DATELINE NEW YORK: Making it in the big city (07/05/98)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Making it in the big city

by Helen Smindak

A potent "Pulsar"

Being in the right place at the right time - that is the experience of Dmitry Polischuk, a freelance composer of chamber, orchestral and electronic music who came to this country from Vinnytsia, Ukraine, in 1991. Although he has worked as an accompanist at American Ballet Theatre, New Ballet School and the Elliot Feld Ballet Company, among others, his composing talents were not recognized until he met Robert Hill at an ABT class.

Mr. Hill, a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, was overwhelmed by Mr. Polischuk's 1993 work for synthesizer, "Pulsar," previously submitted without success to choreographers Donald Byrd, Eliot Feld and David Parsons. He used the music to choreograph a new work for the ABT Studio Company, a small classical company created to prepare outstanding young dancers to enter the American Ballet Theatre ranks.

"Pulsar" received its world premiere this spring when the ABT Studio Company presented seven new works at the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse. It also drew a marvelous critique from Backstage magazine's dance editor, Jennie Schulman.

"There was a pulsating, animated interlude [in the ballet] which in itself would make this the most original work on the program," Ms. Schulman wrote. She felt that the sound effects and music by Mr. Polischuk, in addition to lighting by Brad Fields, aided the choreographer immensely in achieving his "potent dramatic effects."

Mr. Hill employed the image of a very slow dance set to fast music for five dancers in leotards. There was slow, graceful dancing to a staccato beat, then another slow dance to whirlwind music: they overlapped dynamically as the volume and intensity of the music and the drum beats grew greater and louder, then faded out.

"Pulsar" was originally composed for chamber orchestra and synthesizer, Mr. Polischuk says. For Mr. Hill's ballet, he recorded the music on a synthesizer, using a Yamaha SY 99.

The young composer who began his music studies in Vinnytsia at age 7, received a master's degree in music as a composer from the Gorki State Conservatory of Music in Russia. His compositions include a symphony for full orchestra, two string quartets, and piano and violin sonatas.

Mr. Polischuk has written scores for the drama theater, too, including music for Dostoyevsky's "Dreams of a Funny Man," Andrey Orlenko's "11 Doors," Chekhov's "The Lady with a Dog" and Benji Aeroson's "When Cuba Opens Up." The Aeroson drama is scheduled to be staged in the fall by director Bill Hart.

Mr. Polischuk's works for synthesizer, in addition to "Pulsar," include "Baroque Game" for full orchestra and synthesizer, and music for the first act of the ballet "Giselle" (also known as "Life Situations") for the New York dance company Donald Byrd, The Group.

Recently married, Mr. Polischuk divides his time between his home in Queens and his work in Manhattan. He has written music for another Robert Hill ballet - a pas de deux that will be performed this summer at a Fire Island festival - and is working with Mr. Hill to prepare "Baroque Game" for presentation by a full ballet company in Tokyo in the fall. And, he is completing a 40-minute work which he describes as "very modern and radical," one that will require 13 musicians and two conductors.

"We will be looking for a performance space soon," he predicts happily.

"Woman Through the Ages"

Laryssa Kosach, known to Ukrainians everywhere as the renowned and lyrically creative poetess Lesia Ukrainka (1871 to 1913), achieved her greatest literary triumphs in historical, allegorical and exotic dramas whose themes she based on foreign subjects - Babylonian, Hebrew, Greek, Roman, Spanish and French. She used these subjects to define the problems of Ukrainian life, to express her hostility to Russian imperialism, and to prod her people to heroic deeds.

Although Lesia Ukrainka's poetic dramas were not intended for the stage, several of them were vividly recreated last month at the Fashion Institute of Technology by New York's Ukrainian Stage Ensemble.

Thirteen female members of the ensemble transformed the stage of FIT's Haft Auditorium into a series of dynamic tableaux that blended recitation, music, wordless singing and graceful, gliding choreography. The compelling drama-montage "Zhinka Kriz Viky" (Woman Through the Ages), presented in Ukrainian, was directed by the well-known first lady of Ukrainian theater in New York, Lydia Krushelnytsky.

Accompanied by dramatic shading of light and darkness, the women appeared on three stage levels, changing their formations into lines or semi-circles, at times kneeling, crouched together or lying prostrate on the floor in a huge circle. Emotion-laden recitations of Ukrainka's searing, forceful lines of iambic pentameter were declaimed in unison and in dialogue and solo performances.

Fusing individual works were musical segments that made effective use of piano and flute music and the sound of drums and castanets.

