2005: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Culture and the arts: compendium from A to T

The outstanding event in the sphere of culture and the arts for the year 2005 - which signaled a milestone in the cultural life of the Ukrainian diaspora in North America as well as constituted an important event on New York City's art scene - was the inaugural exhibition "Alexander Archipenko: Vision and Continuity," that opened the new building of The Ukrainian Museum in New York City on April 3. The Ukrainian Museum has been a leading promoter of Ukrainian art and culture, serving its broad constituency as part of New York City's cultural community for over 28 years.

Highlights of this year's events in the sphere of culture and the arts, as recorded in The Weekly, appear below listed by category.

Architecture

The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos, designed in 1992 by Ukrainian Canadian architect Radoslav Zuk, was completed after years of planning and construction. The church was designed by the internationally recognized architect and professor of architecture at McGill University in Montreal for the parish community of the city of Sykhiv, which forms part of greater Lviv. The Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos is Prof. Zuk's 10th church design, and the first to be built in Ukraine, in a project undertaken in association with Mistoproekt Institute in Lviv. The Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos was featured in the August issue of the journal Baumeister: Zeitschrift für Architektur in an article titled "Einfach complex" (Simply Complex). Prof. Zuk also participated in the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Architekturgalerie in Munich, a premiere venue for the exhibition of architectural design work and a forum for discussion on contemporary architecture and related fields. In 1996 a traveling exhibition featuring his design of Ukrainian churches in North America and museum projects in Ukraine was held at the Architekturgalerie and an exhibition catalogue was published as part of the gallery's monograph series. At this year's anniversary exhibition, held April 7-May 7, Prof. Zuk presented his 1994 project for the expansion of the National Museum of Ukrainian Art in Kyiv (now known as the National Fine Arts Museum of Ukraine).

The "Building Faith" documentary series, an in-depth look at the architectural traditions of 13 local religious communities in the Toronto area, which was produced for OMNI Television, included an episode on Ukrainian church architecture. The three churches featured in the episode were St. Demetrius Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Long Branch, Ontario, (1958), Yuriy Kodak, architect; St. Elias the Prophet Ukrainian Catholic Church, Brampton, Ontario, (1995), Robert Greenberg, architect; and, Holy Eucharist Ukrainian Catholic Church, Toronto, (1967), Radoslav Zuk, architect. Each of the 13 episodes was broadcast in two languages: English and the dominant language of the local faith community. Consultant to the program and narrator of the Ukrainian-language segment was architect Walter Daschko of Toronto. The series aired on September 3 and ran through December 5. The segment with Ukrainian narration was shown October 8 and 13; the English narration, November 19 and 20. The series was produced by Angus Skene, architect and director of Rewind Inc., in collaboration with producer Catherine Drillis.

Art

The inaugural exhibition "Alexander Archipenko: Vision and Continuity" opened the new building of The Ukrainian Museum in New York City on April 3, showcasing some 65 sculptures and sculpto-paintings by the Kyiv-born Ukrainian émigré artist, recognized as a major figure of 20th century art. The majority of the works on display were from the collection of Frances Archipenko Gray, the artist's widow and president of the Alexander Archipenko Foundation, with other works from a number of private collections and museums, including the Brooklyn Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and the Yale University Art Gallery. Guest curator of the exhibition was Dr. Jaroslaw Leshko, professor emeritus of art history at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. The exhibition was organized around four dominant concepts operative in the work of the artist: "Form and Space," "Motion and Stasis," "Construction, Materials, Color" and "Content into Form." Exhibit installation was by New York architects Michael Moore and Yoshiko Sato. An illustrated catalogue, featuring a comprehensive essay by Dr. Leshko, came out in a bilingual, English-Ukrainian, edition. The Archipenko exhibition was augmented with a variety of public programming, including tours, gallery talks, a lecture series, a symposium and a full range of educational material for teachers, students and families. Reviews of the inaugural exhibition were carried, among others, in the following press: The New York Times, The New York Sun, The Villager, Time Out New York, The Record, Bergen County, N.J.; Herald News, Trenton, N.J. The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.; Kultur, Sweden; Svoboda and Meest, as well as on the websites of NY Arts and Ukraina Moloda. Extensive coverage of the inaugural exhibition and museum opening appeared in the March 27 and April 16 issues of The Ukrainian Weekly.

