2002: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Culture and the arts: a survey from A to ...

The arts scene, as it was covered in The Weekly, has been been rich and varied, with film and documentaries prominent on the scene. The year 2002 may well be referred to as the year of Dovzhenko, with his films shown in retrospectives throughout the United States in a program organized with help from the Ukrainian government, which took an active role in championing Dovzhenko's work outside his native country.

Among the highlights of the season were the following, listed by category.

Architecture

The photographic exhibition "Ornament is Not a Crime," presented by Dr. Ihor Zhuk, curator of the visual materials collection at Lviv Theological Academy and guest scholar at Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, depicting the art nouveau style of architecture in Lviv, was on view at The Ukrainian Museum on April 28-July 28. The exhibit was previously presented in Krakow and Wroclaw, Poland, as well as in London and Edinburgh.

A campaign to further the artistic heritage of Vasyl Krychevsky (1873-1952), a leading figure in the fields of architecture, art and graphic design of Ukraine, was undertaken by E. Morgan Williams, publisher. Krychevsky's many outstanding contributions, especially to architecture, were often altered or repressed by the authorities in Soviet Ukraine, who found his designs, which often incorporated traditional folk ornamentation and motifs, to be "too Ukrainian." Among projects to be undertaken is the restoration of the Taras Shevchenko museum in Kaniv as it was originally designed by Krychevsky in the 1930s. Mr. Morgan has been working with Krychevsky's grand-daughter, Oksana Linde, of Caracas, Venezuela, and others on this endeavor.

Art

The art of Roman Kowal was the subject of a feature article by Alexandra Hawryluk in the March 3 issue of The Weekly. Known chiefly for his innovative approach to ecclesiastic interior design, Maestro Kowal has completed mosaics and stained glass for 16 Ukrainian churches in Canada, in successful partnership with architect Victor Deneka and for two Winnipeg churches designed by Radoslav Zuk. Thus he has taken on an important role in the development of Canadian religious art.

Taras Polataiko, the Chernivtsi-born Saskatoon-based artist who has been on the art scenes of both Canada and Ukraine, represented Ukraine at the XXV Biennale de Sao Paulo held March 23-June 2 in Brazil, where he presented his project "Bird's Eye View," with Jerzy Onuch, curator of the presentation.

Tapestries, marked by a purity of color and rawness of material, and the photography of Lialia Kuchma were featured in an article by Cynthia Quick in the May 19 issue of The Weekly on the occasion of the exhibit of Ms. Kuchma's work in a show of contemporary furniture and fiber art titled "The Artist's Hand" at the Wood Street Gallery in Chicago on March 9-April 20.

The centenary of the birth of Edward Kozak (1902-1992), known as "Eko," was marked in New York at the Consulate of Ukraine in a production by the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble, under the direction of Lydia Krushelnytsky, which presented an overview of the works of the late humorist and artist. Also, as part of the opening of the summer season, the Music and Art Center of Greene County, jointly with the Chervona Kalyna Plast fraternity, of which the artist was a member, held an exhibit at the Grazhda in Hunter, N.Y. Featured were caricatures and 96 covers of the satirical/humorous journals Komar and Lys Mykyta (1948-1991), which were edited by Maestro Kozak. A brilliant caricaturist and illustrator, Maestro Kozak was equally known as an artist and editor of numerous children's as well as humorous/satirical journals. His writings and caricature drawings also served as a chronicle of the post-war émigré community in the United States. A retrospective exhibit of Maestro Kozak's works was held in Lviv in 1990, accompanied by an exhibition catalogue.

The exhibit "From Here to There," featuring the plein-air paintings of Zenowij Onyshkewych, was held at the Southport Harbor Gallery in Southport, Conn., on November 3-December 1. An essay titled "The Omnivoyant Traveler" by Philip Eliasoph appeared in the November 3 issue of The Weekly.

The exhibit "Recent Paintings by Motria C. Holowinsky," expression of dreams on imaginary subjects, color and composition, opened at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute on November 20 and was on view through January 17, 2003.

