Oleh Chmyr to appear with New Jersey State Opera in "Pagliacci"

NEWARK, N.J. - Baritone Oleh Chmyr will appear with the New Jersey State Opera in Leoncavallo's one-act opera "Pagliacci" in the role of Silvio, in two performances to be held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Prudential Hall, on Friday, February 21, at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, February 23, at 3 p.m. Also on the bill is Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana."

A principal artist with the Ekaterinburg Opera in Russia since 1984, as well as with the Lviv and Wroclaw (Poland) opera companies, Mr. Chmyr has performed lead roles in the opera houses of Ukraine, Russia and Poland. His opera and concert tours had taken him to France, Spain, Germany, Denmark and Norway.

Mr. Chmyr has also established himself as a talented chamber singer with an extensive repertoire. His solo concert "European Vocal Miniatures," held at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in May 2000, featured a repertoire of Western European as well as Ukrainian, Polish and Russian composers. An eponymous CD was released that same year. Prior to emigrating to the United States in 1994, Mr. Chmyr's interpretation of German Lieder earned him recognition at such fora as the Glinka International Vocal Competition in Russia.

Among select performances of Mr. Chmyr's singing career were appearances with the Berlin Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Robert Hannel, at the Berliner Music Festival gala concert (1984); as soloist performing the "Vesna" (Spring) cantata with mixed choir and orchestra, under the direction of Alexander Lazarev, principal conductor of the Bolshoi Opera, at the first Rachmaninoff festival held in the composer's hometown of Ivanovka in Russia; and with the Poznan and Ekaterinburg symphonies, under the direction of Andrei Borejko, where he sang and recorded "Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen."

Select American performances included appearances at the Newport International Star Festival (1996) as well as at Carnegie Hall in the New York Grand Opera Gala "Stars of Tomorrow" concert (1995) and at New York's Merkin Hall (1997).

Mr. Chmyr has been referred to by critics as a "baritone, [who] with his outstanding artistic ability, stands at the threshold of an international career," (Joe McLellan, The Washington Post, 1994) and as "a noble baritone with a beautiful, warn voice enhanced by a deep soul" (Unsere Zeit, Berlin).

Last summer Mr. Chmyr completed a successful concert tour in Ukraine which included performances at the Independence Day gala concert with the National Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Volodymyr Sirenko, at the Ukraina Palace of Culture, and, as part of the Kyiv Music Fest, where he appeared with the National Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Mykola Diadura in a concert dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the birth of Ukrainian tenor Anatolii Solovianenko.

While in Kyiv, Mr. Chmyr was the subject of several interviews and was featured as a special guest artist on Ukrainian National Radio and Television.

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A native of Lviv, Mr. Chmyr studied at the Lviv Conservatory, with Profs. Pavlo Karmeluk and Tetiana Karpatska, and, later at the Moscow Conservatory, with the renowned Hugo Tietz and Petro Skusnichenko. After preparing his doctoral degree in voice, he taught at the Lysenko and Mussorgsky conservatories in Lviv and Ekaterinburg, respectively.

Mr. Chmyr's professional consultants have included the Russian diva, mezzo-soprano Irina Archipova and, in the United States, renowned soprano Licia Albanese.

Apart from his performing schedule, Mr. Chmyr is professor of voice at the County College of Morris in Randolph, N.J.

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Featured in lead roles in "Pagliacci" are tenor Manrico Tadeschi of Canada as Canio, and Russian soprano Olga Romanko as Nedda; with native New Yorker Sigmund Cowen, baritone, as Tonio. Conducting the New Jersey State Opera in the two passion-filled verismo opera masterpieces is its artistic director and conductor, Alfredo Silipigni.

For tickets, ranging in price from $15 to $85 for the double bill, call (973) 623-5775 or visit the website http://www.newjerseystateopera.org.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 16, 2003, No. 7, Vol. LXXI

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