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) in Chicago presented the body of work of artist Aka Pereyma in a comprehensive exhibition of the artist's drawings, watercolors, oils, mixed media, sculptures and ceramics - underscoring the artist's significant contribution to contemporary Ukrainian art and culture, and art in general. Titled "Aka Pereyma, 40 Years of Creativity: 1965-2005," the exhibition was held at the UIMA on April 10-May 22. An exhibition catalogue, printed in Ukrainian as a publication of Fine Arts Magazine, Kyiv, with Mykola Marechevskyy, editor, appeared in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition. In her work Ms. Pereyma draws on the richness of Ukrainian cultural traditions and art forms, including folk art, as a source of inspiration, giving it contemporary expression. Reflections on the artist, who resides in Troy, Ohio, appeared in the April 3 issue of The Weekly, written by Christina Pereyma O'Neal, Ms. Pereyma's daughter and an artist, and Chicago artists Liala Kucma, chair of the UIMA Art Committee and organizer of the exhibition; and Alexandra D. Kochman, UIMA member.

Painter and graphic artist Jacques Hnizdovsky (1915-1985) - one of the foremost woodcut artists in America, whose creative legacy forms a valuable part of the permanent collections of leading American museums and institutions, and, since 1990, the museums of Ukraine - was reburied in Ukraine in accordance with his last wishes. The urn with the artist's ashes was transferred from the columbarium of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City to Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, where reburial took place on November 5. A commemorative art exhibition of Hnizdovsky's works opened at the National Museum of Lviv, where it was on view November 5-December 31. The 50 works that were on exhibit had been donated to the National Museum of Lviv, the National Fine Arts Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv and the Ternopil Regional Museum by Stefanie Hnizdovsky, the artist's widow, and Mira Hnizdovsky, the artist's daughter; they now form part of the museums' permanent collections. A bilingual, English-Ukrainian, exhibition catalogue titled "Jacques Hnizdovsky" and subtitled, "Commemorative exhibition held on the occasion of the reburial of the artist in his ancestral homeland and on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the day of his birth" accompanied the exhibition.

The exhibition, "The Sun, The Tree of Life and The Goddess: Symbolic Motifs in Ukrainian Folk Art" opened at The Ukrainian Museum on November 23 as the second inaugural exhibition held as part of the celebratory program marking the opening of the museum's new building in New York City. The exhibit draws on the museum's extensive folk art collection, showcasing over 100 artifacts - embroidered and woven textiles, ceramics, woodwork, metal work, pysanky (Easter eggs) and holiday and ritual breads. Curator for the exhibition is Lubow Wolynetz, curator of the museum's Folk Art Collection. Consultants to the exhibition were Dr. Natalia Kononenko, professor of Slavic languages and literature at the University of Virginia, and Dr. Ludmyla Bulhakova, folklorist and chief curator at the Museum of Ethnography in Lviv. A bilingual, English-Ukrainian, illustrated catalogue accompanied the exhibition. The exhibition was designed by Natalie Fizer and Glenn Forley of Fizer Forley, a New York-based research and design office. The exhibit will be on view through September 2006. An installation titled, "Still the River Flows: A Glimpse into Winter Solstice and Christmas Rituals in a Carpathian Village," which echoes the themes of the museum's exhibition, was opened to the public on December 11. The installation was a collaborative effort, conceived by Virlana Tkacz and Watoku Ueno of the Yara Arts Group, with filmmaker Andrea Odezynska, photographer Alexander Khantaev and poet-translator Wanda Phipps.

