DATELINE NEW YORK: Poets, plays and prodigies (03/10/96)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Poets, plays and prodigies

by Helen Smindak

During the first six weeks of 1996, Ukrainian cultural activity in New York centered on singers and dancers. The Dumka Chorus, giving its annual round of post-Christmas concerts at St. Patrick Cathedral, St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church and St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Church, trekked across the Hudson to bring New Year's joy to the parishioners of St. John the Baptist Church in Newark, N.J. Baritone Oleh Chmyr of Lviv, a recent addition to the ranks of New York artists, and Ukrainian American soprano Elena Heimur joined a bevy of artists at Weill Recital Hall in a benefit concert for the New York Grand Opera. The Veryovka Company from Kyiv won plaudits from audiences in Brooklyn and the Bronx, while New York's own Syzokryli Ukrainian Dancers performed superbly in a European folk festival at Alice Tully Hall.

Since mid-February, though, a new phenomenon has occurred. Ukrainian poets, actors, pianists and a composer of avant-garde music have been garnering audience attention. They have appeared at a benefit evening for Svitovyd magazine; in workshops and performances given by the Les Kurbas Theater of Lviv; during the Carnegie Hall debut of pianist Alex Slobodyanik; in a recital featuring winners of the first international Horowitz piano competition in Kyiv, and during the New York premiere of a recent work by composer Leonid Hrabovsky.

Sonnets for Svitovyd

Ukrainians are ardent lovers of poetry. We take great delight in expressing thoughts and feelings in rhymes, meters and rhythms. We write verses, odes and epics, we recite poetry and quote Ukrainian poets.

It came as no surprise, then, to find the auditorium of the Ukrainian Institute of America brimming with an enthusiastic crowd on February 10, on hand for an evening of poetry readings, plus some music and theater. The event was planned to benefit Svitovyd (Worldview), a quarterly magazine of contemporary Ukrainian literature and the arts, in serious danger of closing down because of the recent dramatic increase of production costs in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian poems of Bohdan Boychuk, Maria Rewakowicz and Yuriy Tarnawsky were read by the authors in Ukrainian and in English translations, their imagery and metaphors casting a spell over the intent audience.

As a sample, here's a portion of a poem read by Ms. Rewakowicz:

"I climb/ the rotten stairs/ to my happiness/ the boards under my feet/ play an avant-garde tune/ but I'm afraid/ that the least false note/ will make a hole under me/ and I'll tumble through it/ before I reach/ the door."

Oleh Drach, a co-founder and leading member of the Les Kurbas Theater that is here from Lviv to conduct workshops and performances at Columbia University, presented a dynamic monologue from the play, "Games For Faust," a work based on Dostoyevski's famous novel, "Crime and Punishment."

In a musical interlude between poems and play-acting, mezzo-soprano Kalyna Cholhan offered a group of operatic arias and Ukrainian songs, ending with a vivacious performance of the folk song "Tam za Ridnym, za Dunayem." Her accompanist was Jane Steele.

Ms. Rewakowicz, a Polish-born Ukrainian who came to the United States in 1987, is the author of three books of poetry in Ukrainian. Her work has been published in the Ukrainian magazines Suchasnist, Svitovyd, Poezia-90, Ukraina and Literaturna Ukraina and in Agni (in English translation). She is the associate editor of Svitovyd, a translator from English and Polish into Ukrainian, and a contributor on literature and theater to literary magazines.

Mr. Boychuk, the author of seven books of poetry and two plays in Ukrainian, and the translator of many contemporary American poets, is the co-editor (with Bohdan Rubchak) of the major anthology of modern Ukrainian poetry, "Coordinates". His poems have appeared in English journals, including Pequod, Translation, Agni and Partisan Review. His book in English, "Memories of Love," was published by the Sheep Meadow Press.

Mr. Tarnawsky, a faculty member of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University since January 1994 and coordinator of Columbia's Ukrainian Studies Program, has been active on the Ukrainian literary scene since 1959. He has been a member of Svitovyd's editorial board since 1989, and has been associated for years with several Ukrainian and American writers' groups. A prolific author and translator, he has three novels to his credit; collections of his Ukrainian and English-Ukrainian poetry have appeared in a number of publications.

