DATELINE NEW YORK: Around the world in just two days (11/05/00)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Around the world in just two days

by Helen Smindak

New York is an international mecca of all things cultural - art, ballet, opera, theater - you name it, it's here. For many, dance is considered the most beguiling medium and the easiest to experience and absorb; movement, sound, costumes and moods express a vast range of events and emotions, inspiring spontaneous feelings of amazement, pleasure, laughter, romance and sympathy.

On two consecutive Saturdays in October, these sentiments were strongly evoked as two dance ensembles that feature Ukrainian performers staged productions in Manhatttan, one bringing the heritage of Eastern Europe and neighboring countries to a midtown throng, the other interpreting cultures from around the world for an Upper West Side audience.

Happy smiles, fleet footwork

You could call them the Riverdance kids of Central and Eastern Europe - young people who bring the spirit of those regions to American audiences coast to coast, winning over hearts and minds with their happy-go-lucky enthusiasm and fleet footwork. The Duquesne University Tamburitzans focus on the stirring dances, folk songs and instrumental music of Central and Eastern European countries, but they're all native-born Americans: 35 scholarship students from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh who spend most weekends from August to May traveling by bus to various corners of the United States unloading and loading costumes and musical instruments, and presenting a fast-paced two-hour-program for their audiences. Almost all of them can play the instrument for which the ensemble is named, the tamburica, a plucked stringed instrument indigenous to Yugoslavia that resembles a small guitar and sounds like the mandolin.

Appearing at the Fashion Institute of Technology's Hart Auditorium on October 14, the Tamburitzans celebrated the group's 64th anniversary with a whirlwind tour of Europe that covered a gamut of moods, styles and cultures from 13 countries, including Ukraine. Colorful costumes, including the dramatic Turkish-like dress of Serbian women, multi-colored flowered gypsy dresses, classic ankle-length gowns with demure bodices of the Polish women, and pleated white skirts over tight trousers worn by Greek men, were a hallmark of the show.

This year's touring group includes seven students of Ukrainian ancestry, all Pennsylvania residents. Performing as vocalists, musicians and/or dancers were first-year students Jessica Craig of Pittsburgh and Dana Holomshek of West Mifflin; sophomores Michael Wiegand of Bethel Park, Matt Haritan from McMurray and John R. Sergeant from Center Township; junior Elizabeth Skalyo of Bridgewater; and senior Justin Greenwald of Elizabeth.

Former Tamburitzan Andrij Cybyk, who performs with New York professional dance companies, came on stage before the program to introduce Hungary's permanent envoy to the United Nations Andre Erdosz (the New York production was sponsored by the American Hungarian Folklore Centrum). Mr. Cybyk spoke fondly of his days as a Tamburitzan, when he learned so much about the songs, dances and languages of Eastern Europe and made friendships that will last his entire life.

Then it was on with the show, a production that Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times called "a perfect prescription for fighting the blues": joyful songs and dances from various regions of Croatia; fiery gypsy scenes from Serbia and Russia; melancholy ballads from Macedonia, and a humorous Slovak game of hat-switching in unison by seven male dancers, won by the dancer who managed to retain a hat on his head throughout the dance.

From Greece came the sound of the bouzoukee; from Slovenia, a trilogy of tunes, one of them lamenting the loss of spring; and from Bohemia, animated polka steps and characterizations set to the lighthearted music of Johann Strauss II. A love song from Serbia, "A Thousand Tears," was interpreted with deep feeling by Mr. Greenwald; while ritual dances from southern Romania that remember and honor the dead featured Mr. Sergeant as an "iele," an evil wood and water spirit.

Among the evening's most colorful and exhilarating pieces were women's dances from Bulgaria, performed to the driving beat of the tupan (goatskin drum), and an elaborate grape festival from Poland, with young women raising sweet voices in song to salute the occasion. The entire company joined in presenting a sampling of dances from a three-day Hungarian wedding celebration and in the finale, a Bulgarian canvas depicting the village square through eccentric, driving rhythms and exuberant dancing. The frenetic twirling of hankies, fancy footwork, squealing and shoulder-jiggling marked many of the dances.

