WASHINGTON – The fall 2015 Ukrainian classical concert season in the nation’s capital area was launched on Sunday, October 4, with Ukrainian violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv and Georgian pianist Angelina Gadeliya launching The Washington Group Cultural Fund’s 2015-2016 Music Series at the historic Lyceum in Old Town Alexandria, with a program presenting a century of Ukrainian compositions for violin and piano.
Two days later, a Ukrainian duo – violinist Aleksey Semenenko and pianist Inna Firsova – were the featured artists at another historic building, the Embassy of Ukraine, as part of the Embassy Series, which presents artists at embassies and ambassadors’ residences in Washington.
The audiences at both venues were astonished by the presence of some unexpected awe-inspiring guests.
Organized by The Washington Group Cultural Fund, the Ivakhiv-Gadeliya concert, titled “Ukraine: Journey to Freedom,” began with Viktor Kosenko’s “Dreams” (1919), Valentyn Silvestrov’s “Sonata Post Scriptum” (1990), and Myroslav Skoryk’s “Hutsul Triptych” (1965) – his arrangement for violin and piano from the string chamber orchestral original in the film “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” – which brought the audience to its first standing ovation that afternoon.
The second half of the program began with two 21st century compositions: Yevhen Stankovych’s “Angel’s Touch” (2013), which was commissioned by New York’s Ukrainian Institute of America for Ms. Ivakhiv to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its music series, and Alexander Shchetynsky’s “An Episode in the Life of a Poet” (2014) – another anniversary composition written for Ms. Ivakhiv and Ms. Gadeliya to celebrate the Taras Shevchenko bicentennial at Merkin Hall in New York.
The concert program concluded with Borys Liatoshynsky’s Sonata, Op. 19 (1926) and another long, standing ovation.
Sasha Kosolapov, an injured Ukrainian soldier now undergoing medical treatment at Walter Reed military hospital, poses for a group photo with the musicians and organizers of the TWG Cultural Fund concert at the Lyceum in Alexandria, Va.: (from left) Oleksandra Pavlyuk of United Help Ukraine, violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv, pianist Angelina Gadeliya and TWGCF Director Svitlana Shiells.
The superb performance of music was not the reason for yet another standing ovation, when TWG Cultural Fund’s director, Svitlana Shiells, announced that Sasha Kosolapov, an injured Ukrainian soldier from Luhansk now undergoing medical rehabilitation at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, was among them in the audience.
Four of Mr. Kosolapov’s injured Ukrainian military comrades were the honored guests two days later at the Ukrainian Embassy’s Semenenko-Firsova Embassy Series concert: Ihor Hordiychuk, Mykola Bereza, Vadym Mazhnychenko and Vadym Svyrydenko.
The program at the Embassy featured Beethoven’s Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Tartini’s Sonata in G minor, Ysaye’s Sonata No. 4 in E minor (solo violin without piano accompaniment), Tchaikovsky’s “Valse Sentimentale” and Bizet’s “Carmen Fantasy.”
It was a “superb performance” by Mr. Semenenko and Ms. Firsova, with “stunning technique, beautiful phrasing and tonal quality,” was how one experienced musician attending the concert described it, adding that their performance “deserved the standing ovation at the end of the recital.”
After the concert, the audience was invited to a reception featuring a buffet dinner prepared by the Embassy’s kitchen staff, and where they had ample opportunity to socialize with the artists and talk about their music.
The Semenenko-Firsova concert was repeated at the Ukrainian Embassy on the following evening.
The next concert in the TWG Cultural Fund’s Music Series, on November 1, will feature soprano Vira Slywotzky and pianist Yegor Shevtsov performing Ukrainian, French and American music.