The book, "Painted Wood: Naive Art of the Ukrainian Village," was awarded first prize at the National Ukrainian Book Forum in Lviv. The book, published in separate Ukrainian and English editions by Rodovid Press of Kyiv, was written in Ukrainian by the prominent Ukrainian ethnographer Lidia Orel and translated into English by Winnipeg writer and translator Orysia Tracz. The two books were launched last year in Winnipeg at McNally-Robinson Booksellers.

The National Museum of Lviv was renamed in accordance with a decree issued by President Viktor Yushchenko, after its founder and benefactor, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, former metropolitan of Halych, in a ceremony held on December 15, that marked the naming of the museum and the museum's 100th anniversary. A jubilee exhibition opened on December 19 to commemorate the history of the museum, as well as many of its contributors and benefactors, foremost among them Metropolitan Sheptytsky.

Dance

A jubilee celebration and concert titled "100 Years of Pavlo Virsky," marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary Ukrainian choreographer Pavlo Virksy (1905-1975) was presented in Toronto on April 17 by the Desna Ukrainian Dance Company of Toronto and the International Summer School of Ukrainian Dance in Kyiv. The event featured Ukrainian dance companies from across Canada, as well as alumni of the world-renowned dance company, currently under the direction of Myroslav Vantukh. Guests of honor at the event included Valeria Virsky, widow of the famed choreographer and former dancer, and Gregory Chapkin, Merited Artist of Ukraine and one of the oldest alumni of the Virsky troupe.

The Hromovytsia Ukrainian Dance Ensemble of Chicago, under the artistic direction of Roxana Dykyj-Pylypczak, celebrated its 25th anniversary with a jubilee concert held at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts on March 20. The concert featured the core ensemble as well as the troupe's youth division in an almost all-new repertoire performing before a most enthusiastic, sold-out audience. On April 4 Hromovytsia took part in welcoming President Viktor Yushchenko and his wife, Kateryna, to Chicago.

Film

A retrospective of the work of Kira Muratova, titled "Take No Prisoners: The Bold Vision of Kira Muratova," featuring eight of the Odesa-based filmmaker's full-length feature films dating from 1967-2004, was held at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater in New York, February 25-March 10. While six out of the eight films of the Romanian-born filmmaker shown in the retrospective were either entirely produced in Ukraine or were joint Russian-Ukrainian productions, the retrospective's program presented all of them as Russian. In his February 27 critical review, Dr. Yuri Shevchuk, director of the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University and lecturer of Ukrainian language and culture at Columbia, challenged the rationale offered by Alla Verlotsky, director of Seagull Films and organizer of the retrospective, denying that there was anything Ukrainian in Muratova's work, concluding that "It is the tenacity of imperialist attitudes that are so manifest in the curatorial decisions of the retrospective's organizers."

The Ukrainian Film Club, which has been in existence since 2004 under the direction of Dr. Shevchuk, continued to hold monthly screenings of classic and recent productions in an effort to foster interest in Ukrainian cinema in the West, provide exposure for Ukraine-based film directors and facilitate director-viewer interaction via the club's Internet site.

As part of its program the club presented three short-length films: Taras Tomenko's "Shooting Gallery" (2001) and "Parched Land" (2004), and Taras Tkachenko's "Tragic Love for Flighty Nuska" (2004), based on Yuri Vynnychenko's short story "A Grenade for Two." Both directors attended the event and engaged in a post-screening discussion with the audience. The Ukrainian Film Club continued to engage leading filmmakers in the discussion of Ukrainian and world cinema, with Dr. Shevchuk having conducted interviews with Polish film, theater and opera director Krzysztof Zanussi and American director Peter Bogdanovich. The interview with the latter was conducted as part of a project initiated by the Ukrainian film magazine Kino-Kolo. These, and other, inteviews were posted on the film club's website.