Ukraine, usually represented through a vigorous dance like the Hopak, was depicted in Len Meledandri's adaptation of the beloved Ukrainian song "Rushnychok" (Embroidered Ritual Cloth). Vocalist Jennifer Grasha, attired in traditional Poltava costume, was accompanied by a guitarist and backed by a women's chorus as she offered a sensitive interpretation of the story of a loving daughter bidding farewell to her mother: "You gave me an embroidered ritual cloth for good luck. This cloth will forever bring to life my childhood, our parting and your eternal love."

To guide concertgoers through the folklore tour, the concert program included a map of Eastern Europe with numbers that corresponded to the numbers of the program notes.

Representing the world

Andrij Cybyk, who opened the Tamburitzans show, played a major role in the concert "Joy in Every Land," presented the following Saturday evening by the ALLNATIONS Dance Company at International House. An extremely versatile dancer, Mr. Cybyk was featured in the spirited barefoot Philipppine dance "La Jota Manilena," the sultry "Tango Argentine," a romantic Hawaiian number "E Pele E" (complete with typical Hawaiian hip swaying), and an exuberant Russian Gypsy dance titled "Romany."

The folk-dance fiesta was followed by an international fashion parade with live modeling of costumes from around the world, two of them from Ukraine. The nine-member company, which includes two dancers from Ukraine - Anna Mikhaylenko of Kharkiv and Ganna Makarova from Odesa - took viewers on a trip that zig-zagged through the Czech Republic, Romania, India, Mongolia, Scotland, Ireland, Egypt, Spain and China, as well as the Philippines, Hawaii, Russia and Argentina. A fast-paced, varied show such as this requires speedy costume changes, and the performers were more than capable of keeping up.

Mr. Cybyk, who shone in the Filipino, Hawaiian and Russian numbers, was outstanding in the Argentine tango as he deftly partnered dancer Brenda Neville through a dance that is characterized by long graceful steps, abrupt stops and sensuous turns. Born in Camden, N.J., he has studied ballet and character dance with masters in the United States and Europe, and is a graduate of the Virsky School of Academic Folk Dance in Kyiv. True to his roots, Mr. Cybyk performs with New York's Syzokryli Ukrainian Dance Ensemble and is the group's assistant artistic director. He also performs and trains with the Anglo-American Ballet, Nai-Ni Chen and Michael Mao Dance in New York.

Ms. Mikhaylenko, who came to the United States on a full scholarship to the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, interpreted a story of the love of two hearts in the Mongolian dance "Ayi Nan Ayi," and was partnered by Mr. Cybyk in the Russian gypsy dance. "Romany" began as a romantic, slow-moving number that changed into a dramatic play of swirling skirts (on her part) and energetic boot-slapping by Mr. Cybyk. Ms. Mikhaylenko, who studied Mongolian dance at the Mongolian College of Music and Dance and later graduated from the Kharkiv Choreographic Institute as a ballet and character dancer, performed for six months in the classical production "Notre Dame de Paris" in Las Vegas and appears with the Connecticut Ballet in Stamford and the Brighton Beach Theatre in Brooklyn.

Ms. Makarova, featured with Mr. Cybyk and two other dancers in the Philippine number, took on a solo Russian dance "Gannochka" that combined pert movements and multi pirouettes. Now in her second year with ALLNATIONS, she began her dance training at age 6 at the world-renowned Moiseyev Dance Studio and studied acting at the Moscow Academy of Performing Arts. In this country since 1992, she is a magna cum laude graduate in fine arts of Long Island University.

The two women joined Suzi Myers and Tahji Lacomb in presenting a Russian "Khorovod" that had them gliding with ethereal lightness around the stage, sometimes appearing never to touch the ground, their arms held away from their bodies in doll-like fashion. The wide floor-length skirts of their pastel-colored gowns screened quick dainty footsteps, effecting the illusion of mechanical figures.