Andrij Babytsch, president of the Ukrainian Association of Visual Artists of Canada (since 1994), exhibited his portraits and landscapes at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York in an exhibit that opened October 11.

Folk art and crafts

Seeking to add to its extensive collection of pysanky, or Easter eggs, a museum devoted to the pysanka, built as a new addition to the Museum of Hutsul and Pokuttia Folk Art in Kolomyia, sent out a request addressed to pysanka writers throughout the world. The museum has a collection of some 6,000 pysanky practically from every region of Ukraine and abroad, with a separate exhibit of pysanky of the Ukrainian diaspora of North America and Australia. A letter written by the museum's director, Yaroslava Tkachuk, appeared in the April 28 issue of The Weekly.

Designer and sculptor A. Andrew Chulyk's multiple section "sculpted" boxes were featured in an article in the November 10 issue of The Weekly. The work of the award-winning artist has been exhibited in invitational shows, as well as exhibited and marketed in craft galleries and fairs, and at the museum store of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Dance

"Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors," a dance-theater piece based on the novel by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky (1864-1913) which uses the theatrical conventions of dance, puppetry and music to tell the story of the star-crossed young lovers Ivan and Marichka, premiered as a bilingual presentation by MN2 Productions at the Cleveland Public Theater on January 25. The text for the production, considered a variation on the Romeo and Juliet theme, is by Nadia Tarnawsky; with choreography by Sarah Morrison, Natalie Kapeluck and Roman Lewkowicz, and staging by Michael D. Flohr.

The Brigham Young University International Folk Dance Ensemble, (Edwin G. Austin Jr., artistic director and producer), whose repertoire includes Ukrainian pieces such as the Hopak, performed during the 19th Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and at the Light of the World cultural festival sponsored by the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, in celebration of the different cultures represented by athletes at the Winter Games.

The Arkan Dance Company (Danovia Stechishin, artistic director), which has performed as cultural ambassadors of Canada and of Ukraine at international festivals throughout the world, presented "A Journey Through Ukraine," a concert of Ukrainian and modern dance featuring the work of guest choreographer National Artist of Ukraine Rafayil Malynovsky at the Living Arts Center in Mississauga, Ontario, on June 9. Also featured was the modern dance "Scythian Gold," choreographed by Mme. Stechishin and commissioned by the Royal Ontario Museum.

Film/documentaries

Director Yuri Illienko's latest film, "A Prayer for Hetman Mazepa" (Molytva za Hetmana Mazepu) - with Bohdan Stupka in the lead role and score by Virko Baley of Las Vegas - had its American premiere on August 1 at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute in Cambridge, Mass. The first big-budget picture made in Ukraine since independence by Kyiv's Dovzhenko Studio, the film was released in Ukraine in September. The film, referred to as a "phantasmagoric dream of history," received mixed reviews. An article on the state of Ukraine's film industry and response to the film by Russian and Polish critics appeared in an article titled "Ukraine's cinema industry faces its moment of truth" by Conor Humphries, in the August 25 issue of The Weekly.

Oscar-winning Hollywood actor Jack Palance became chairman of the board of directors of the newly formed Hollywood Trident Foundation (HTR), whose aim is to encourage those working in the film-making industry to "study film and present the Ukrainian contributions to film-making, past and present, worldwide. The foundation was formed in January by members of the Hollywood Trident Network in Los Angeles, with Peter Borisow, president of Entertainment Finance Management, as HTR president.

Award-winning Montreal filmmaker Yurij Luhovy was completing a film about Bereza Kartuzka, the site between 1933 and 1939, of an infamous Polish concentration camp under the command of Col. Yanush Kostek-Biernacki where hundreds of Ukrainian patriots were incarcerated. Mr. Luhovy was interviewed for The Weekly (February 3) by Fran Ponomarenko. The film, the first part of a trilogy dealing with Ukraine under three occupations - Polish, Communist and Nazi - highlights the political situation in which Western Ukrainians found themselves under Polish rule between the two world wars.

