Kyiv Opera soprano Maria Stefiuk to perform series of concerts (09/21/97)

Kyiv Opera soprano Maria Stefiuk to perform series of concerts

by Ika Koznarska Casanova

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Maria Stefiuk, a leading exponent of the lyric soprano repertoire at the Kyiv Opera and a recognized operatic soloist throughout Europe, is visiting the U.S. for a series of concerts.

Mme. Stefiuk will appear in concert with baritone Oleh Chmyr and concert pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky in a program of works by Mozart, Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi, Chopin, Liszt, Liatoshynsky, Skoryk and Sonevytsky. (See below for concert schedule.)

A lyric coloratura soprano, Mme. Stefiuk has a versatile choice of repertoire and has performed such roles as Pamina in Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte," Gilda in Verdi's "Rigoletto," Violetta in "La Traviata," Lucia in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," Zerlina in Mozart's "Don Giovanni," Musetta in Puccini's "La Bohème," Rosina in "Il Barbiere de Siviglia," Leila in Bizet's "Les Pecheurs de Perles" (The Pearl Fishers), Marguerite de Valois in Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots," Amor in Gluck's "Orpheus and Eurydice," Antonida in Glinka's "Ivan Susanin," Marfa in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Tsarskaya Nievyesta" (The Tsar's Bride), and Parasia in Mussorgsky's "Sorochinskaya Yarmarka" (Sorochyntsi Fair).

Her Ukrainian repertoire includes roles in such operas as "Yaroslav Mudryi," "Taras Bulba," "Zaporozhets za Dunayem" and "Natalka Poltavka."

Mme. Stefiuk has appeared on the great stages of the world, including the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg, the Bolshoi Opera, the Berlin Opera, the Dresden Opera, the State Opera in Wiesbaden, Germany, and the Opera Comica de Madrid. In 1981 she was invited to La Scala in Milan for the production of Mussorgsky's "Sorochinskaya Yarmarka," with Riccardo Chailly conducting.

She has concertized extensively, including the United States (1975), Canada (1976), Holland (1989), Japan (1992) and Finland (1993, 1994).

A native of the Hutsul region of Ukraine, Mme. Stefiuk was born in the village of Rozhniv, Kosiv raion, in the Carpathian Mountains. Her performance while still a student at a music festival in Kyiv led to an invitation to study at the Kyiv Conservatory.

Mme. Stefiuk studied at the Kyiv Conservatory with Natalia Zakharchenko. Subsequently she studied and worked with such distinguished conductors of the Kyiv Opera as Stepan Turchak (1938-1988) and Veniamin Tolba (1909-).

She made her operatic debut in 1975 in the role of Marfa in Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tsar's Bride."

Among the singers with whom she has worked closely are renowned mezzo-soprano Yelena Obrasova and bass Evgeny Nesterenko, both of the Bolshoi Opera; tenor Yuri Marusin of the Kirov Opera; and in Kyiv with distinguished concert and opera singer and artistic director of the Kyiv Opera, baritone Dmytro Hnatiuk, and tenor Anatoliy Solovianenko.

In addition to her operatic repertoire, Mme. Stefiuk also performs works from the classical repertoire by Bach, Pergolesi, Cherubini, Mozart, Beethoven, Glinka, Rakhmaninoff and others.

Furthermore, Mme. Stefiuk has made an important contribution to the promotion of Ukrainian folk songs, both on the concert stage (where in recitals of classical music she often sings Ukrainian folk songs as an encore) and in the recording studio.

She has recorded Borys Liatoshynsky's (1895-1968) arrangement of Ukrainian folk songs on the Melodiya label in 1990 and for the archival recordings of the Ukrainian Broadcasting Corp. in Kyiv in 1995.

This year she released a CD titled "Mariya Stefyuk: Ukrainian Songs" in collaboration with the National Orchestra of Ukrainian Folk Instruments, under the direction of Viktor Hutsal.

The disc features works by Anatol Kos-Anatolsky, Mykola Lysenko, Yakiv Stepovy, Marko Kropyvnytsky and arrangements of folk songs by Borys Liatoshynsky, Yakiv Orlov, Myroslav Skoryk, O. Cheshko and Denys Sichynsky, as well as texts of Taras Shevchenko's poems set to music. The disc is distributed by Caravan-CD.

Mme. Stefiuk plans to record on CD her operatic repertoire, in collaboration with Volodymyr Kozhukhar, principal conductor of the Kyiv Opera.

* * *

Mme. Stefiuk arrived in the U.S. at the end of August for a series of concert appearances. She performed at the final concert of the summer season of the Music and Art Center of Greene County held on August 30 at the Grazhda in Hunter, N.Y.

Appearing with Mme. Stefiuk on the remainder of the tour are Mssrs. Chmyr and Vynnytsky.

Mr. Chmyr, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and a laureate of the Glinka Competition in Alma-Ata (1991), was with the Ekaterinburg Opera and taught at the Ural Conservatory in Ekaterinburg and at the Lviv Conservatory.

Since his arrival in the United States, he has taken part in the "Stars of Tomorrow: Grand Opera Discoveries" concert at Carnegie Hall (1995) and has performed in Weill Recital and Merkin halls in New York. Last year Mr. Chmyr took part in the Newport Music Festival where he sang the songs of Tchaikovsky and Schubert, accompanied by Thomas Hrynkiw.

Mr. Vynnytsky, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and professor at the Kyiv Conservatory, is winner of the Margueritte Long-Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris (1983) and the Distinguished Artists Award in New York (1994). He has established himself as a distinctive musical personality and received acclaim for his fresh, penetrating readings of the scores. He has played with leading orchestras and in solo recitals in major cities in Europe and the United States.

Mr. Vynnytsky has performed in Carnegie Hall (1994) in a duo performance with cellist Vagram Saradjian, and in Weill Recital, Merkin and Steinway halls, and the Phillips Collection, among others. He has also earned a reputation of a brilliant chamber music performer and accompanist. Mr. Vynnytsky is artist-in-residence at the Music and Art Center of Greene County's summer concert series held in Hunter.

To date the performers have appeared at the University of Buffalo Center for the Arts (September 19) and at the Ivan Truchly Auditorium in St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Bloomingdale, Ill., (September 20), in a concert held on the occasion of 125th anniversary of the birth of renowned Ukrainian soprano Solomiya Krushelnytska.

Other concerts will be held on October 3 in Jamaica Plain, Mass., at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church Hall, 224 Orchard Hill Road, at 7 p.m.; and on October 5 at the University of Pittsburgh in the Frick Fine Arts Building at 3 p.m.

Mme. Stefiuk will appear in a solo recital, accompanied by Mr. Vynnytsky, at the Ukrainian Institute of America, 2 E. 79th St., in New York on October 4.

Mme. Stefiuk returns to Ukraine at the beginning of October for the opening of the opera season in Kyiv.

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