OBITUARY: Ukrainian Canadian pianist Daria Telizyn, 44 (04/24/05)

OBITUARY: Ukrainian Canadian pianist Daria Telizyn, 44

by George Sajewych

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Ukrainian Canadian pianist Daria Telizyn, whose concert performances took her to venues throughout North America and Europe, died on March 21 in Florida. She was 44.

She performed to critical acclaim for over two decades, as demonstrated by the following reviews.

"Telizyn made the piano sing, even in powerful tone clusters, but especially in more gentle, single-line melodies, soulful and zealous." - Albany Times Union

"Heightening the concerto's piquancy was Telizyn, whose lithe fingers, by turns, caressed and stormed the keyboard with delicate dance motions, singing tone and fierce attacks. Her pianism is phenomenal." - The Berkshire Eagle

"There were moments of sheer brilliance, and Telizyn fully deserved the standing ovation that followed." - The Washington Post

Critical acclaim also followed the release of Ms. Telizyn's three CDs, all on the Claudio Records label: "Daria Telizyn Plays Liszt" (1988), "Grande Fantasie Symphonique/Totentanz" (a world premiere recording of the two Liszt works with the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, 1990), and "Tchaikovsky: Tranquillity" (2002).

Ms. Telizyn was born March 31, 1960, in Toronto. She inherited her love of the arts from her parents. Her father, Emil Telizyn, is a widely known icon painter and designer of iconostases, church decorations and monuments. Her mother, the late Nina Telizyn, was an opera singer and an actress with the Zahrava Theater.

It was in Toronto that Ms. Telizyn began her musical education at the age of 3 at the Royal Conservatory of Music, going on to study at the University of Western Ontario, from which she received a bachelor of music degree in 1980. She studied for two years at the Paris Conservatory, then moved to the United States, to Baltimore, where in 1985 she graduated from the Peabody Conservatory with a master's degree in piano performance.

Moving to Washington, Ms. Telizyn quickly established herself as a musical presence in the U.S. capital. On different occasions, The Washington Post wrote that: "Telizyn immediately displayed deep musicality and sensitive phrasing and construction"; "She produced a strong, beautiful sound from deep within the keys. She offered thoughtful and persuasive playing that incorporated a dazzling lightness and clarity of chromatic runs into the music's formal outline"; and "The young Canadian's virtue of delicious sensitivity showed in her countryman Oscar Morawetz's 'Fantasy, Elegy and Toccata.' Two concert études by Franz Liszt unleashed Telizyn's wilder temperament and technique."

Ms. Telizyn's concert career took her to London, Paris, Kyiv (where she performed Revutsky's Piano Concerto with the National Symphony of Ukraine), Washington, Frankfurt, Brussels, Toronto and Mexico. She toured Germany and Austria with the Washington Symphony Orchestra and the United States with the Kyiv Chamber Orchestra (twice).

Over the past few years Ms. Telizyn, who lived in Florida, went through a series of illnesses and was not able to play. Recently, she had returned to the piano with a new strength and resolve to return to the stage. However, this was not to be; on March 21, after emergency surgery in Dunedin, Fla., Ms. Telizyn passed away, 10 days shy of her 45th birthday.

Very few pianists could enchant an audience the way Ms. Telizyn did. Such was the effect of her October 1986 concert at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw that the eminent Dutch critic and musicologist Jan van Voorthuysen wrote in Het Vederland:

"Even if I had heard only Liszt's notorious, grand Sonata in B minor, I would have been convinced that I had heard one of the greatest pianists. Years ago I heard her first teacher more than once and I am sure he could not have equalled her, for he could not have equalled Horowitz or Andor Foldes, whereas Daria Telizyn did! And with the greatest of ease! After having heard more than 10,000 concerts and after having written more than 8,600 reviews, after having heard the Liszt Sonata countless times, I simply feel bound to declare that after Daria Telizyn's unbelievable performance I feel completely flabbergasted."

Throughout her life Ms. Telizyn would say with pride that she saw herself as: "woman, Ukrainian, pianist." She was a woman of great beauty and spirit, a passionate Ukrainian and a pianist of incomparable talent, dedication and resolve. Hers was a star that burned brightly in the heavens and was extinguished much too soon.

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