On the occasion of the forthcoming 70th anniversary of the 1933 Famine-Genocide in Ukraine, the Hollywood Trident Foundation undertook a project to record on videotape the recollections of the Ukrainian survivors of the Famine-Genocide now living in the United States and Canada. The oral histories are to be professionally produced for distribution to educational and media venues worldwide.

The Our Blossom - Across the World Film Festival, founded by The Institute of Diaspora Studies in Kyiv, a competition that emphasizes Ukrainian diaspora themes and experiences, announced this year's winners: first place, Petro Midrihana and Vasyl Riabunets of Rivne, on life of Ukrainians who were forcibly moved into lands in western Poland as a result of the resettlement program undertaken by Polish authorities in 1947 known as Akcja Wisla; second place, television journalist Maksym Drabka, on Ukrainian life in the Baltic states; third place, Kyiv film-makers Vasyl Shenderovskyi, Nadia Dovhych and Anatolii Vasianovych, on the life of Ukrainian Czech ex-patriate and noted scientist Ivan Puliuj, and his contribution to the discovery of the X-ray.

Literature

A Ukrainian-language edition of the first book in the globally popular Harry Potter series by British author J.K. Rowling, appeared as a publication of the highly respected Ukrainian children's publishing house A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha, with illustrations by Vladyslav Yerko. In celebration of its 10th anniversary, A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha, whose founder and president is poet Ivan Malkovych, also re-issued seven of its most popular children's stories and folk tales in a first ever 1-million-copy printing of children's books in Ukraine. A joint venture with Ukraine's postal service, UkrPost, the project titled "Mini-Dyvo," made the books available at the cost of a single hryvnia each at the more than 15,000 post offices nationwide, and thus accessible to all Ukrainian children.

Writer Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's latest book, "Hope's War," a book of fiction for teenagers about an alleged Ukrainian war criminal, was published in October by Dundurn Press. The background to the book's story is the problem of finding Nazi criminals in Canada. In a book launch held at the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation in Toronto on November 17, Ms. Skrypuch, a well-received writer of children's books who deals with difficult subjects, noted that the central focus of the book is not wartime Ukraine but the issue of justice in Canada today.

Toronto author Lydia Palij, a 1997 recipient of the Pavlo Tychyna Award for poetry, noted for her activities in PEN and the Writers' Union of Canada, published her first book in English titled "Woman in the Window - Poetic Images" (Patricia Harvie, translator; Ms. Palij, editor of the translations).

"Landscapes of Memory: The Selected Later Poetry of Lina Kostenko" came out as a bilingual Ukrainian/English edition published by Litopys Publishers in Lviv (Michael M. Naydan, translator; Olha Luchuk, editor).

Museums and exhibits

An exhibit titled "For You, Ukraine," with items from the collection of Serhei Platonov, a prominent Kyiv businessman, featuring pottery from the Trypillian period, glasswork, ancient Greek ceremonial ornaments from settlements in the south of Ukraine and Crimea, as well as coins and metals from the Kyivan Rus' and Kozak periods, was held at the Kyiv Pecharska Lavra and at St. Sophia Cathedral museums in November. Mr. Platonov, one of Kyiv's emerging new philanthropists, recently donated a significant part of his collection to Ukraine's history museum.

The development of The Ukrainian Museum in New York City drew enthusiastic interest and promise of support from the government of Ukraine. Representatives of the Ukrainian diplomatic community in New York City, Ambassador Valeriy Kuchinsky, permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, and Consul General Serhiy Pohoreltzev offered to assist the museum's future projects with the aim of promoting cooperative endeavors with museums and the arts community in Ukraine. The meeting of government and museum representatives took place at the end of February.

The Ukrainian Museum's new building project on East Sixth Street in the East Village section of Manhattan entered the construction phase, with the construction company S. Di Giacomo & Son, and project architect, George Sawicki of the firm SawickiTarella Architecture+Design, PC, engaged in the more than $8 million project. The proposed three-story building will become the new center for the activities of the museum, which for 26 years has preserved and presented the cultural legacy of Ukrainian Americans through exhibitions, educational programs, publications and community-related events.

