Sixty-seven years ago, on February 12, 1950, the 40-member Dumka Male Chorus (since 1959 known simply as the Dumka Chorus of New York, and incorporating female and male voices), held its debut concert at New York’s Beethoven Hall.
Attracting some 300 guests, the choir’s performance was compared, by M.M. for The Weekly, to the 350-voice chorus of seven New York-area Ukrainian Catholic Church choirs under the direction of Olexander Koshetz. “…By the jealously guarded standards of this Koshetz legend, all succeeding choirs and directors of the metropolitan area have been judged till the legend fades from the memory of all who heard or sang in the Koshetz chorus, or until another master sets new standards.”
“Under the direction of Longin Krushelnytsky, the chorus showed such mastery of choral harmony, cleanness of attack, dynamics and diction, and such an intelligent and instant response to the director’s every gesture, that one could easily hope for the additional and needed mastery in the near future of the fluid phrasing, the delicate counterpoint and the sensitive ‘feel’ for each song that has seldom been heard since the Carnegie and Town Hall concerts of the combined choruses [under Koshetz]. …Needless to say the audience at this excellent debut-concert rewarded the choristers and its director with prolonged applause that won two encores,” wrote M.M.
The evening’s events included the concert, a prosfora dinner and dance. The concert portion included mostly Ukrainian Christmas carols, “shchedrivky” and Ukrainian religious hymns. The dinner featured a traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve menu, and dance music was provided by Amor, under the direction of Wolodymyr Hentish.
The concert was noted as “a fine example of cultural contribution the newest Ukrainians are making to the American way of life – a contribution to be proud of… the Dumka chorus will provide listening pleasure for years to come, of the many fine choral compositions we possess.”
The Dumka Chorus of New York, under the direction of Vasyl Hrechynsky, continues to enchant audiences with its performances, regularly providing their 50-60 voices for the annual Holodomor commemoration at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. For more information, readers may visit www.dumka.org.
Source: “Dumka Male Chorus makes New York debut,” by M.M., The Ukrainian Weekly, February 17, 1950.