DATELINE NEW YORK: Celebrations around town (06/06/99)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Celebrations around town

by Helen Smindak

At the rate events have been taking place this season at the Ukrainian Institute of America, this institution can be considered the leading venue of Ukrainian cultural events in New York. During the past month, the institute hosted a gala fund-raising concert starring bass Paul Plishka, an all-Lysenko program featuring soprano Oksana Krovytska, an evening of impassioned poetry and music by the Zankovetska Theater Group from Lviv, and an end-of-the-season frolic for the Music and Me preschool program.

Meanwhile, on the Lower East Side, the New York Bandura ensemble celebrated its 25th anniversary with a concert by its students and Kyiv bandura virtuoso Roman Hrynkiv.

A star and a crown jewel

Met Opera star Paul Plishka is never so happy as when he's performing. He's also happy chatting with friends and admirers after a performance. Both ideals were attained when he appeared at the Ukrainian Institute of America last month in a fund-raising concert and reception benefiting the UIA's Crown Jewel Endowment.

Mr. Plishka's vibrant program began with a selection of contemplative songs by Ihor Sonevytsky, compositions by Stanislav Liudkevych and Mykola Lysenko, as well as the forceful Sultan's aria from Semen Hulak-Artemovsky's "Zaporozhets za Dunayem." The concert's second half highlighted works by American composers - robust gambler songs by John Jacob Nile, Blue Mountain ballads by Paul Bowles and compositions exalting the four seasons by Charles Ives.

Vocally and dramatically at his very best in operatic works, Mr. Plishka has been performing at the Met for over 30 years. Mr. Plishka concluded the first segment with the comic aria "Madamina! Il Catologo" from Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and the great aria "La Calunnia" from Rossini's "The Barber of Seville." He ended his concert with a powerful performance of two Verdi works. Banquo's aria from "Macbeth" and the nobleman Fiesco's lament "Il Lacerato Spirito" from "Simon Boccanegra," bringing the audience to its feet for a standing ovation.

True to form, pianist Thomas Hrynkiw provided impeccable accomplishment throughout the evening.

The audience included Ukraine's consul general in New York, Yuriy Bohaievsky, and his son, Vitaliy; Theodore Dzus Jr., grandson of Institute founder William Dzus, with his wife, Carol, and other members of the Dzus family; and a group of guests from Washington, among them, George Chopivsky.

Event co-chairman Bohdan Shandor told the audience before the concert, "We are here to celebrate the UIA building and to celebrate maintaining this building within the Ukrainian community for a very, very long time. The reason that we formed the Crown Jewel Endowment was to create an endowment fund that will allow the Ukrainian Institute to maintain these fabulous quarters forever."

"This is a historic building which cannot undergo any renovations or any changes without the approval of the New York Historical Society. That adds to the cost and complexity of anything we do," Mr. Shandor added. Reviewing renovations made in recent years, Mr. Shandor concluded: "Our goal is to make this building the 'crown jewel' of the Ukrainian community so that 50 years from now, 100 years from now, Ukrainians - not just in New York City and the United States - but throughout the world can look at this building and be happy, grateful, encouraged and enthused by what we have contributed and done here today."

He thanked all those who had assisted in planning and preparing the event, with special acknowledgment to Mr. Plishka for donating his services to the institute, and the Crown Jewel Endowment benefactors, Mr. and Mrs. Dzus Jr. ($10,000), Myron and Olha Hnateyko ($5,000) and a group of people who donated between $1,000 and $2,000. These included Ostap and Ursula Balaban, Joseph and Olha Boba, Dr. Michael George and Mrs. Ulana George, Marko and Ljubow Melnitshcenko, Walter and Frances Nazarewicz, Andrew and Larysa Paschuk, Yaroslawa Rubel, Shandor & Co. Inc. and Dr. Eugene Steckiw.

Principal benefactors were given a private photo opportunity with Mr. Plishka after the concert. Later, guests mingled and chatted in a festive cafe setting on the third floor. Mr. Plishka, surrounded by admiring fans, continued to beam with happiness.

A Lysenko tribute

In the six years since she joined the New York City Opera, soprano Oksana Krovytska has developed and flowered into a compelling singer and a mature personality. Those attributes were delightfully evident when she performed in the Music at the Institute concert on April 24, fresh from critically acclaimed performances in the title role of NYCO's new production of "Madama Butterfly." In solo work and in appealing duets with mezzo-soprano Charlene Marcinko and baritone Yaroslav Hnatiuk, she sang with remarkable expressiveness, her stage presence warm and gracious.

The concert featured vocal works of Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912), who studied and published the folk songs of his native village Hrynky in the Poltava region, which allowed him to lay the foundation for the Ukrainian national school of music.

Among the works chosen by Ms. Krovytska for her solos were poignant Lysenko works with words by Taras Shevchenko - "Sadok Vyshnevyi Kolo Khaty" (The Cherry Grove) and "Oy, Odna Ya, Odna" (Alone Am I) - and another with words by Ivan Franko, "Misiatsiu Kniaziu" (Princely Moon). She interpreted Maryltsia's aria from the opera "Taras Bulba" with great depth and feeling.

In her debut performance at the UIA, Ms. Marcinko displayed a strong voice and excellent stage presence in such songs as "Yak by Zustrilysia My Znovu" (If Ever We Should Meet Again), a Lysenko work set to Shevchenko's words. The daughter of Glenda and Patrick Marcinko of Olyphant, Pa. (Mr. Marcinko serves as deacon at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Church there), she holds degrees from Boston University and the Peabody Conservatory, gaining her early experience at the Pittsburgh Opera Center, the Aspen Opera Theater, the Opera Theater of St. Louis and the Washington Opera.