In her report Museum Director Maria Shust alluded to the preparatory work that has begun on inaugural exhibitions in the new building, with Dr. Jaroslaw Leshko engaged as curator for the Alexander Archipenko art exhibition.

The Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago (UNM), - boasting a collection of over 12,000 artifacts, a library of over 29,000 titles and an extensive archive collection - celebrated its 50th anniversary on September 29 in its newly renovated and expanded premises designed by the architectural firm of Joseph I. Mycyk of Chicago. This year, as an active member of the Chicago Field Museum's "Cultural Connections" program, the UNM hosted a program on the ethnic education in the Ukrainian community, titled "Ukrainian Saturday School, Culture for Homework." The program, overseen by Christina Taran, was recorded April 6 by Chicago Access Network Television for cable TV.

Music

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, the Leontovych String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York, appeared at New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on January 27 presenting a program of works by Dvorak, Silvestrov and Tchaikovsky.

The chamber music concert "Jewels of Ukraine," brought about on the initiative of concert pianist Thomas Hrynkiw, was held March 3 at the California State University of Sacramento featuring works by Dmytro Bortniansky, Yuriy Oliynyk, Victor Kosenko and Peter Tchaikovsky.

The award-winning women's chorus Vesnivka, under the direction of Kvitka Zorych-Kondracka, presented a program of traditional, contemporary and rarely heard Ukrainian carols and New Year's songs on January 13 at the Humbercrest United Church in Toronto. The Christmas concert also featured the recently formed Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir. On April 21 Vesnivka showcased works by contemporary composers from Ukraine - Stankovych, Stetsenko and Nekrasov - in a concert at the University of Toronto MacMillan Theater, with guest piano soloists Luba and Ireneus Zuk.

The Yevshan Ukrainian Vocal Ensemble, comprising 34 singers from eight parishes across Connecticut, with Alexander Kuzma, music director, appeared in its annual spring concert at the West Hartford Town Hall Auditorium on May 19 in a program of liturgical and rarely heard folks songs and secular works. The concert received extensive publicity on Connecticut's public radio stations and was the subject of a full-length feature in the Connecticut Post.

The Ukrainian Male Chorus of Edmonton, under the direction of Orest Soltykevych - with special guests, the Montreal/Kingston piano duo of Luba and Ireneus Zuk, and New York-based jazz pianist John Stetch - presented a concert of Ukrainian music and classical selections on November 9 at the prestigious Winspear Center in Edmonton. The festive concert drew a capacity audience of well over 1,000.

A feature article on Roman Hurko, Canadian opera director and composer, author of "Requiem: Panakhyda for the Victims of Chornobyl" (2001), appeared in the May 12 issue of The Weekly. Penned by Myrosia Stefaniuk, it brought out the full spectrum of Maestro Hurko's creative oeuvre, bringing to the fore the underlying symbiosis of opera, theater and liturgical music in his work.

Marika Kuzma, associate professor of music and director of choral activities at the University of California at Berkeley, directed the University Chorus in a performance of Paul Hindemith's "Requiem: For Those We Love" at Berkeley's Hertz Hall and organized a campus-wide concert, "In Memorian: A Concert of Musical Reflections on the Events of September 11, 2001," composed of sacred and secular music from various cultures. Among her engagements as director of the Chamber Chorus of the University of California at Berkeley was the June 6 concert "Voices of Byzantium: From Mt. Athos to Kiev [Kyiv] to Moscow" presented as part of the prestigious Berkeley Early Music Festival.

Soprano Stefania Dovhan, a recent graduate of the University of Maryland School of Music, appeared at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York with distinguished bass Stefan Szkafarowsky in November. Ms. Dovhan was in Kyiv this fall for engagements in major operatic roles at the National Opera of Ukraine and solo recitals at the National Philharmonic Hall.

Young Ukrainian tenor and opera star Misha Didyk appeared as lead tenor in the Bellini opera "The Capulets and the Montagues" at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on April 13.

