NEW RELEASE: Roman Hurko's "Liturgy No. 2" (02/08/04)

NEW RELEASE: Roman Hurko's "Liturgy No. 2"

TORONTO - Right Angel Records, a Canadian label specializing in sacred choral music, has released Roman Hurko's third CD, "Liturgy No. 2 (The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom)."

Mr. Hurko is a Toronto-based composer and opera stage director, having worked with Placido Domingo, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Andrea Bocelli and film directors Atom Egoyan and Werner Herzog, among others.

"Liturgy No. 2" is his third major composition of sacred choral music, following the critically acclaimed "Liturgy 2000" and "Requiem for the Victims of Chornobyl" (2001).

Colleen Johnston of The Record, reviewing "Requiem for the Victims of Chornobyl," wrote: "Hurko's Requiem is profoundly moving. Written in an unmistakable style, employing slow harmonic chords, rich hovering melodic expanses, text-driven phrasings, ... audience response nearly blew the roof off St. Matthew's."

Writing in The Ukrainian Weekly, Bohdan Markiw said of Mr. Hurko's "Requiem": "The melodic lines are sustained and unadorned; the harmony, beyond select suspensions, is free of dissonance. Brimming with meditative phrases, this work takes on a celestial quality."

Mr. Hurko also composed the music for two plays for the Yara Arts Group at La Mama Experimental Theater Club in New York City: "A Light from the East" (1990) and "Explosions" (1992). In 1999, he co-directed Prokofiev's "War and Peace" with Gian Carlo Menotti at the Spoleto Festival (Italy). Most recently, he directed Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" for the Vancouver Opera.

"Liturgy No. 2" premiered on August 24, 2003, at St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv, where it was performed by the world-renowned Vydubychi Church Chorus, conducted by Volodymyr Viniar.

Mr. Hurko's CDs are available through the Canadian Music Center, www.musiccentre.ca. To order CDs or video, readers may also visit the website www.romanhurko.com or contact: 580 Christie Street, Toronto, Ontario M6G 3E3; telephone, 416-569-8075; e-mail, rightangelrecords@yahoo.ca.

| Home Page |