Ukraine's debut at the Cannes Film Festival held May 11-22 in France also brought the country its first prize. The film, "Podorozhni" (Wayfarers), which was shot by Ihor Strembitsky, 32, was awarded the prestigious Palme d'Or in the short film division at the festival. Mr. Strembitsky was also recognized individually, receiving the Norman McLaren Prize. Work on the film, three years in the making, included overcoming such adversities as lack of adequate film, the director having to act as his own cameraman, and having his wife serve as his producer and scriptwriter. Upon completion, the film was mailed out of Kyiv at the cost of 20 hrv to Cannes.

This year's Molodist International Film Festival, held in Kyiv on October 22-30, launched the inaugural cinema market "Kinorynok Molodist." Taking part in the event were 21 film producers and distributors, representing 100 films. For the first time, Ukrainian distributors signed contracts directly with the owners to the film rights. In the past Ukrainian distributors had little choice but to buy films from Russian distributors in Moscow, with the films dubbed exclusively in Russian. Molodist was founded in 1970 by the Filmmakers Union of Ukraine; by 1993 it had evolved into the Molodist International Film Festival.

The documentary film "Light From the East," which chronicles Yara Arts Group's first trip to Ukraine in 1991 as part of a cultural exchange project that focused on the life of the renowned theater director Les Kurbas (1887-circa 1942), had its premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival on March 14 at the Dobie Theater. The film was written, directed and produced by American actress and filmmaker Amy Grappel, a member of Yara Arts Group at la MaMa Theater in New York City, with Christian Moore, producer and director of photography. At the time of their stay, Yara Arts members were witness to the momentous events that transpired with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's declaration of independence. Executive producer for the film was Michael Bleyzer in association with Strike Productions.

"Zimove Vesilya" (Snowblink), a new Ukrainian film co-directed by Andrij Parekh and Sophie Barthes, was shown as part of New York's Tribeca Film Festival in the short film category. Screenings were held on April 25 and 30 at the Regal Battery Theater. A Minnesota native of Ukrainian and Indian descent, Mr. Parekh, recently named one out of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine (summer 2004), studied cinematography at the FAMU film school at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He has made more than 50 films, music videos and commercials, many of which have won awards. His "Mertvyi Piven" (Dead Roosters), shot in Ukraine, won the Grand Marnier Prize at the New York Film Festival (2004) and the Future Filmmaker Award at the Palm Spring Film Festival (2004).

Andrea Odezynska's new film, "The Whisperer," had its premiere at a special screening at La MaMa's Annex Theater in New York City on September 24. A 30-minute documentary, the film explores Ms. Odezynska's journey to a small village in western Ukraine, where she has an unexpected encounter with a village healer that changes the course of her life. The film, directed by Brooklyn-based Ms. Odezynska, with Kathryn Barnier, film producer/editor, opened the 15th anniversary celebrations of Yara Arts Group, a resident company at La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York. Ms. Odezynska, a graduate of the American Film Institute, is a professor of film at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her comedy film "Dora Was Dysfunctional" won her an award at the Hamptons and Rotterdam international film festivals.

Eugene Hutz, founder and frontman of the New York-based Gogol Bordello band, and Laryssa Lauret (Laryssa Lysniak), the well-known Ukrainian TV and Broadway actress, appeared in the role of Alex and Lista, respectively, in the film "Everything Is Illuminated" - a tale of a young man's quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather in a small Ukrainian town that suffered destruction at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. What starts out as a journey to piece together one family's story under absurd circumstances turns into a surprisingly meaningful journey with a powerful series of revelations. Mr. Hutz, who was initially invited to provide the music score for the film, appears in the film opposite actor Elijah Wood ("Lord of the Rings"). Originally from Kyiv, Mr. Hutz has been living since 1998 in New York, where his band has became an integral part of New York's art and club scene. His music, dubbed "gypsy punk," draws on his cultural inheritance of the Transcarpathian region, especially the Roma people, as well as contemporary Western music. "Everything is Illuminated," which was released in August by Hollywood's Warner Independent studio, is based on the eponymously titled novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Actress Vera Farmiga's recent roles in top independent films have secured her a spot as a legitimate, up-and-coming actress whose acting, according to film directors Anthony Minghella and Wayne Kramer, bears a distinct resemblance to the likes of Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett. Ms. Farmiga's strong performance in "Down to the Bone," an independent film currently in theaters, secured her top roles in future productions, such as the upcoming Minghella film, "Breaking & Entering," in which she plays opposite Jude Law, and "The Departed," a Martin Scorsese film featuring Ms. Farmiga acting alongside Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. The New Jersey-born and -reared Ms. Farmiga, an active member with close ties to the Ukrainian community, is featured in an interview, titled "Drama Queen," with Elle magazine in its January 2006 issue, which hit newsstands in December.