The vocal duet of sisters Halyna and Lesia Telnyuk, natives of Kyiv, whose work is referred to as a synthesis of poetry and song, presented concerts in a program titled "Zhar-Ptytsi' (Firebirds) in New York (November 3) and Baltimore (November 9-10). Having previously completed successful tours in Canada, Russia, Poland, England and Ireland, the duo's current tour took them to Newton, Iowa, Chicago and Kingston, Ontario. The duo's repertoire includes Ukrainian, Irish and English folk songs, as well as songs by Bob Dylan and Oleksander Melnyk, and their own compositions.

Winners of the fourth International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz which was initiated in Kyiv in 1994 - Kyrylo Keduk of Belarus (first prize, junior group); Dmytro Onishchenko of Ukraine (first-place, intermediate group); Maryia Kim of Ukraine (first prize, senior group) - appeared in concert at the Lyceum in Alexandria, Va., on March 24, in a concert sponsored by The Washington Group Cultural Fund under the patronage of the Embassy of Ukraine.

Cellist Vagram Saradjian and pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky were the featured performers at the Rachmaninoff Festival held as part of the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition at the Dolburn School for Performing Arts in Los Angeles on March 27. Mr. Vynnytsky also appeared in concert with the Zapolski String Quartet of Denmark in a series of concerts at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York (June 22), the Grazhda in Hunter, N.Y. (June 29), and at Music Mountain (June 30).

Cellist Natalia Khoma and pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky appeared in concert at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall on May 29 in a program of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Shostakovich, Granados, Cassadó and Vynnytsky. They also performed at the Lake San Marco Chamber Music Society concert series in California (May 26) and at La Belle Alliance in Willemstad in Curaçao (November 1-3).

The concert "Oleh Krysa at 60 with Family and Friends," held May 11 at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York as a special event and gala concert of the "Music at the Institute" (MATI) series, launched the 60th anniversary celebrations of the eminent violinist and teacher, and honorary artistic director and founder of MATI. The celebrations entailed a world tour, with concerts presented in Kyiv, as well as in Australia, Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore and Japan. The New York concert featured composer/pianist Virko Baley, pianists Alexander Slobodyanik and Tatiana Tchekina, violinist Peter Krysa, violists Borys Deviatov and Alexander Rees, and cellists Rachel Lewis Krysa and Volodymyr Panteleyev, with Robert Sherman of New York's classical music radio station WQXR-FM, as master of ceremonies.

Bandurist Julian Kytasty performed music from "Black Sea Winds: The Kobzari of Ukraine," his latest CD recording, at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago on April 4. On November 23 he appeared with master Mongolian musician Battuvshin and Ilya Temkin in the concert "Music from the Far Ends of the Steppe," in Tibet House in New York. On December 6, Mr. Kytasty's Experimental Bandura Trio performed at Symphony Space in the "Music for Pipa" (or Chinese lute) concert, with Wu Man, and in duets drawing on Chinese and Ukrainian sources.

The concert "Shliakhamy Kobzariv" (In the Steps of the Kobzars), featuring Victor Mishalow, Julian Kytasty, Hryhoriy Herchak, Jurij Fedynskyi, Ilya Temkin and Maestro Mishalow's students, was held at St. Volodymyr Orthodox Cathedral in Toronto on December 1.

Musicology

The personal archive of noted diaspora conductor and musicologist Prof. Myroslav Antonovych of Utrecht, whose research specialization was on Ukrainian church music and Franco-Flemish church music of the Renaissance, was acquired by the library of the Lviv Theological Academy. Prof. Antonovych's celebrated Byzantine Choir was composed of Hollanders who sang Ukrainian music in the Ukrainian language.

The 250th anniversary of the birth of renowned composer and conductor Dmytro Bortniansky (1751-1825), was marked by the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York on May 18 with a conference, an exhibit titled "Bortniansky in Iconography, Discography and Print," and a concert. Taking part in the conference were Dr. Andrij Szul, Roman Sawycky Jr., Stepan Maksymiuk, Vasyl Hrechysnky and Dr. Jaropolk Lassowsky.

