TWG Cultural Fund and Embassy of Ukraine launch concert series (10/22/00)

TWG Cultural Fund and Embassy of Ukraine launch concert series

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - The Washington Group's Cultural Fund, in cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine, on October 3 launched a series of benefit concerts for the 2000-2001 season in order to raise funds for the procurement of musical instruments for the Lviv Conservatory.

The first concert featured acclaimed pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky and an ensemble of musicians from the Washington Opera Orchestra performing Myroslav Skoryk's Concerto No. 3 for piano and string quartet and percussion.

The program also included Mozart's Oboe Quartet in F major, with oboist Ihor Leshchishin, and Beethoven's Sextet for two horns, two violins, viola and cello, with Greg Drone and Bob Odmark as horn soloists.

While the first televised presidential debate kept many politically minded Washingtonians from being in the audience, those who came to the concert at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre in Arlington - the dean of the Washington Post's music critics, Joseph McLellan, among them - found Maestro Skoryk's concerto, and Mr. Vynnytsky's execution, moving.

While the differences between a concerto and a piece of chamber music have been well established for centuries, and "ever the twain shall meet," Mr. McLellan wrote on October 5, "pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky and colleagues performed the Washington premiere of a concerto that is also a piece of chamber music: Concerto No. 3 for piano and string quartet by Myroslav Skoryk, a very productive (e.g., 40 movie soundtracks) and impressively imaginative Ukrainian composer who is virtually unknown in the United States."

The concerto's last movement, titled "Life," he added, is, like the first two movements, "unconventional in structure but emotionally and harmonically well within the late Romantic tradition. Wild outbursts of passion alternate with charming melodies; displays of virtuoso temperament with moderate dialogue."

"The performance, with violinists Zino Bogachek and Joan Hurley, violist Uri Wassertzug, cellist Liz Davis and drummer John Spirtas," Mr. McLellan continued, "brought out the music's color and excitement."

TWG Cultural Fund Director Laryssa Chopivsky noted at the outset of the concert that the benefit series combines the goal of the fund - to acquaint the greater Washington area with Ukrainian culture - with a need for assistance to those who create that culture in Ukraine. If successful, she said, the series will be expanded to help other conservatories and cultural institutions in Ukraine.

The next four concerts in the series are:

October 16 - Solomiya Ivakhiv, violin, and Christina Anum-Dorhuso, piano, performing works by Beethoven, Stankovych, Liszt, Sarasate, Skoryk, Liudkevych and Kos-Anatolsky;
November 13 - Natalia Khoma, cello, and Volodymyr Vynnytsky, piano, performing works by Lysenko, Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Shostakovich, Albeniz and Cassadó;
March 5 - Anna Bachynsky, soprano, and Roman Tsymbala, tenor, in a concert of music, song and poetry in a tribute to Ukraine's bard Taras Shevchenko;
April 23 - Oksana Krovytska, soprano, and Zenoviy Bogachek, violin (program to be announced).

All performances begin at 8 p.m. Tickets can be obtained at the door for $20; seniors and students, $15. There will be a reception following each concert.

The Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre is located at 1611 N. Kent St., two blocks east of the Rosslyn Metro Station and next to the Newseum. Free garage parking is available in the rear of the building, off Arlington Ridge Road.

For more information call (703) 241-1817.

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