Literature

Since its founding in 1990, Yara Arts Group, a resident company at La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York, has consistently explored new ways to present Ukrainian poetry - from ancient folk incantations to the newest writers working today - in the process, taking Ukrainian poetry to a new level of visibility. This year Virlana Tkacz, founding director of Yara, and her long-time collaborator, African American poet Wanda Phipps, received the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Translation Literary Fellowship. The fellowship has enabled them to translate into English the work of Serhiy Zhadan, a leading poet of the post-independence generation in Ukraine. Mr. Zhadan's work speaks to the disillusionment, difficulties and ironies of life in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The translators' latest project was the translation of ancient winter solstice songs, or "koliady," from the Carpathians, which were subsequently used in Yara's theater piece, "Koliada: Twelve Dishes" held at La MaMa in March. Contemporary scenes used in the production were written by Mr. Zhadan.

Ukrainian writer Yuri Andrukhovych's third novel "Perverzion" (1996) appeared in English translation by Michael M. Naydan as a publication of Northwestern University Press in its "Writings from an Unbound Europe" series. One of Ukraine's leading writers of today, Mr. Andrukhovych emerged as the patriarch of the Bu-Ba-Bu literary performance group that spearheaded the renaissance of Ukrainian literary culture in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. He is recipient of the Herder Prize (2001), the Antonovych Prize and the Erich Maria Remarque Prize. Michael M. Naydan is professor of Slavic languages and literatures at The Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of numerous books, articles and reviews on literary topics and a translator of works of poetry and prose from Ukrainian, Russian and Romanian. The translated novel carries an introduction by Prof. Naydan.

Six Ukrainian American and Canadian writers - Jars Balan, Halyna Hryn, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Myrna Kostash, Askold Melnyczuk and Irene Zabytko took part in a conference of the Association of Writers and Publishers held in Vancouver on April 2. At a conference panel titled, "Umbilical Ukraine: Canadian and American Writers of Ukrainian Descent Confront the Mother Country in Fiction and Memoir," the authors reflected upon their identities, diasporic ties and frequent journeys to Ukraine as a source and resource for their writing. The writers were also invited to address members of Vancouver's Ukrainian community at an event held at St. Mary's Ukrainian Catholic Center, where they read excerpts from their work and reflected on the role of their Ukrainian heritage in their writing.

Victor Morozov, one-time member of the inimitable Ne Zhurys ensemble in the days of Ukraine's pre-independence, has continued in his crusade to promote the Ukrainian language - this time, through the translation of J. K. Rowling's best-selling "Harry Potter" series into Ukrainian. Given the book's global appeal and the dearth of captivating Ukrainian-language books for children, his initial plan was to produce a Ukrainian translation before the Russian version was published, so that even in the Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine there would be a demand for the book. However, difficulties with translation rights as well as finding a publisher foiled his original plans for the first four books of the series. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian translation of the fifth book, "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix," not only beat the Russian version by three months but was, in fact, the first translation of the book in Europe. Many children liked the fifth Ukrainian-language book so much that they wanted to read the previous Ukrainian-language Potter volumes. The Ukrainian version of the sixth volume, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," was published on October 6. To meet the frantic demand, Ukrainian booksellers bought up 70,000 copies of the sixth volume before its official presentation in Kyiv at the Ukrayinskyi Dim by Ivan Malkovych, writer and the director of the publishing house, A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA. Mr. Morozov credits the Harry Potter series for contributing to children's interest in reading books, after years of being mesmerized by computer games and television. In a country where a Ukrainian-language book selling 5,000 copies is considered a best-seller, Mr. Morozov's translations of the first five Harry Potter books together have sold over 300,000 copies.

