The Dumka Chorus: an enduring tradition in New York for 50 years (03/26/00)

The Dumka Chorus: an enduring tradition in New York for 50 years

by Helen Smindak

NEW YORK - Every Friday evening, without fail, they wend their way to Manhattan's East Village from various locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, from Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey, heading for the Ukrainian Sports Club on Second Avenue near Seventh Street.

They pass through the club's recreation room, walk up a short flight of stairs to the second-floor auditorium and take a designated seat in a precise alignment of chairs. Amiable conversation, laughter, the bustle of briefcases and handbags, the rustle of papers fill the room. But chatter and activity cease and all eyes turn center front when the director strides in, stands before the group and announces briskly, "Let's begin with our exercises."

A chess tournament, you say? A parley of soccer players? This may be a sports club, but the assembled men and women are here for the weekly rehearsal of the highly popular mixed-voice Dumka Chorus - two or more hours (with a brief intermission) of learning new songs and rehearsing old repertoire, of practicing and going over phrases, pitch, tone and breath control until they are as perfect or near-perfect as they can be.

Now, in the final weeks before the choir's much-anticipated 50th anniversary concert at The Cooper Union on April 9, preparations have intensified, rehearsals are being held two or three times a week, costumes are being readied, the program has been dispatched to the printer.

For the 63 members of the Dumka Chorus, their conductor Vasyl Hrechynsky and accompanist/choirmaster Eugenia Paley, the project is immense, but not overwhelming. Though the choir members certainly appreciate their annual summer break, they are quite accustomed to long rehearsals; they're also flexible about spending weekend hours in the rehearsal studio rather than at home with their families or attending to shopping and household chores. It's a way of life that can be understood fully only by those who love music and song as passionately as Ukrainians do.

Singing, for Ukrainians, is a personal joy and a national treasure, and these choristers, representing a wide range of occupations and professions - engineer, doctor, machine-shop worker, photo researcher, artist, editor, bank official - have been indulging themselves while conveying the beauty of Ukrainian songs and music to audiences in the United States and Canada, as well as halfway around the world.

In New York, the chorus has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Lincoln Center's concert halls, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at the United Nations; in New Jersey, at the Garden State Arts Performing Center; and in Washington at the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center. They have carried their music north of the border to Montreal and Toronto.

The Dumka tradition of singing Ukrainian Christmas carols in area churches during the holiday season, begun some 13 years ago, brought an invitation from St. Patrick's Cathedral to appear in that famous edifice. Every year several Ukrainian church parishes in New York and New Jersey welcome the chorus and its Christmas offerings into their midst.

In 1985, celebrating Dumka's 35th anniversary, the chorus made a European concert tour and appeared before cheering audiences in England, Austria, Germany and France. A second tour in 1988, honoring the millennium of Ukrainian Christianity, included performances of Ukrainian religious music at the Royal Albert Hall in London as well as concerts in Karlsruhe and Munich, Germany, and Strasbourg, France. During the choir's first visit to Ukraine, in 1990, when Ukraine was on the verge of declaring its independence, triumphant concerts were given in Kyiv, Lviv and Poltava.

The Ukraine tour is indelibly etched in the memory of Ihor Jadlickyj, a physics professor at Queensborough Community College, whose association with Dumka began in 1969 when he flew up from the ranks of the now-defunct children's chorus Moloda Dumka. "We came at a very opportune time, when Ukraine was breaking away from the Soviet Union, and there was such warmth and exuberance pouring out from Ukrainian citizens - it was a very moving experience."

Olha Hayetska, a Dumka soprano and active board member for 30 years, also recalls Dumka's tour of Ukraine with deep emotion: "After our first concert at the Philharmonic Hall in Lviv, we were surrounded by flowers; there were tears in everyone's eyes. Who can forget our visit to Kaniv, to sing at Shevchenko's grave, or the striking students in the square in Kyiv?"

A retired lab technologist who authors Ukrainian children's books, she says singing has been her life since age 10, following the trend set by her musical family. Her father was the director of the Boyan Choir in Lviv and her mother and sister were musically gifted.

Laryssa Lawrynenko Zarycky, a graphic designer specializing in book design who joined Dumka 10 years ago, finds that "whenever we create music, it turns into an artistic moment." She credits Mr. Hrechynsky for this phenomenon - "he tries to paint word pictures for us, and sets the scene for the choir pictorially each time we tackle a new work."

A Dumka member for more than 40 years, retired draftsman Myroslav Kulynych vividly remembers the unveiling of the Shevchenko monument in Washington, when the choir participated proudly as marchers and singers. Nor has he forgotten the first long-distance trip (to the Place des Artes in Montreal) or the sudden snowstorm that trapped three busloads of Dumka singers and family members on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for several hours on the way home from a Detroit appearance.

Dumka President Maria Danchuk-Reshitnyk is among the 12 members of the chorus who came to the United States as part of the Fourth Wave immigration. Three Liteplo brothers, along with cousins Mary Ann Liteplo and Gloria Horbaty, comprise Dumka's largest family grouping. Paul Liteplo, an operations manager for the Selfreliance Credit Union, and Ron, a Bronx dermatologist whose son William sang in the chorus during his student days at Columbia University, have been Dumka members for 25 years. Along with their older brother Merrill, a Massachusetts dermatologist, who sang with the chorus for many years, they have been adding their voices to Dumka's bass section. Other family groups include Bohdan Kekish, Selfreliance Credit Union president, and his brother Borys, both of whom have been signing as tenors for over 40 years.

Founded as a male chorus in New York in 1949 with the express purpose of cultivating the rich secular and religious musical heritage of Ukraine, the Dumka Chorus made its first public appearance the following year with a concert of traditional Ukrainian Christmas carols.

In 1959 Dumka became a mixed chorus. The name Dumka (meaning thought or idea) was chosen as a reference to the "duma," a form of epic song about events in the Kozak period of the 16th to 17th centuries, performed by minstrels in recitative to bandura or kobza accompaniment.

The ensemble has nurtured four singers who went on to make a name for themselves outside the Ukrainian community. Bass/baritone Andriy Dobriansky, who toured the United States, Canada and Mexico with the Metropolitan Opera Company for two seasons, joined the Met's permanent roster in 1969 and sang more than 30 roles during his 25-year Met career. Baritone George Bohachevsky, a longtime member of the New York City Opera chorus, was often assigned solo roles in NYCO productions, and lyric soprano Svitlana Vasilaki (Tonkoschkur) was a member of the NYCO chorus for three years. Ihor Krawciw, a tenor, has appeared with regional opera companies in the United States.

Dumka has had a number of dedicated and talented musical directors, beginning with Leonty Krushelnytsky. His work was continued by Alexander Mykytiuk, Alexander Bernyk, Ihor Sonevytsky, Roman Stepaniak, Ivan Zadorozny and Ihor Zukowsky. Semen Komirnyj, who directed the chorus for 17 years, was succeeded in 1991 by Mr. Hrechynsky, a former choirmaster at the Lviv Theater of Opera and Ballet and an instructor of conducting at the Lviv Conservatory.

Mr. Hrechynsky, the youngest member of the chorus when he took over as Dumka's artistic director at age 30, has infused a new energy and enthusiasm in the chorus with his intensity and commitment to a high standard of musical performance.

With new works and fine discipline mastered, the Dumka Chorus, assisted by Metropolitan Opera tenor Volodymyr Grishko as soloist, is sure to excel in its program or religious, operatic and folk music and win bravos from The Cooper Union audience on April 9. The concert begins at 2 p.m. in the Great Hall.

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