The opening poem "Contra spem spero" (Latin for "I hope against hope") was performed by the entire company, ghostly figures in prayerful attitudes, chanting in unison to the insistent beat of a drum. The work reflected the poet's struggle with an incurable disease and her resolve to "bear my rocky burden all day long" and "sing my songs amid my dark distress."

In her dramatic poem "Kassandra," Ukrainka illustrated the fate of Ukraine through the tragic history of long-lost Troy. Using Cassandra as her spokesperson, the poet challenged the Ukrainian people to shake off their apathy and inertia. Here, Cassandra was touchingly portrayed by a tearful Melanie Sonevytsky.

For an excerpt from the poem "Na Ruinakh" (Upon the Ruins), Nadia Tatchyn, Lavrentia Turkewicz, Laryssa Huryn and Motria Chaban depicted prisoners in Babylon, serving as symbols of the imprisonment of Ukrainians within the Russian Empire.

Sophia Zielyk played important roles with deep feeling in several montages, among them "Hrishnytsia" (The Sinner) and the choral finale "Zoria Poeziyi" (The Star of Poetry). The poem "Prokliattia Rakhili" (The Curse of Rachel) received eloquent treatment from Nadia Dyba-Podoliak.

Others in the excellent cast of this premiere performance included Ivanka Zajac, Olenka Lysetsky, Ksenia Piasecky, Ruslana Roscishewsky, Ksenia Salewych and Liza Szony.

The original score, composed by Ihor Sonevytsky, was recorded by an ensemble directed by pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky. The striking choreography was created by Roma Pryma Bohachevsky. Set design was by Maria Shust, costumes by Irka Lishman and lighting by Andriy Hankevych. The sound engineer was Alexander Kytasty.

The Ukrainian Stage Ensemble made its debut in 1965 at the Ukrainian National Home in Manhattan with a performance of "Letuichyi Korabel" (The Flying Ship). Over the years, its numerous productions have featured predominantly of male actors, promoting Mrs. Krushelnytsky to turn the spotlight on the ensemble's female members by staging a work based on Lesia Ukrainka's poetry. An actress and opera singer in Ukraine earlier in her career, Mrs. Krushelnytsky has been training elementary, high school and college students and young professionals in theater art for over 36 years.

A coming attraction

"We have some of the finest artists in the world - they've all been professional musicians, they're great artists, they have wonderful technique, and they've endured a lot of suffering."

So spoke Roger G. McMurrin, the American conductor and founder of the Kiev Symphonic Choir and Orchestra, who was in town a few weeks ago to finalize arrangements for his group's appearance at Carnegie Hall on September 15.

Interviewed by phone, Mr. McMurrin said his choir and orchestra - 160 souls in all, with 90 singers and five soloists in the choir - will begin a concert tour in the U.S. on August 30. The tour will take in church and university appearances and performances at such prestigious concert venues as New York's Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall in Cleveland and the Music Hall in Cincinnati.

"We're bringing mezzo-soprano Luba Kaniuka, soprano Iryna Vanienets, a tenor who has the potential to be one of the greatest tenors in the world, and a great bass who's only 25," Mr. McMurrin enthused. "We have an awesome fiddler, and we may bring a bandura quartet, too."

Mr. McMurrin said the symphony program will include excerpts from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake," Brahms' "Requiem" (both No. 5 and No. 6) and Rachmaninoff's "Vespers." He pointed out excitedly "We're doing a recording of Vespers, and we plan to enter it in the Grammy Awards competition."

Choral works by Bortniansky, Vedel, Berezovsky and Stepanenko will be performed in the program along with Russian operatic literature by vocal soloists ("our people like to sing from world-known operas," he said). A Ukrainian folk-music section and some American music, possibly Gershwin, will round things out, he added.

The choir and orchestra toured in the U.S. two years ago, appearing in New York at Riverside Church. This time around the troupe will use three buses, a van and a car to transport members, costumes and musical instruments.

Mr. McMurrin and his wife, Diane, have made Kyiv their home since 1993, when they felt called to move to Ukraine and establish the Kiev Symphonic Choir and Orchestra, as well as a new church (the McMurrins are affiliated with the Presbyterian Church). They visited Kyiv in 1992 to premiere Handel's "Messiah" with Ukrainian musicians and were greatly impressed by the high level of Kyiv's musical artistry.

The McMurrins have found the people to be intelligent and resourceful. But, "someone is stealing the store," Mr. McMurrin commented, because the populace is destitute. "My musicians make an average of $50 a month, and they all work for the state for $60 a month, but people need four or five times that amount to be able to live," he said.

The conductor said that he and his wife are trying to help by using a small subsidy from the government to feed 150 people, among them widows, former artists and professional people. Mr. McMurrin said they recently formed a company in Kyiv "to help young Ukrainian artists find opportunities and advancement."