DATELINE NEW YORK: Recalling the holiday season (02/08/98)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Recalling the holiday season

by Helen Smindak

While "Dateline" took a hiatus for several weeks, the Ukrainian arts and entertainment scene remained alive and animated with enjoyable and wonderful events during the past holiday season.

Most important, in terms of the future of our Ukrainian heritage in the United States, was the blessing of the cornerstone for The Ukrainian Museum's new building - an event that will be remembered as a milestone in this institution's history, formally marking the final phase of the building project and the final step toward the launching of a highly active and diversified Ukrainian cultural center in New York.

Scores of onlookers braved a drenching thunderstorm on November 2, 1997, to watch from under the shelter of umbrellas as clergymen, protected by a canopy, performed the rites of blessing before an attractively covered altar set up in front of 222 E. Sixth St. Officiating at the religious service were Bishop Basil M. Losten of the Stamford Diocese of the Ukrainian Catholic Church; the Very Rev. Patrick Paschak, vicar general and pastor of St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church; and the Rev. Roman Tarnavskyj, pastor of St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Church; with St. George's choir director, Andriy Dobriansky, singing the responses.

Standing nearby were the museum's president, John Luchechko, who opened the proceedings, and honored guests Viktor Kryzhanivsky, Ukraine's consul general in New York, and Yuriy Bohayevsky, representing the Ukrainian Mission to the United Nations.

A short while later, more than 300 guests assembled at the Ukrainian National Home a few blocks away for a formal luncheon. Excitement ran high as they listened to greetings from a number of dignitaries and were entertained by a musical program featuring pianist Vyacheslav Bakis, violinist Yuri Kharenko and violist Halyna Kolessa.

Keynote speaker Ivan Dzyuba, Ukraine's former minister of culture, stated that the new Ukrainian Museum building will not only attest to the steady patriotic energy of Ukrainians on this continent, but will also be a symbol of the continuing presence of "our creative potential" throughout the world.

He said the new facility will enable the museum to give a more complete and effective portrayal of the arts of Ukrainians on the American continent. More than that, it will ensure a broader and more intensive collaboration with the artists and artisans of Ukraine.

In recreating the image of Ukrainian culture and the Ukrainian national spirit, the museum could become "the cultural-arts representative of Ukraine in the Western world," Mr. Dzyuba declared.

Greetings and good wishes were proffered by Anna Krawczuk, president of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, which founded the museum in 1976, and Zenia Mucha, director of communications for Gov. George Pataki of New York.

Welcoming guests to the luncheon, Building Committee Chairman Roman Hawrylak pointed out that the overwhelming support of dedicated individuals has brought in almost $3 million to the fund-raising drive. An additional $2 million is needed to reach the final goal, and he invited museum members, friends and supporters to continue their "tradition of strong community support" for The Ukrainian Museum.

Those present responded to Mr. Hawrylak's appeal and the remarks of other speakers by making donations throughout the afternoon that added up to a total of $412,000.

Since the New Jersey-based caterer had difficulty getting into New York (Manhattan traffic was caught in a massive gridlock caused by the New York City Marathon, a visit by President Bill Clinton and a city tour by Mayor Rudolph Guiliani), lunch was somewhat delayed. Guests took it all in stride and sat back to enjoy conversation, wine and an impressive musical interlude.

Mr. Bakis, who in 1993 was awarded the title of Outstanding Artist of Ukraine, and Ms. Kolessa, who has concertized throughout the former Soviet Union, the United States and Canada, teamed up to offer a velvet-toned "Elegy" for viola and piano by Andrii Shtoharenko and Dmytro Klebanov. A sonata composed for violin and piano by Maksym Berezovsky brought Mr. Bakis on stage with Mr. Kharenko, an artist who has been a member of Kyiv's Leontovych String Quartet since 1983. All three artists joined in the finale - the second movement of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat major for violin, viola and piano.

The event was organized by members of the museum's Special Events Committee, headed by Tania Tershakovec; the Fund-Raising Committee, whose chair is Anna Alyskewycz; volunteers and museum staff members. Master of ceremonies duties were handled by Dr. Michael Yarymovych.

The new facility, expected to open in the spring of 1999, will expand the museum's capacity to collect, preserve and interpret objects of artistic or historic significance to Ukrainian life and culture. With 17,800 square feet of space spread out on three levels, it will offer climate-controlled exhibition galleries, environmentally sensitive storage spaces for collections, and workrooms for courses and workshops, as well as two auditoriums, a research library, a gift shop, a café/gallery and offices for the president and staff members.

