Toronto's Vesnivka Choir to perform 2001-2002 season finale concert in April (04/07/02)

Toronto's Vesnivka Choir to perform 2001-2002 season finale concert in April

by Sonia Solomon

TORONTO - Toronto area musical lovers are in for a treat with Vesnivka Choir's 2001-2002 season finale on Sunday, April 21. Musical Director Kvitka Kondracka has chosen works by contemporary Ukrainian composers as the focus of this performance featuring guest piano soloists Luba and Ireneus Zuk. The Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir also will perform with Vesnivka Choir in the "Showcase of Contemporary Ukrainian Composers" at 3 p.m. at the MacMillan Theatre, Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto.

The Zuk duo needs no introduction to Ukrainian music audiences in Canada and the United States. Ireneus Zuk is professor and director of the School of Music at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario while Luba Zuk is associate professor in the Faculty of Music at McGill University in Montreal and at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich. The duo has been active in promoting music by Canadian and Ukrainian composers.

Luba Zuk has been invited to participate as a jurist and adjudicator at competitions and festivals in Ukraine over the past few years. This experience has allowed her to meet and work with composers and musicians. Luba Zuk and Ms. Kondracka share a passion for finding new musical works and have been busy putting together what they hope to be an exciting and interesting concert.

Ms. Kondracka's friend and colleague, composer Lesia Dychko, has been invaluable in helping them make new contacts in the Ukrainian musical milieu. Ms. Dychko is a member of the executive of the Ukrainian Composers Association and has been very active fostering contemporary music at festivals, competitions and concerts in Ukraine and abroad. In a recent conversation with Ms. Kondracka, Ms. Dychko reported that 25 concerts featuring works by new composers have been planned this spring in Kyiv alone.

For this spring concert, the Zuk duo will be performing works composed especially for them. Suite No. 1 was written for the Zuks by Zhanna Kolodub in 1992; it consists of contrasting movements based on Ukrainian folk songs and dances. Hennady Lashenko's "Idem per Idem," composed in 1992 after the Duo's debut appearance in Ukraine, is based on the melodic and rhythmic elements of Ukrainian folklore of the Hutsul region.

The duo will also perform Halyna Ovcharenko's Hopak and Ms. Dychko's "Dramatic Triptych," written in 1993. Elements of Ukrainian ritual chants, folk songs and dances serve as the thematic basis for three contrasting movements with distinct pianistic sonorities. After hearing the Ukrainian premiere of the work in Kyiv in 2000, Ms. Dychko revised it substantially. The Zuk duo will perform the revised composition.

One of the things that drives the Vesnivka Choir's musical director to search for new music and compositions is that she faces a constant dearth of music written exclusively for women's voices. Vesnivka will be performing works by Yevhen Stankovych, whose "Slovo O Polku Ihorevi" premiered at the "Days of Ukrainian Music in Warsaw" in June of 2001. Stankovych's "Kolo Moyi Khaty Zatsvily Blavaty" was first performed by Vesnivka Choir at the International Choral Olympics in Linz, Austria, in July 2000. Toronto audiences will be able to hear it at this concert for the first time. Works by Donetsk composers Oleksander Nekrasov and Volodymyr Stetsenko also will be featured.

The newly formed Toronto Ukrainian Men's Chamber Choir will join the Vesnivka Choir in three pieces by Viktor Kaminsky, Volodymyr Stetsenko and Istvan Marton. Piano accompaniments were composed by Ukrainian Canadian composers Zenoby Lawryshyn and Larysa Kuzmenko.

This spring concert marks the end of a very busy 2001-2002 season for Vesnivka. In November 2001 the choir performed a concert featuring works by Mr. Lawryshyn. The choir's annual Christmas concert saw the premiere performance of the Toronto Ukrainian Men's Chamber Choir, formed by Ms. Kondraca to have an ensemble to perform compositions for mixed voices and broaden the range of repertoire available to Vesnivka. The generous financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council and the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko has been invaluable in making these concerts possible.

What's next for Vesnivka Choir? Ms. Kondracka plans to travel to Ukraine later this year and collect more new music. For starters, she has been in touch with Mr. Stetsenko in Donetsk, who is delighted that his works are being performed in Canada and has agreed to write more for the choir. Plans for the 2002-2003 season are under way and will be announced when details have been finalized.

For more information about Vesnivka Choir, readers may log on to www.vesnivka.com.

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