DATELINE NEW YORK: The sounds of music, for 50 years (11/17/02)

DATELINE NEW YORK: The sounds of music, for 50 years

by Helen Smindak

The 50th anniversary of any organization deserves a gala celebration. For an institution that's been making music for a half-century, what better way to mark a milestone birthday than by making more music.

So the Ukrainian Music Institute of America (UMI) - the largest music school in the Ukrainian diaspora - assembled students, alumni, teachers and friends at Carnegie Hall's stately Weill Recital Hall on October 27 for an anniverary concert. It was a joyous Ukrainian occasion featuring the stars of tomorrow - young musicians and singers (all but two of them Ukrainian) in embroidered shirts and blouses, all of them protégés of Ukrainian music teachers, all performing works by Ukrainian composers.

The performers came from four UMI chapters: New York/Astoria, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Philadelphia. A fifth chapter, Detroit, was unable to participate, but was represented by four guests from the Motor City.

With beaming parents and relatives looking on, students walked out on stage, gave a formal bow or curtsy, and sat down at the piano to play selections ranging from such works as Kosenko's lively "After the Butterfly" and Skoryk's sprightly "Folk Dance," to Stepovy's poignant "Prelude" and Wytwycky's exuberant "Ukrainka."

The complexity of the music appeared to increase with the student's age and level of proficiency, the final works being performed with great maturity, control and grace by Peter Varela, a student of Taissa Bohdanska, and Yurij and Jaroslaw Dobriansky, both students of Thomas Hrynkiw. In the selection "Ukrainka," a very difficult work, Jurij Dobriansky displayed remarkable fingering prowess and musicianship.

The performers included Lev Wolansky, Yuri Usenko, Adrienne Magun, Olga Kushnir, Yuri Kushnir, Nicholas Kanisczak, Natalie Surmachevska, Mathew Usenko, Maria Nemelivsky, Stephanie Borai and Yuri Symczyk.

The program received a felicitous opening from the UMI children's choir of Philadelphia with delightful performances of Fillipenko's "The Joyous River," Nedilsky's "We are Young" and Leontovych's "The Bagpipe Player." Ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 8, the singers made a charming picture - and were easy to listen to - as they closely followed the direction of Lesia Penkalskyj, with Helen Sagaty-Porytko at the piano.

UMI alumni Olha Jawny Sokhan, Marta Maczaj and Oleh Sokhan, whose love of music continues though all three are now medical practitioners, gave highly skillful performances that brought the concert's first half to a close. Ms. Sokhan offered a dreamy interpretation of Zhuk's "Poem," Ms. Maczaj did an excellent job of keeping up with the speedy fingering called for in Kosenko's "Courante" in E-Minor, while Mr. Sokhan interpreted Revutsky's "Four Preludes" with precision and aplomb.

The second half of the program turned the spotlight on several professional musicians and singers associated in some way with the institute. Violinist Halyna Remezov, accompanied by UMI piano teacher Oksana Lykhovyd in Skoryk's "Melodiya," was joined by violinist Anastasia Antoniv for a merry folk-dance number for two violins. Longtime UMI staff member/violinist Rafael Wenke, with Peter Tarsio at the piano, performed musical wonders with his bow in two Hrudyn classics, while pianist Robert Durso, a former student of the late UMI teacher Daria Karanowycz, offered works by Hrudyn and Barvinsky.

Soprano Lesia Hrabova, who studies voice with Met Opera veteran Andrij Dobriansky, demonstrated the radiant voice and personality that have won critics' raves for her appearances with New York's Di Capo Opera. Accompanied by Mr. Hrynkiw, director of UMI's New York school, she sang Barvinsky's "Be Blessed" and Lysenko's "The Princess," ending on a high note with a short but vivacious piece arranged by Revutsky, "The Street Fiddler."

For the finale, the Promin vocal ensemble (concurrently marking its 30th anniversary) blended voices harmoniously under the masterful direction of Bohdanna Wolansky in the folk songs "Verkhovyno," "The Parting" and a happy "Turtle Dove," as arranged by Lysenko. (In true show business tradition, Ms. Wolansky went through with the performance even though she had tripped and broken a bone in her foot just before the performance; showing no evidence of pain, she conducted while leaning against a high stool.)

Not forgotten during the concert were those who played an important role in the founding and development of the music institute. In her welcoming address, UMI President Bohdanska paid special homage to pianist/teacher Daria Hordynska-Karanowycz, UMI president from 1968 to 1970 and from 1983 to 1999, who passed away in December 1999.