Svitovyd, the only Ukrainian magazine of its kind, was founded in Kyiv by a group of avant-garde Ukrainian writers known as the New York Group (the initiators of the project) and the Kyiv branch of the Writers' Association of Ukraine. The publication strives to present the finest works of writers of Ukraine and the diaspora, and to reflect on the processes at work in contemporary Ukrainian culture.

Poetry in music

Kyiv-born composer Leonid Hrabovsky has been known in the United States since the 1960s, despite the near impossibility of obtaining his music in those days. Since his arrival in the U.S. in 1990, his work has gained greater recognition in this country, much of it through performances by Continuum, the oldest continuously operating contemporary-music ensemble in the United States.

In a gala concert at Merkin Concert Hall on February 24, Continuum featured a 1993 Hrabovsky work for voice and chamber ensemble titled "And It Will Be" (I Tak Bude). It was the New York premier of a work that Continuum premiered in Baltimore in 1993 and presented later the same year at the International Music Festival in Bonn, Germany.

The 10-minute work, built around eight poems by Mykola Vorobyov, was performed by mezzo-soprano Nan Hughes, violinist Renee Jolles, pianist Cheryl Seltzer and clarinetist David Gresham, with Joel Sachs conducting.

The New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn, who noted that "the most fascinatingly, quirky vocal works" in the program were by composers from the former Soviet Union, had this to say about the Hrabovsky work: "Leonid Hrabovsky, a Ukrainian composer who now lives in New York, set his own dark, other-worldly poetry in 'And It Will Be' (1993), matching its weird imagery to a shimmering musical texture."

In 1992, Continuum presented a retrospective at Lincoln Center, which featured premieres of two Hrabovsky compositions written for the occasion. These were "Temnere Mortem" (1991), a cantata on a text by Hryhoriy Skovoroda for a cappella chorus, and "The Omen of Light" (1992), based on poems by Vasyl Barka, for soprano and ensemble.

Mr. Hrabovsky was described in Continuum's 1992 publicity as "a central figure of the Soviet avant-garde who became a thorn in the side of the Establishment through his demands for artistic freedom." Mr. Sachs, co-director and conductor of Continuum, considers Mr. Hrabovsky one of the most important composers of this time, extraordinarily talented and with a musical vision that is unusual.

Since 1962, Mr. Hrabovsky has composed a large body of symphonic, vocal-symphonic, choral, chamber and solo instrument works, as well as music for nine feature films, four science films and nine animated films. His work has been performed in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Western Europe and the U.S.

Mr. Hrabovsky's career has included activities as a teacher, editor, writer, critic and translator. Now, composer-in-residence at the Ukrainian Institute of America, he is often invited to lecture on Ukrainian contemporary music at international conferences.

A Carnegie Hall debut

Alex Slobodyanik, the son of concert pianist Alexander Slobodyanik, made a very impressive debut at Carnegie Hall on February 18. Backed by the New York Youth Symphony, which was directed by Miguel Harth-Bedoya, he played Rachmaninoff's emotionally intense and technically brilliant Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18.

A handsome young man of 20, Mr. Slobodyanik created a picture of dignity and complete control as he moved through the concerto's three movements, first the thundering, sweeping Moderato, then the slower, leisurely Adagio Sostenuto, and finally the quicker-paced Allegro Scherzando, whose joyful and playful theme is familiar to many as the melody "Full Moon and Empty Arms."

Soon after arriving in the U.S. five years ago, Mr. Slobodyanik became the youngest pianist ever to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. His debut recitals in 1993 at New York's 92nd Street Y and the Kennedy Center in Washington, both under YCA sponsorship, brought rave reviews. In April 1995, he made his concert debut with the New York Chamber Symphony, as recipient of the 1995 Aaron and Irene Diamond Soloist Prize of YCA.

Mr. Slobodyanik took first prize and the Ivo Pogorelich Grand Prize at the 1991 Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition in Champaign, Ill., and second prize in the 1994 Palm Beach International Piano Competition.