Musicus Bortnianskii, the Ukrainian Canadian performing arts organization/ensemble, under the direction of Myron Maksymiw, released its latest recording: the 17th and 18th century five- and six-part Ukrainian motets known as "Partesni Kontserty" or "Partesni Motets" by anonymous Ukrainian composers.

Photography

The photography exhibit, "Starving for Color," featuring black-and-white photos of infants in orphanages in Ukraine taken by Dr. Roksolana Tymiak-Lonchyna during her travels on humanitarian missions and private trips to Ukraine, opened at the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago where it was on view on October 15-29. The exhibit, with its deeply humanitarian subject matter, raised $10,800 for nutrition programs in the orphanages.

Pop culture/entertainment

In a three-part series titled "Pop, rock, hip-hop - Ukraine's music scene has it all - and it's thriving," Roman Woronowycz, The Weekly's Kyiv correspondent, focused on Kyiv's vibrant popular music scene and Ukraine's contemporary music stars - pop divas Ani Lorak and Iryna Bilyk; the rock bands Vopli Vodopliasova (V.V). and Okean Elzy; and the hip-hop group Tanok na Maydani Kongo and Dymna Sumish.

Pop star Annychka from Lviv was the feature act during the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival's kick-off concert on September 13 in Toronto appearing before an enthusiastic crowd reaching 50,000 people. Canada's most prestigious radio station, CFRB, did a four-hour live broadcast from the festival site.

Popular composer and musician Taras Petrynenko and vocalist Tetiana Horobets toured the eastern U.S., as part of a project undertaken by Cleveland-based Melodies of Ukraine, in an outreach program to young Ukrainian audiences through Ukrainian pop music. The duo appeared in concert at St. George's Academy in New York in November.

Television

John Spencer, a veteran of television, film and stage, won the award for best supporting actor in the drama series "The West Wing," where he plays the White House chief of staff, during the 54th annual Emmy Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on September 22.

Theater

Gregory Hlady, the critically acclaimed stage and cinema actor and director, who has made his mark in Canadian alternative theater and abroad, was the subject of a review by Alexandra Hawryluk (April 7) on the occasion of the premiere of his theater piece "Kateryna's Dreams." The work, inspired by Mykola Hohol's "A Terrible Vengeance," premiered at Infinitheatre in Montreal on February 28. This year Mr. Hlady also played the lead role in Kim Nguyen's new feature film "Le Marais" and appeared in Paula de Vasconcelos' Montreal theater production of "The Other."

Virlana Tkacz, New York director of the dynamic Yara Arts Group, was in Kyiv this fall teaching on a Fulbright Fellowship. Among Ms. Tkacz's activities while in Kyiv was the direction of a concert version of "In the Beginning Was Song," a dialogue of traditional songs from Ukrainian and Hebrew, performed by Marianna Sadovska from Germany and Victoria Hanna from Jerusalem. The concert was staged for the Fulbright Conference and for a new music and poetry series, "Kolo Nas," which was inaugurated by Ms. Tracz.

The company NaCl (North American cultural laboratory), founded by Canadian-born actress Tannis Kowalchuk and her husband, Brad Krumholz, took part in the 10-day Catskill Festival of New Theater 2002 in Highland Lake, N.Y., this summer, and appeared at folk festivals in Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. During a benefit at St. Clements Church Theater in Manhattan, Ms. Kowalchuk performed in the featured event "10 Brecht Poems," which she helped create, and in "Invisible Neighborhood," an NaCl street theater work-in-progress held in Manhattan, Brooklyn and in city parks this summer.

The Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater of Kyiv (Mykhailo Zakharevych, director), with Ukraine's leading actor Bohdan Stupka in the title role, brought "Tevye" to the U.S. in a Ukrainian production. The two-act play, based on Sholom Aleichem's story of Jewish life in Ukraine in the early 20th century, was staged on August 2 and 3 at Brooklyn's Millennium Theater in Brighton Beach. The tour closed in Chicago on August 4.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 12, 2003, No. 2, Vol. LXXI

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