Concert series celebrates 60th of composer Skoryk (08/30/98)

Concert series celebrates 60th of composer Skoryk

HUNTER, N.Y. - A series of concerts marking the 60th anniversary of the birth of prominent contemporary Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk is being performed this year on three continents - Australia, North America and Europe. Maestro Skoryk arrived in the U.S. in July.

The world premiere of the composer's latest work - Piano Concerto No. 3 (String Quartet Version) "Prayer; Dream; Life" - was held July 12 at the prestigious Music Mountain concert series in Falls Village, Conn. The work, performed by the Leontovych String Quartet, and the composer were enthusiastically received, and Maestro Skoryk was invited by Nicholas Gordon, the festival's director, to have the work performed once again in the year 2000.

Prior to his arrival in the U.S., concerts of Maestro Skoryk's work were held in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra, Australia.

Anniversary concerts for Maestro Skoryk, with the composer in performance, were to be held in Germany in August and in Ukraine in September and October.

Maestro Skoryk returns to the U.S. in November, and concerts will be held in New York, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, among other cities.

Concert at the Grazhda

On July 18 the anniversary concert for Maestro Skoryk opened the summer concert series held at the Grazhda in Jewett Center, N.Y., which is held under the auspices of the Music and Art Center of Greene County, with Dr. Ihor Sonevytsky as artistic director.

The concert program was marked by rich stylistic diversity.

Among the works for piano performed by the composer was a new work titled "Duma," which draws on motifs from Ukrainian Insurgent Army songs; "Three Pieces For Piano: Lullaby, The Lira Player, Folk Dance;" as well as "A Leaf from The Album" and "Melody."

Violinist Yuri Kharenko and pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky performed Maestro Skoryk's "A-RI-A" for violin and piano, a work that was especially favorably received by the audience.

Mr. Vynnytsky was also awarded resounding applause for his brilliant performance of Maestro Skoryk's "Burlesque."

The high point of the first part of the concert was the performance of five jazz pieces for piano, four-hands, played by Messrs. Vynnytsky and Skoryk: "Pryiemna Prohulianka" (A Pleasant Stroll); "Naviazlyvyi Motyv" (A Persistent Motif); "V Staromu Dzhazovomu Styli" (In the Old Jazz Style); "Kapryz" (Caprice); and "V Narodnomu Styli" (In the Folk Style). For the encore, the duo played Maestro Skoryk's clever jazz reworking of Beethoven's "Für Elise."

The second part of program featured the Leontovych String Quartet - Yuri Mazurkevych, first violin; Mr. Kharenko, second violin; Borys Deviatov, viola; and Volodymyr Panteleiev, cello. The quartet opened the program by dedicating its performance of Beethoven's String Quartet in F Major Op. 18, No. 1 to Maestro Skoryk on the occasion of his anniversary.

The concert concluded with the performance of Maestro Skoryk's recently premiered new work - Piano Concerto No. 3 (String Quartet Version): "Prayer; Dream; Life" - as performed by the Leontovych String Quartet and the composer, with Mr. Vynnytsky at the drum.

This work elicited the strongest and deepest response on the part of the audience and the capacity audience greeted Maestro Skoryk with a standing ovation.

* * *

Myroslav Skoryk was born in Lviv in 1938. He studied at the Lviv Conservatory with Stanislav Liudkevych, Roman Simovych and Adam Soltys. He received a doctoral degree from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with the celebrated Dmitri Kabalevski.

A professor of composition at the Lviv and Kyiv conservatories, Maestro Skoryk is head of the Lviv branch of the Union of Ukrainian Composers. Although he works in various genres, Maestro Skoryk is primarily known for his orchestral and chamber music written in the contemporary mode of expression, but tightly bound with Ukrainian folklore.

Among his most popular compositions are the Concerto for Orchestra (Carpathian), awarded the first prize at the 1991 Kyiv Composition Competition; the Hutsul Tripych, based on his beautiful score for the film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors"; Violin Concertos No. 1 and 2; Piano Concertos No. 1 and 2; Cello Concerto; and sonatas for violin and piano.

Maestro Skoryk has also written music for some 40 films, the best known of which are "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" and the animated cartoon "How the Kozaks Cooked Kulish," and for nearly 30 stage productions.

He also writes jazz and popular music.

Maestro Skoryk's Concerto for Piano and String Quartet is the third of the composer's works that was performed as a world premiere by the Leontovych String Quartet at Music Mountain. "Diptych" and "Partita" No. 6 were performed, respectively, in 1994 and 1996.

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