Pianist and educator Roman Sawycky Sr., UMI co-founder, main organizer, first president (1952-1959) and inspector (1956-1960), was cited by his son, musicologist Roman Sawycky Jr., in a brief address that opened the concert's second half. Mr. Sawycky saluted his alma mater and underlined that Ukrainian professional music always enjoyed high priority in the UMI educational program. Such music is now available on a CD of stereo recordings by Ms. Karanowycz. (For ordering information, please contact Ukraine Masters Label, P.O. 424, Cranfod, NJ 07016.)

Initiated by members of the music section at the Literary Art Club of New York, directed by sculptor Serhiy Lytvynenko, the Ukrainian Music Institute was founded in New York in 1952 and spread out to 22 other cities in the eastern United States where Ukrainian professional musicians had settled.

The UMI program, enabling hundreds of students to study Ukrainian and other music literature in an organized manner, is conducted within a system of main and additional subjects, examinations and student recitals. UMI also offers one introductory year for children under 8, as well as one "concert" year for graduates. A children's kindergarten class begun in 1972 continues in New York and Irvington, N.J., as a pre-school music class, "Music and Me," founded by Marta Shlemkevych-Sawycky.

The texts of courses in music history and theory, prepared by UMI teachers Helen Klym and Vsevolod Budnyj, have been entered into Ukraine's general teaching program. With several former UMI students recognized in the world of music and several UMI alumni teaching in UMI branches, the institute has much to be proud of - and to celebrate.

Dumka's new CDs

The Dumka Chorus of New York, which marked its golden jubilee in the year 2000 with a concert at the Cooper Union's Great Hall, continues to celebrate by recording Ukrainian music that touches the heart and soul. Last year Dumka released a CD of beloved Ukrainian Christmas carols, and now it has brought out another CD, "Ukrainian Sacred Music," a collection of sacred prayers and chants that represent the spiritual heritage of our culture. Both are treasures that reflect the richness of our Ukrainian legacy and would be a boon in your musical library or a gift to bestow on relatives and friends in the coming holiday season. (Has anyone thought of sending a Ukrainian disc to a favorite radio music reviewer?)

The new release features arangements of religious music by Ukrainian composers Stetsenko, Leontovych, Hnatyshyn and Lysenko, including "Bless the Lord, O My Soul," "The Lord's Prayer" and "The Cherubic Hymn." Excellent solo performances are given by tenor Borys Kekish in Hnatyshyn's arrangement of the reverential old Kyivan chant "Credo" (Viruyu) and by bass/baritone Mychail Newmerzyckyj in the traditional "Easter Sunday Matins Chant" (Exapostilariom).

Lysenko's original work "Your Presence is Everywhere, O Lord" is sensitively interpreted by the chorus, with soprano Eugenia Babenko-Klufas, alto Larissa Bulyha and tenor Mychailo Moczula in solo segments.

The music of two outstanding composers of Ukrainian religious music, Vedel and Bortniansky, carries the recording to an exalted finale. Vedel's "Repentance" (in an arrangement by Koshetz) and Bortniansky's "Let My Prayer Reach You, O Lord" form a prelude to Bortniansky's triumphant "O Lord, in Your Strength the King Rejoices" (Sacred Concerto No. 3). Several soloists contribute to the beauty of this work, among them Ms. Babenko-Klufas, Ms. Bulyha, Klara Lechko, Olena Novicka, Bohdan Kekish, Borys Kekish, Mr. Newmerzyckyj and Yurij Fedynskyj.

The Christmas disc, featuring traditional Christmas and New Year "koliadky," opens with the traditional and much-loved "God Eternal" (Boh Predvichnyi), an exultant work arranged by Koshetz. The selections that follow are predominantly joyous: Stetsenko's arrangements of "Today We Sing" and "Joy on the Hill," and Stupnytsky's version of "On Christmas Morn."

As bass/baritone Yuri Shtohryn sings the solo part in "Christmas Bells," arranged by Y. Yacynevych, the male chorus provides the sonorous tolling of church bells and the women's voices imitate jingling sleigh bells. For quiet, worshipful works, there are Kupchynsky's arrangement of "Weep Not, Rachel," Haivoronsky's "Oh, Christmas Lily" and the Koshetz arrangement of "Let Us Sing of His Birth."

The CD's richness is enhanced by the Bortniansky work "Glory to God in the Highest" (Sacred Concerto No. 6) and the Leontovych arrangement of "Schedyk," the New Year carol the world has come to know as "Carol of the Bells."