The Ukrainian Weekly informed its readers of the existence of Poetry International Web-Ukraine - an English-text site, with poetry in the original and in English translation, that serves to promote Ukrainian poetry worldwide. Editor for PIW-Ukraine is Kateryna Botanova. The site, http://Ukraine.poetryinternational.org, offers personal pagesites of such leading contemporary Ukrainian poets, writers and essayists as Yuri Andrukhovych, Natalka Bilotserkivets, Andriy Bondar, Halyna Krouk, Oleh Lysheha, Ivan Malkovych, Mykola Ryabchuk, Oksana Zabuzhko and Serhiy Zhadan.

Ukrainian émigré poet Vasyl Makhno was featured in the May issue of PIW-Ukraine. A native of Chortkiv in the Ternopil region, Prof. Makhno taught at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow in the late 1990s before moving to New York in 2000, where he is resident poet at the Shevchenko Scientific Society, and coordinates and conducts the society's guest lecture series and special events. Intent on establishing contacts with fellow poets, as well as keeping abreast of contemporary currents in poetry worldwide, Prof. Makhno had the opportunity to attend international poetry gatherings in Serbia and Romania. He has compiled the anthology, "Deviatdesiatnyky: Antolohiia Novoi Ukrainskoi Poezii" (Poets of the Nineties: An Anthology of New Ukrainian Poetry, 1998); his most recent collection of verse is titled "38 Virshiv Pro Niu York i Deshcho Inshe" (38 Poems About New York and Other Things, Kyiv: Krytyka, 2004). To date, Prof. Makhno has published six collections of his poetry in Ukrainian, of which two have appeared in Polish translation. Prof. Makhno's poetry has appeared in Polish, Russian, German and Serbian anthologies of Slavic and Ukrainian poetry, and his work has been translated into German and Romanian and, most recently, into English.

Alexander J. Motyl's first book of fiction, the novel "Whiskey Priest" (Universe Inc., New York, Lincoln, Shanghai, 2005) was launched in New York at the Ukrainian Institute of America and the Shevchenko Scientific Society. "Whiskey Priest" is set in the sordid milieu of former KGB spies-turned-hit men for the mafia, money laundering, grant money embezzlement and the international sex trade - with characters on the move between Kyiv, Lviv, Vienna and New York. Although having a good smattering of social satire as well, the genre of Motyl's novel is the hard-hitting crime story, more specifically, the pulp fiction novels of Spillane and Chandler, albeit set in the sordid post-Soviet milieu. Dr. Motyl is professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark, as well as a painter. A review of the book by Oksana Zakydalsky appeared in the July 24 issue of The Weekly.

The Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko, Andriy Hladyshevsky, president, announced that the inaugural Kobzar Literary Award, with a prize of $25,000, will be presented in 2006. The award, to be presented every two years - with $20,000 to the author and $5,000 to the publisher - recognizes a Canadian writer who best presents a Ukrainian Canadian theme with literary merit through poetry, play, screenplay, musical, fiction, non-fiction or young people's literature. The list of finalists for the award is to be released on January 16, with the inaugural winner to be announced on March 2 at a dinner and awards ceremony to be held at Toronto's Eglinton Grand. The judging panel for the 2006 Kobzar Literary Award comprises: Myrna Kostash, journalist and non-fiction author; Mieko Ouchi, actor, writer and director for theater, film and television; Bill Richardson, writer and CBC broadcaster; and Antanas Sileika, journalist and fiction author, artistic director of the Humber School of Writers.