The company's associate director, Sophia Janusz Pachecano, who hails from Philadelphia, has gone through the ranks of the company as a corps dancer, soloist and instructor. Trained in ballet and Eastern European folk dancing with an emphasis on Ukrainian and Russian character dance, Ms. Pachecano joined Philadelphia's Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble in l976. She is the recipient of several grants for choreography from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts.

According to Ms. Pachecano, the company's repertoire includes "Boykivsky Zabavy," "Hopachok," and "Kozachok" and a lively Hutsul number. Besides its local performances and tours in this country, the company is giving three overseas tours this season and will depart in two weeks for a tour of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

Tour guide/commentator for the ALLNATIONS show was Herman Rottenberg, producer and founder of the company, who has spent the last 32 years assisting young performing artists on the path to success in their chosen careers.

International House, a non-profit residence and program center that is home to 700 students from around the globe, is located in New York's university hub, the Upper West Side area that embraces Barnard College, City College of New York, Columbia University and its School of Social Work and Teachers' College, the Manhattan School of Music, Jewish Theological and Union Theological.

Heavens of a Hundred Days

On a mild October evening, with Manhattan clogged with traffic due to the presence in town of President Bill Clinton, Vice-President Al Gore and their wives (attending a charity affair at the Waldorf Astoria), jazz pianist John Stetch drew a good-sized crowd to the Greenwich House Music School for the debut of his latest CD "Heavens of a Hundred Days."

With Seamus Blake on tenor saxophone, Yohannes Weidenmueller on bass and Daniel Freedman on drums, Mr. Stetch, 34, held his audience enrapt as he gave out with his new compositions and a couple of well-loved standards.

Mr. Stetch's style and compositions have been described as post-Bop, with classical influences. He likes to toy with convention, as in his original composition "McWorld," a piece that was, in hip parlance, totally "out." Or to take a classic of the post-bop idiom of the 1960s, Joe Henderson's "Inner Urge," and come up with an imaginative redesign, turning the piece upside down by dropping its theme into the bass register and moving his saxophonist into the harmony.

The Ottawa Citizen's jazz reviewer James Hale deems Mr. Stetch "one of the rare breed" who's both a sensitive interpreter and a blazing original. Jazz reviewer Mark Miller of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the oblique approach seems to be Mr. Stetch's trademark, whether he's writing out a set list, setting up a tune or laying down an improvisation. "Eventually he'll get around to the heart of the matter in his solos, but he rarely remains there for very long - it's a fascinating exercise in free thinking."

That free thinking echoed in just about everything Mr. Stetch played in his Greenwich Village program - "Urakawa," based on an Asian folk melody; "Rondeau," with its insistent refrain; "Love for Sale," a piece that Mr. Stetch opened by reaching behind the keyboard and plucking the piano strings; and "Point," a blues number that featured very rapid piano fingerwork. Even the haunting melodies of two lovely standards - "Autumn in New York" and "Moonglow" - received special Stetch treatment.

Interpreting a line from Rainer Maria Rilke's poem "Moving Forward," the composition "Heavens of a Hundred Days" rephrases wonderment at the soul-subliming metamorphoses of nature and the ever-changing variations upon impromptu creations. The progression of clouds (cirrus, stratus and cumulonimbus), over 13 tone-rows of rainbows, the source of lightning's unfrozen sound - these are all depicted in the music.