Museum officials and director Maria Shust stress the fact that at its new address the museum will continue to be part of the network of Ukrainian institutions and businesses in the neighborhood. It will also retain its membership in lower Manhattan's busy and expanding academic and artistic area, which includes neighboring Cooper Union, New York University and the Soho art district.

A Christmastime jaunt

At the risk of repeating myself, I'll say it again: Ukrainian musical talents and personalities abound in the Big Apple. Where but in New York, in a matter of less than five hours, could you enjoy the work of three Ukrainian opera singers at three different venues, exchange pleasantries with a member of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America, meet a Ukrainian woman pilot, and do some gift shopping as well? And all for just a little more than two subway fares!

It's quite possible, especially if you try it during the Christmas season. You might start downtown at St. George's Church, as I did, to take in the noon-hour liturgy and hear the excellent choir directed by Andriy Dobriansky. Mr. Dobriansky, who spent 34 seasons with the Metropolitan Opera as a bass soloist (one critic wrote that he possessed a voice with " a dark, lustrous tone and a virile ring") has been directing both choirs at St. George's for several years. As he conducts, he sings along with the choir, and is often heard in solo responses.

Next stop: the Old World general store just across Seventh Street from the church, Surma Book and Music, where you stock up on ground poppy seed, wheat and honey for your Christmas kutia, select a couple of Christmas CDs from the shop's extensive collection of Ukrainian recordings, and extend season's greetings to the busy shopowners, Myron and Magda Surmach.

Segue by subway to the Lincoln Center Tower Records store at Broadway and 67th Street, where Met Opera bass Paul Plishka is scheduled for an early afternoon personal appearance. Waiting for the star to arrive, you chat with a couple of Plishka fans - Ewhen Tytla, a longtime member of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America, and his wife, Bohdanna - who have driven in from New Jersey to applaud Mr. Plishka and have him autograph a stack of his latest CDs, which they've purchased for gift-giving.

Greeting everyone heartily, Mr. Plishka presents a sampling of the Christmas carols he recorded not long ago with the Marble Collegiate Church Choir, soprano Camellia Johnson and organist/conductor Richard Erickson ("Christmas with Paul Plishka" on the Naxos label). With pianist Earl Buys at the keyboard, he offers the beautiful "O, Holy Night," then for a change of style and tempo, he launches into a famous comic aria he has repeated many times at the Met to great applause - "Madamino: il catologo," Leporello's listing of the Don's conquest of women, from Mozart's "Don Giovanni." After a pause to autograph CDs, he invites the men in the audience to join him in singing the stirring "Adeste Fideles" (Oh Come, All Ye Faithful).

As Mr. Plishka's robust voice fills Tower Records' second-floor space with another CD selection, the Ukrainian carol "Nova Radist Stala," you pull yourself away from the scene (with regret) and take the subway a few stops further uptown to West 82nd Street and St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

A community dinner is in progress in the church hall, and Bohdan Sikora, a former soloist of the Lviv Opera Studio, is entertaining the congregation with Ukrainian folk songs. His agreeable tenor voice, previously heard in the U.S. when he toured with the Homin Choir of Lviv and in Canada with the Ostap Stakhiv Folklore Theater, renders a sturdy "Nalyvaite, brattia," arranged by Mykola Kolessa, and Anatoly Pashkevych's arrangement of "Ishov Kozak Potaikom." Tetiana Ohinska, a cellist by profession who loves to sing, joins Mr. Sikora in the lively folk song "Chorni Ochka Yak Teren," prompting Lusia Petruchenko and Anna Bober to chime in on the final selection, Ihor Bilozor's arrangement of "Zelene Zhyto, Zelene."

Later, over dessert, you talk with Mr. Sikora, a graduate of the Lviv Conservatory of Music who has also studied at the School of Church Conducting and Cantors in Lviv. He is directing St. Volodymyr's choir for a few weeks during the absence of conductor and ballet dancer Stephanie Godino (on tour with the New York City Opera). Finally, after a pleasant conversation with Ludmila Petrash, a blonde airline pilot who flies domestic flights in Ukraine, you soar homeward on a jet stream of church music, Christmas carols, arias and folk songs.

| Home Page |