Special concert recalls the romance of music by Bohdan Wesolowsky (08/17/03)

Special concert recalls the romance of music by Bohdan Wesolowsky

by Orysia Antonovych

CHICAGO - Can old fashioned romance become popular again? The answer is yes for those who attended the concert dedicated to the memory of Bohdan Wesolowsky here at the Ukrainian Cultural Center on June 8.

The concert was presented by the Ukrainian Artistic Center celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Chamber Orchestra under the artistic direction of its conductor, Zeonid Modrytzkyj, and introduced for the first time in the United States, the singer Ostap Zorych from Kyiv, who appeared in the first part of the concert.

The second part featured the singers Myroslava Kuka and Oksana Petriv and also the soloists Roman Kalakuniak (clarinet), Jaroslav Rudnytsky (violin) and Mohanab Alzahabi (cello).

The Ukrainian Artistic Center commissioned the acclaimed composer Myroslav Skoryk to orchestrate the Wesolowsky music especially for this concert. This event was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Governor's Arts Exchange Program of the Illinois Arts Council and Selfreliance Ukrainian American Credit Union.

Bohdan Wesolowsky, affectionately known by his friends as "Bondi," was born in Vienna on May 30, 1915. His life reads like a movie script.

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After the war, his family moved to Stryi, western Ukraine. There, on a warm sunny day, a young 14-year-old girl, Olena, arrives with her mother Olena Ochrymovych-Zalizniak, in a horse and buggy from a neighboring village, Zavadiv. They come to visit her aunt, Maria Ochrymovych-Wesolowsky. Maria asks her son Bondi, who is 16 years old, to play the piano and entertain young Olena while the ladies from the Ukrainian Women's Organization discuss their affairs. She helps to turn the pages, and as he plays Strauss waltzes and then "The Flight of the Bumblebee" by Rimsky Korsakov, she listens with fascination, for he is already an accomplished pianist. They part.

Bondi moves to Lviv in 1933, where he studies law and receives his Master of Law degree. In Vienna he continues his studies and earns a diploma from the Consular Academy, and then a doctor of science degree in economics from the University of Vienna. During his high school years in Stryi and his university studies in Lviv he also studies music at the conservatory. (His teachers were Stanislav Liudkevych, Mykola Kolessa and Vasyl Barvinsky). His close friend is Kos-Anatolsky with whom he plays in the popular jazz orchestra of Leonid Jablonsky. (The accordion, which they both bought and shared, now lies silently in the Lviv apartment of Nadia Kos-Anatolsky, widow of the composer.)

In 1945 he joins the U.S. Armed Forces in Austria, and works with the Counter Intelligence Corps of the U.S. Army as chief of the Border Control Department and special investigator. By this time he has married Olena, the girl who turned the music sheets for him in Stryj. They have two children, Yurii and Ostap.

They emigrate to Canada in 1949 and live in Sudbury where, as a member of the Kiwanis Club, he takes an active part in arranging music festivals. In 1952, Bondi is offered a position as an announcer-producer by The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, International Service, in Montreal which had just opened its Ukrainian Section. No matter where he works, he continues to write music and produce records.

On December 17, 1971, Bohdan Wesolowsky - dies. His urn is moved to the family cemetery in Stryi.

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Mr. Wesolowsky's wife Olena died on May 22. Through the long years as a widow, she never stopped listening to the records and tapes of her husband's music. In her mind she constantly recalled the music of Bondi's song "The Wave of the White Hand," set to the words of the poet Volodymyr Sosiura, which sheds a special light on both the turbulent and joyous times of her life with Bohdan. Through all the years, appreciating his talent and the value of his work, she becomes the guardian of his music.

Today his archives may be found in museums in Kyiv and Stryj. Two books of his music, "Pryide sche Chas" ("The Time Will Come") and "Ya Znov Tobi" ("Again For You"), have been published in Lviv (Oleksander Zelynsky, editor; Mariana Zelinsky, illustrator) and the third volume will be completed in the fall of this year. These three books will contain all the known work of the composer in recent years.

Mr. Zorych of Kyiv has been popularizing the music of Bohdan Wesolowsky on radio programs. His songs have been heard in all regions of Ukraine and Mr. Zorych has received hundreds of letters from appreciative listeners.

That he has captured the spirit of this music was acknowledged by listeners at the Chicago concert who still remember Mr. Wesolowsky's music of the 1930s in Lviv. The warm and uplifting ambiance after the concert may be an indication that the time has come ("pryjshov vzhe chas") for Bondi's nostalgic music with expressions of old-fashioned romance to bring a gentle interlude to our hectic and often very loud, distracting modern times.

Inquiries regarding the new Wesolowsky music publications, Ostap Zorych or the Chamber Orchestra may be addressed to: O. Antonovych, 2233 W. Chicago Ave. Chicago, IL 60633; e-mail, [email protected]; telephone, (773) 489-2722.

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