Mr. Hnatiuk, a native of Bilobozhnytsia in the Ternopil Oblast who studied voice at the Veriovka Choir Studio and the R. Glière Music Academy, is a graduate of the opera division of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Kyiv. His solo contributions to the program were Ukrainian folk songs, for which he is especially noted, songs such as the humorous "Kazav Meni Batko" (My Father Bid Me Marry). Mr. Hnatiuk, who posseses an energetic baritone voice, has recorded more than 250 works for Ukrainian State Radio and created four music films. He is presently engaged as deacon at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Passaic, N.J.

The accompanist for the performers was the gifted pianist Thomas Hrynkiw, a much sought-after chamber music performer who has had a long association with Mr. Plishka. Currently recording accompaniments to 800 works and solo pieces for Yamaha Disklavier, Mr. Hrynkiw appears annually at the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island, where he is the artistic advisor and vocal director, and at countless other festivals from Alaska to Mexico.

UIA Vice-President Jaroslaw Kryshtalsky, thanking the performers for a superb evening of Lysenko music, noted that the concert marked the close of the ninth successful MATI season. He presented gifts of appreciation from the institute to two UIA volunteers - editor and translator Marta Skorupska, who has prepared program notes for years, and Valida Suk, concert reservations manager and receptionist.

The MATI concert series is managed by Mykola Suk, artistic director; Taras Shegedyn, executive director; and Virko Baley, artistic advisor.

A bandura celebration

The steady melodious plink, plink of bandura strings plucked in unison by a group of youths age 8 to 18; the fresh, bright voice of bandura instrumentalist Olya Chodoba Fryz singing Ukrainian folk songs; the unique improvisation stylings of Kyiv bandurist Roman Hrynkiv - these glorious sounds emanated from the auditorium of the Ukrainian Liberation Center on a recent Saturday afternoon, celebrating the establishment of the New York Bandura Ensemble 25 years ago and the kickoff to the next 25 years.

Students of bandura schools in New York and Yonkers, taught by Julian Kytasty, and a group from Astoria, Queens, directed by Alla Kutsevich, gave a charming concert of simple folk songs, including Misevych's "Kozachok" and a very admirable rendering of the ever-popular "Vziav By Ya Banduru" (I'd Take Up My Bandura). For contrast, Mr. Kytasty and his colleague, Mykola Nemec, teamed up for the contemporary Atonal Étude No. 3, a Kytasty composition.

Ms. Fryz, a solo vocalist whose music reflects traditional Ukrainian concepts with individualized arrangements, has three popular albums to her credit.

Mr. Hrynkiv, the grand prize winner of the first Hnat Khotkevych International Bandurist Competition held in Kyiv in 1993, has been recognized by such internationally renowned musicians as John Williams and Al DiMeola. A bandura teacher at the Kyiv Conservatory since 1995, he designed and built his own instrument, which produces unusually rich sounds.

Mr. Kytasty, a member of the famous Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus, has been the NYBE's musical director from 1980 to 1987 and from 1997 to the present. He was one of the first Ukrainian artists from the West to tour in Ukraine, performing his own arrangements and original compositions in more than 100 concerts and on national radio and television in 1989-1990.

The NYBE board of directors, introduced by Iryna Czorny Andreadis, a founding member of the school and herself a board member, includes executive director Nick Czorny, Mr. Kytasty, Myroslaw Shmigel, Maria Kozycka, Sviatoslav Makarenko and Bohdan Kopystiansky.

Music for everyone

Six members of Lviv's renowned Zankovetska Theater Ensemble, who stayed behind when the main troupe returned to Ukraine last January, have been touring from town to town with presentations that bring tears to the eyes of their Ukrainian American compatriots. On May 8, at the Ukrainian Institute of America, the group presented a costumed dramatization of works by Taras Shevchenko, including poems, songs and excerpts from Shevchenko's "The Slave" delivered proudly and fervently. Headed by Stepan Hlova, the group includes Mykola Shunevych, Nazar Stryhun, Ihor Havryliv, Olena Smolynets and Ludmilla Nikonchuk. (Mr. Hlova and Ms. Nikonchuk are Merited Artists of Ukraine.) They travel in one van, accepting whatever stopover accommodations are offered along the way. They are deserving of support and assistance. Do see their performance when they stop in your town; you will be impressed with its patriotic fervor.

A rainy afternoon did not dampen the spirits of a group of preschool children who were busy planting and harvesting a turnip in the Ukrainian Institute's concert hall May 23. Taking part in a playlet devised and narrated by their music teacher, Marta Sawycky, the children were guided by piano music as they went through the motions of planting, feeding, watering, cultivating and harvesting an oversize fabric turnip with the help of "farmer" Walter Zarycky, a politics professor at New York University.

Mr. Zarycky, whose daughter attends the Music and Me preschool program, filled in for an indisposed youngster.

The children celebrated the end of their school year with musical games and a refreshment break as beaming parents and sleepy-eyed babes-in-arms looked on. Taking part as observers were the non-Ukrainian parents of two adopted children from Ukraine - a small girl from Sevastopol and a little boy from Kyiv - who have been enrolled in the preschool program which begins in September, to be kept close to their ancestral culture.

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