several years on Broadway and time on the road with the national tours of "Phantom" and "Cabaret," she is relaxing at her New Jersey home (she enjoys designing and stringing semi-precious stones into bead necklaces) before tackling another Broadway role.

Ms. Talyn (born Olga Bodnar) sang the Ukrainian national anthem and "God Bless America" during a special Ukrainian Independence Day observance at the New Jersey governor's mansion, then did another community turn by singing the anthem at the Ukrainian Institute's welcoming party for Mr. Zlenko.

New York City Opera diva Oksana Krovytska, who sang the title role in "Madame Butterfly" with the Illinois Opera back in September, is now on the West Coast preparing for the San Francisco Opera's November production of "Katya Kabanova," a role she recently performed with the Miami and Montreal opera companies. She is scheduled to sing at the Opera Gala in Montreal on December 8.

Soprano Alexandra Hrabova and pianist Thomas Hrynkiw teamed up as soloist and accompanist during the Ukrainian Music Institute's 50th anniversary celebration at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall last weekend. Ms. Hrabova, who recently appeared at Hungarian House in a concert focusing on Ukrainian and Hungarian music, will soon take part in a concert competition at Carnegie Hall and will sing the role of Nedda in Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" with the Di Capo Opera in February and March.

Mr. Hrynkiw can barely keep track of all his engagements; he figures he's doing 60 concerts a year, including 24 at last summer's Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island. Adding to his busy schedule: teaching at the Ukrainian Music Institute in New York and Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., newspaper and radio interviews, and - a major achievement - completing 200 recordings for the Yamaha Disklavier, with hundreds still to be done.

Around town

Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Belotserkovsky, performing with American Ballet Theatre during its fall season at City Center, won words of praise from The New York Times' critic Jennifer Dunning. Ms. Dunning pointed to their performance in "Swan Lake Pas de Deux," remarking that, although there were no solos, just partnered dance, "that was enough, given Ms. Dvorovenko's flowing musical phrasing and Mr. Belotserkovsky's easy aristrocratic bearing." The couple was recently pictured in Women's Wear Daily with fashion designer Calvin Klein at his Manhattan store during an ABT benefit.

Ukrainian-born Vadim Solomakha, a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, caught reviewers' attention when the troupe came to town for a weeklong fling at City Center. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times said he "cuts a noble figure as cavalier" to ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan in "Paquita." A member of the Shevchenko National Opera and Ballet Theater and the Kyiv Classical Ballet Theater before joining San Francisco Ballet in 1995, Mr. Solomakha was promoted to principal dancer with the American troupe in 1998.

Film director Roman Boychuk (aka Paul Bojack) has informed "Dateline" that DVDs and videos of his first feature film "Glass, Necktie" are now available in Manhattan at TLA Video, 52 W. Eighth St., and The Movie Place at 237 W. 105th St. as well as at Kim's Video, St. Mark's Place, in the East Village. The film can be found at 1,000 stores across the country (e-mail [email protected] for the closest location).

Andrij Cybyk, dancer and assistant artistic director of the Syzokryli Ukrainian dancers, reports that Syzokryli and the New York girls' choir Prolisok performed in Warren, Mich., before a very large, enthusiastic audience at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Ukrainian Selfreliance Michigan Federal Credit Union. The dancers and director Roma Pryma Bohachevsky have a busy year ahead: their schedule includes Town Hall on January 31, followed by the Slavic Heritage Festival, a concert at Montclair State University and the annual Ukrainian Festival in the East Village in May.

Just back from an uplifting tour of Argentina with the AllNations Dance Company, Mr. Cybyk expects to go to China with the Michael Mao Dance company for most of December and January, join the Brighton Ballet Theater for an engagement in Miami, then return to China, this time for a tour with AllNations. His latest choreographic work is currently crossing the U.S. in the dance "Bereznianka" (Girl from Bereznia), a couples' dance set in the Carpathian Mountains that's part of the Duquesne University Tamburitzans' U.S. concert tour for 2002-2003.

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

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