OBITUARY: Oleh Nyzhankivsky, opera and concert singer, 79 (03/09/03)

OBITUARY

Oleh Nyzhankivsky, opera and concert singer, 79

GENEVA, Switzerland - An opera and concert singer, helden tenor Oleh Nyzhankivsky, who had an established career performing as soloist in Swiss opera theaters from the mid-1950s to the end of the 1980s, died in Geneva on January 8 at the age of 79.

Mr. Nyzhankivsky was born in Vienna on July 25, 1924, into a prominent musical and artistic Galician family. After initial studies in Munich, he continued his education in Belgium at the Royal Music Academy from which he graduated with highest distinction. Upon coming to Switzerland, where his maternal uncle, the pianist and musicologist Omelian Nyzhankivsky resided at the time, he won the International Geneva Music Competition and, as laureate, was awarded a scholarship in voice. The scholarship enabled him to study in Milan with Prof. Fernando Carpi, a student of the famed Caruso. Mr. Nyzhankivsky's return to Geneva was marked by the development of his musical career, with the encouragement and support of the leading families involved in the musical and cultural life of the city.

In the mid-1950s, Mr. Nyzhankivsky appeared as soloist with the Geneva Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of, among others, the world-renowned Ernest Ansermet and Hans Haug, as well as gave song recitals for Queen Marie-José of Belgium.

In the 1960s-1970s, at the height of his career, Mr. Nyzhankivsky performed in lead roles with the Geneva Opera in such operas as "Monsieur de Pourceaugnac" (after Molière) by noted Swiss composer Franc Martin, which had its world premiere in Geneva in April 1963, and in Martin's "The Tempest" (after Shakespeare) and the oratorio "Ven Herbe" (based on the "Tristan and Isolde" theme).

Mr. Nyzhankivsky also appeared in lead roles in the prestigious Opera Piccola of Geneva, and with the Collegium Academicum and the Menestrandi ancient music ensemble. Given his facility for languages, he was equally adept in singing classical and modern repertoire.

An active participant of the musical life of Geneva, Mr. Nyzhankivsky also promoted Ukrainian music in numerous concerts and recitals on tours throughout Europe, performing to the accompaniment of his uncle Omelian Nyzhankivsky, who taught at the Bern Conservatory, and his mother-in-law, the first Ukrainian woman composer Stefania Turkevych-Lukianovych, as well as in Swiss radio broadcasts and on the BBC in London.

Mr. Nyzhankivsky's repertoire often included art songs by his father, the composer and pedagogue Nestor Nyzhankivsky, and the song cycles of Dr. Turkevych-Lukianovych, who upon finishing her studies at the music academies of Vienna and Berlin, received her doctorate in composing in Prague, and whose oeuvre as composer includes four symphonies, one symphonietta, five ballets and five children's operas.

In addition to his operatic and concert committments, Nyzhankivsky was a frequent adjudicator at vocal competitions and music festivals.

After a successful operatic and concert career, Mr. Nyzhankivsky turned to teaching in the mid-1970s, where his pedagogical skills served to inculcate students with his love and enthusiasm for music.

An active member of the Ukrainian community in Switzerland, Mr. Nyzhankivsky served as president of the Ukrainian Association of Switzerland. During his several-term tenure, special emphasis was placed on public relations in the sphere of culture.

While still a student, Mr. Nyzhankivsky was a co-founding member of the Burlaky Plast scouting fraternity and is credited with giving the fraternity its name. The fraternity exists to this day, with the newest members, from both abroad and Ukraine, forming a third generation of Burlaky.

Mr. Nyzhankivsky was able to return to Ukraine in 1991 for the first time after a 47-year absence, during which time he had occasion to meet with the doyen of Ukrainian composers and conductors, the then 88-year-old Mykola Kolessa, and visit the Musical Academy in Lviv as well as take part in the dedication of a monument to the noted Ukrainian composer Vasyl Barvinsky (1888-1963), with whom Mr. Nyzhankivsky studied piano.

His second trip, undertaken in 1996, was equally memorable and significant. On this trip Mr. Nyzhankivsky attended the reburial of his father, Nestor Nyzhankivsky (1893-1940), from Poland to the family crypt in Stryi. (The avant-garde composer died after falling ill during his flight from Soviet-occupied Galicia; Oleh was 15 at the time of his father's untimely death); traveled to the village of Zavadiv, where his grandfather, Ostap Nyzhankivsky a composer, was the parish priest; and visited the Nyzhankivsky Museum in Stryi.

A man who loved and appreciated all forms and expressions of art, Mr. Nyzhankivsky had a series of sculptures to his credit and was a fervent supporter of the art of his wife, Zoya née Lisovska, and daughter, Lada. (whose joint first exhibit in Ukraine was held in 1995 at the Ethnographic Museum in Lviv).

Mr. Nyzhankivsky's strong and energetic personality coupled with his personable nature marked by optimism and humor, brought him many friends among Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike who found in him a loyal friend and colleague. He was a man with strong ties to his homeland, Ukraine, and to the country of his settlement, Switzerland, which he held in the highest regard.

Oleh Nyzhankivsky is survived by his wife, Zoya; son, Roman; daughter, Lada; son-in-law, Christian and grandchildren Oleksander and Natalia.

Funeral services were held at the ecumenical chapel at St. Georges Cemetery in Geneva, with the Rev. Mitred Petro Kostiuk of Belgium officiating at the Ukrainian Catholic service which was attended by members of the Ukrainian community, including Ukraine's ambassador to Switzerland, as well as by numerous Swiss colleagues and friends of the deceased. As part of the service, adding to the poignancy of the moment, was the rendition by a young couple from Kyiv, the Tymokhyns, protégés of Oleh Nyzhankivsky, who performed, on the Waldhorn and organ, songs that are often sung at conclusion of the funeral service as a final parting, "Vydysh Brate Mii," and "Zasumui Trembito," the latter a composition by the deceased's father, Nestor Nyzhankivsky. The service was followed by burial at St. Georges Cemetery.

* * *

Oleh Nyzhankivsky came from a long line of prominent composers, musicologists, conductors and pedagogues.

His grandfather, Ostap (1862-1919), devoted much of his energies to the development of musical life in Galicia. A priest as well as a composer by calling, he organized choral concert tours throughout Galicia, founded the music publishing house Muzykalna Biblioteka (1885) and was conductor of the Boyan Society choir in Berezhany (1892) and of the Boyan choir in Lviv and in Stryi.

Apart from his dedication to music, he brought comparable energies to bear in the economic field as founder of the first cooperative dairy and as co-founder and first director of the Provincial Home and Dairy Union (later renamed Maslosoyuz) in 1907 in Stryi. He was elected to the Galician Diet in 1908-1913. In 1919 he was summarily shot by the Polish authorities.

Oleh Nyzhankivsky's father, Nestor (1893-1940), was an avant-garde composer who received his doctoral degree in history from Vienna University and graduated from the Prague State Conservatory. He was a professor of music at the Lysenko Music Institute and active organizer of musical cultural life in Lviv. He died after falling ill during his flight from Soviet-occupied Galicia.

Oleh Nyzhankivsky's mother, Melania Semaka, was a writer and journalist.

The oldest known forebear of the Nyzhankivskys was Andreas Nizankovius who was born in 1592 in Galicia. A Dominican, he was a student of the Italian organist Girolamo Frescobaldi, the most important keyboard composer of the period. An established organist in Rome and a virtuoso in his own right, he emerged as an alleged rival of Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707), the greatest organ composer of the period preceding Bach.

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