Currently studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mr. Slobodyanik is an active recitalist and soloist on concert stages around the country and the world, and frequently appears in recital with his father. His upcoming engagements include appearances at Seattle's Mooney Hall, the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts in Florida and the Hippodrome in Texas. Overseas, he will give performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Kirov Orchestra and the Moscow State Chamber Orchestra.

Piano prodigies

Mighty chords, thundering octaves, rippling glissandos and marvelous trills resounding from music that was at times vigorous or spirited, at others haunting, soft or playful - all of this emanated from the grand piano at the Ukrainian Institute of America last weekend.

The recital sounded like the work of master artists, technically sound, powerful and beautiful. Listeners could easily imagine that they were attending a performance by virtuosi.

In reality, the audience at the institute was being treated to the amazing skills of four young artists who won top marks in the First International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz.

Interpreting works by Bach, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin were two 13-year-olds - Artem Liakhovych of Kyiv and Oleksiy Yemtsov of Pavlohrad; 17-year-old Oleksiy Koltakov of Luhanske (whose birthday coincided with the recital date, March 2) and 20-year-old Shai Cohen of Israel.

The young pianists were among 102 representatives from 12 countries who competed in Kyiv's first international Horowitz competition, held last spring to honor the memory of world-renowned pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Mr. Horowitz, of Jewish descent, was a native of Kyiv and a graduate of Ukraine's oldest music school, the R.H. Gliere State Music School of Kyiv.

Each pianist displayed an individual style of presentation. Mr. Liakhovych, the second-prize winner in the Group I (under age 15) category, sat ramrod straight at the piano as he played his program, which included his own composition, "Prelude." Mr. Cohen, who took first prize in the Group II (age 15 to 20) category, moved his head and lips with the mood and intensity of the music. Mr. Yemtsov, whose cherubic face concealed great poise and concentration, took time out for quiet meditation before applying himself to the piano; his incredible vigor and nimble fingering demonstrated why jurors had awarded him first place in the Group I category.

Most colorful from the standpoint of combined artistry and showmanship was the style of the Group II second-prize winner, Mr. Koltakov, who bounced on the piano bench as he attacked Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody" No. 2 and Mendelssohn's stirring "Wedding March", augmented with variations by Liszt and Horowitz.

The performers earned many bravos from listeners and thanks from UIA President Walter Baranetsky. Birthday celebrant Mr. Koltakov was toasted with a heartily sung "Mnohaya Lita" during the wine and cheese reception after the concert.

The occasion drew such prominent New York artists as pianists Volodymyr Vynnytsky and Mykola Suk (who was a member of the Kyiv jury), composer Mr. Hrabovsky and soprano Maria Yasinska Murowana of Wilmington, Del., who assisted in funding the competition. Present from Ukraine were composer Ivan Karabyts and music teachers Ihor Ryabov and Vasyl Makarov, who are accompanying the pianists as they tour the U.S., Israel, France and Ukraine.

Although New York's Jewish community was well represented, the Ukrainian contingent at this recital was meager. Let's hope the performances in Morristown, N.J., Philadelphia, Washington, and Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, are better attended. No matter how poised, prodigies need encouragement to flourish.

Experimental theater

One of Ukraine's most acclaimed theater companies, the Les Kurbas Theater of Lviv, is presently in New York at the invitation of Columbia University's Harriman Institute and the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theater Studies. Director Volodymyr Kuchynsky and several actors have been busy conducting workshops and making guest appearances in New York and New Jersey.

The company has developed a style of its own, complementing language with movement and music to form a unique stage presence.

On February 23, the Kurbas theater gave a performance of "Games for Faust" at Columbia's Kathryn Bache Miller Theater, with Oleh Drach, Andriy Vodychev, Natalka Polovynka and Tetyana Kaspruk in the cast. The company is scheduled to present "Grateful Erodiy," a staging of a parable by the 18th century philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda, at Columbia on March 22.

I'll bring you more information about this fascinating company in a future story.

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