Soloists on this disc include those heard in the recording of sacred music as well as Natalia Honcharenko, Teodozia Turczan-Lastowecky and Lubomyr Pavlovych. The chorus was conducted by its acclaimed artistic director, Vasyl Hrechynsky, formerly choirmaster of the Lviv Theater of Opera and Ballet, who has been leading the ensemble since 1991.

Edited and mastered by Slavko Halatyn, the CDs were recorded at St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in New York and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Bayonne, N.J. Cover designs were executed by artists Bohdan Tytla (Christmas carols) and Hilary Zarycky (sacred music). Ask for the discs at your Ukrainian book store, check out your Yevshan catalogue or call (973) 614-1373 for information.

In the village

Gentrification hasn't eliminated Ukrainian cultural activities in the East Village, if one takes note of recent events in Little Ukraine. Consider the Mayana Gallery (136 Second Avenue, fourth floor), where ceramic artist Slava Gerulak and her daughter, Lavrentia Turkewicz, have been holding forums these many years - art exhibits, musicales and readings in the tradition of the popular post-war Ukrainian Literary Art Club. A week ago, the gallery saw the opening of an exhibit by five contemporary artists from Ukraine, with varied styles and techniques: Serhij Bratkovsky (geometric compositions), Oleh Denysenko (black-and-white etchings), Volodymyr Kostyrko (oils), Yurij Lesiuk (oil, linen) and Natalia Pukhinda (paper, gouache). Presented in collaboration with ArtFira Company, the exhibit runs through November 17.

A few weeks earlier, Mayana hosted an evening in honor of journalist and author Ulana Starosolska (pseudonym Liubovych) and her writings. Excerpts from Ms. Liubovych's memoirs "Let Me Tell You About Kazakstan" and other works were given sensitive readings by actors Lydia Krushelnytsky, Volodymyr Lysniak and his wife, Laryssa Kukrytska Lysniak. After being introduced by Lubov Dmytryshyn-Chasto and receiving a bouquet of flowers, Ms. Liubovych mused, "It seems as though I'm hearing (these writings) for the first time."

Born in Lviv in 1912, she edited three Lviv periodicals before being exiled with her mother and brother to Kazakstan by the Soviet authorities in 1940. After her release in 1946, she was allowed to live in Poland, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1967. Here in New York she published her Kazakstan memoirs, edited the women's monthly magazine Nashe Zhyttia (1972-1984, 1987-1990), and contributed stories, essays and sketches to the émigré press.

At St. George's Academy last Sunday, the gymnasium/auditorium reverberated to the sounds of Ukrainian pop music delivered by Ukraine's most popular composer and purveyor of contemporary music, Taras Petrynenko, and his blonde sidekick, Tetyana Horobets. Mr. Petrynenko, known as a fighter for Ukrainian independence and the rebirth of a Ukrainian nation, was cheered on by the predominantly Fourth Wave audience as he delivered lyrical love songs and stirring compositions which have awakened feelings of personal dignity and a longing for Ukraine's independence in the citizens of Ukraine - songs such as "Chornobylska Zona," "Kolyskova-33" and "Hospody Pomylui Nas."

Backed by recorded music, Mr. Petrynenko's repertoire included his very popular composition, "Ukraino, Ukraino," a work comparable to America's "God Bless America" that is considered the second hymn of Ukraine. In Kyiv, his native city, the bells of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery toll a fragment of this composition every day.

The slim and lovely Ms. Horobets took the stage as a single and paired with Mr. Petrynenko in the final segment. Looking for all the world like a modern-day Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, in a navel-baring tailored white shirt and quixotic black skirt that skimmed two-inch high platform sneakers, she roused the audience to wild applause with her animated song stylings.

Backstage after the show, the performers were surrounded by excited fans snapping pictures of their idols as they waited for them to sign autographs.

Mr. Petrynenko, whose shoulder-length locks and handle-bar mustache give him a jaunty appearance, took time to respond to a reporter's question about his style. "I think my music and style are akin to Sting, Peter Gabriel or maybe Elton John," he said, smiling. (Mr. Petrynenko was the leader of the Hrono band which toured the U.S. in 1991; several members who remained in this country formed the Fata Morgana band.) Ms. Horobets believes there is a similarity between her musical styling and manner and those of Madonna.

Touring the eastern U. S., the duo next journey's to Syracuse, N.Y., Hartford, Conn., and Somerset, N.J., and will hit Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit between November 24 and December 8. The tour is the first project undertaken by Melodies of Ukraine, a Cleveland-based organization formed three months ago by young Ukrainians and Ukrainian Americans to help young people understand and feel Ukrainian patriotism and the Ukrainian spirit through Ukrainian music.

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

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