The Edmonton-born pianist, who began life as Ivan Stechishin, studied classical saxophone at the University of Alberta prior to earning a Bachelor of Music degree with distinction in jazz piano from Montreal's McMill University in 1991. He was a top prize-winner in the 1993 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composers' Competition, performing his piece "Inuit Talk" with an all-star band. A Stetch-led trio won the du Maurier Grand Jazz Award for the leading Canadian ensemble at the 1998 Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Mr. Stetch has recorded other CDs as a leader, among them "Rectangle Man" (1992), which received a Juno Award nomination for best jazz album of 1992, "Carpathian Blues" (1994), based on an old Ukrainian folk song that Stetch used to play at weddings, "Kolomeyka Fantasy" and "Stetching Out." Justin Time Records released "Green Grove" and the new CD "Heavens of a Hundred Days."

A well-established player in New York City, notably with Rufus Reid, Akira Tana and Billy Hart, Mr. Stetch recently toured with his group in Canada, Brazil and Israel. This year, in addition to club dates in New York with his trio, he gave solo concerts at the I.S.Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. Just awarded a year long grant from the Canada Council for Composing, he was recently named to the Steinway Artists roster. Mr. Stetch is now on a cross-country tour of Canada, presenting a program based partly on Ukrainian folk tunes which celebrate his heritage and partly on selections from his jazz recordings, including his original compositions and some standards.

Revering Reger

Kyiv-born organist Paul Stetsenko, who began his studies in organ performance at New York's esteemed Juilliard School of Music in 1991, prepared and defended a doctoral dissertation on "Max Reger: Two Chorale Fantasies, Op. 40" earlier this year. Since 1994, when he earned his master's degree at Juilliard, he has been immersed in rigorous studies that included courses in history and practice, research methods, style criticism and advanced analysis, as well as numerous performance projects (three public recitals and a lecture-performance), and examinations. All of this, and the doctoral dissertation, gained him a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Juilliard in May.

Since his U.S. debut, Dr. Stetsenko, 38, has been appearing as a recitalist and soloist at such venues as Alice Tully Hall and Paul Hall at Lincoln Center, Columbia University's Organ Concert Series, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, all in New York City, the University of Salisbury in Maryland and the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. Though his repertoire is drawn from the most significant eras and areas of organ literature, its core is based on the works of two of the greatest composers for the organ, J.S. Bach and Max Reger.

He says his decision to specialize in the music of Max Reger was a logical extension of his determination to accept "the highest spiritual, technical and artistic challenges which Reger's music presents." And, seeing what he perceives as "the unjustified neglect" of this composer, he advocates Reger organ works in his concerts and recitals.

A retrospective program of Reger organ and vocal works was presented last month by Dr. Stetsenko and soprano Beverly Owens at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church as part of the annual St. Andrew Music Society's Fall 2000 Keyboard Concert Series. "Dateline" could not be present, but an online interview brought this report from the organist himself: "The concert went great! It was a very difficult program, very 'Teutonic,' yet we made it very engaging and easy to listen to. We might repeat it in the future; maybe next year, if other projects don't stand in the way."

Among the works in the program were Reger's most often-played organ piece "Introduction and Passacaglia in D Minor;" an early Reger composition "You Did Not Leave Him in the Grave (from Handel's Messiah); a fantasy on the chorale "Wie schön leucht uns der Morgenstern, Op. 40/1;" the "Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H, Op. 46," modeled after the titanic organ fantasies of Bach, and "The Sacred Songs, Op. 105," fine elocutions full of Wagnerian inflection accompanied by intricate harmonies.

After graduating from Kyiv's Gliere Music College and while still a student at Kyiv Conservatory, the organist performed extensively throughout Ukraine and the Baltic states. In this country, he has been a soloist in Poulenc's "Organ Concerto" with the Orchestra of St. Andrew Music Society conducted by Dr. John Weaver, and with the orchestra of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Shelter Rock, Long Island, conducted by Edward Miller. Since 1998, Dr. Stetsenko has been assistant conductor/accompanist with The Hudson Valley Singers. Sci-fi, ancient civilizations and mysticism comprise his non-musical interests.

Dr. Stetsenko, who resides in Elizabeth, N.J., says his mother, Lina Stetsenko of Kyiv, a retired architect, was well-known in Ukrainian architectural circles.

| Home Page |