Music

British-born international opera singer, bass-baritone Pavlo Hunka, 45, was in Toronto this year, where he appeared as Alberich in the Canadian Opera Company's (COC) production of Wagner's "Siegfried" (January 27-February 1). Mr. Hunka has sung in more than 50 operas, including in 30 major operatic roles in the world's leading opera houses in Paris, Vienna, Munich, Florence, Amsterdam, Madrid, London and Salzburg, and has performed under the baton of such eminent conductors as Claudio Abbado, Jeffrey Tate, Peter Schneider and Zubin Mehta. Mr. Hunka, who has been hailed as "one of the great singing actors of our time" by COC's General Director Richard Bradshaw, will be performing in several leading COC roles in Toronto over the next five years. In England, Mr. Hunka promotes Ukrainian music as artistic director of the Coventry-based Bulava Choir, which performs Ukrainian folk, classical and religious works. While in Toronto, Mr. Hunka, who had conducted an Art of Singing Master Class organized by the local Ukrainian Canadian community, also made known his project to record the music of Ukrainian composers, including the art songs of Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912) and Kyrylo Stesenko (1882-1922), the latter with world-renowned pianist Albert Krywolt. A feature on the opera singer, penned by Olena Wawryshyn, appeared in the January 23 issue of The Weekly.

Soprano Maria Guleghina and bass Vitalij Kowaljow, two Ukrainian-born soloists, were featured in the Washington National Opera's inaugural performance held September 17, marking the company's golden anniversary and season opening with Verdi's opera "I Vespri Siciliani." Ms. Guleghina appeared as Elena and Mr. Kowaljow as Procida. Ms. Guleghina, a native of Odesa, began her career with the Miensk Opera in 1985 and since then has appeared in the world's leading opera houses, including frequent performances with the Metropolitan Opera since 1990 and with the Washington National Opera since 2002. Mr. Kowaljow was born in Cherkasy, and since winning the Placido Domingo Operalia Competition in 1999, has appeared throughout Europe and the United States, including frequent performances at the Metropolitan Opera.

Soprano Irena Welhasch Baerg and baritone Theodore Baerg, launched their new album, "La Mystique d'Amour" at Windermere Manor in London, Ontario, offering a retrospective of their individual, yet converging operatic careers, in an album featuring music by Claude Debussy sung by Ms. Welhasch Baerg, and that of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel sung by Mr. Baerg. Mrs. Welhasch Baerg's engagements include L'Opéra de Nice and the Canadian Opera Company. This summer Mr. Baerg, who heads the opera division at the University of Western Ontario, appeared in performance at the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Bass-baritone Taras Kulish, who made his Canadian opera debut in 1992 as a member of the Montreal Opera young artists' ensemble, appeared this year in return engagements with, among others, the Opera Lyra Ottawa in "The Tales of Hoffman"; the Manitoba Opera in "Rigoletto" and "La Bohème"; and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra as bass soloist in Nielsen's 3rd Symphony. Forming part of Mr. Kulish's general repertoire are the songs of Bohdan Wesolowsky (1915-1971), whose oeuvre, some 150 songs, comprise an array of tangos, foxtrots, waltzes and rumbas composed between 1930 and 1970. While on a working visit to Winnipeg, Mr. Kulish appeared in recital on November 6 at the Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Education Center, presenting a program of operatic arias, as well as songs by Wesolowsky. Mr. Kulish, who is in the process of doing a CD recording of a selection of Mr. Wesolowsky's songs, plans to undertake a tour of Canada and the United States with this repertoire.

Pianist Nadia Shpachenko was featured in The Phillips Collection lecture-music recital program "Music and Modigliani," held on February 27 in Washington in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition "Modigliani: Beyond The Myth." The concert program comprised piano pieces by Erik Satie, Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc who were part of Modigliani's bohemian circle in Paris's Montparnasse. The Ukrainian-born pianist emigrated to the United States in the mid-1990s where she completed her master's and doctor of musical arts degree at the University of Southern California. Currently, Ms. Shpachenko is associate professor of piano at the Shepherd University School of Music and a visiting faculty member at Pomona College.

The Canadian piano duo of Luba and Ireneus Zuk completed a two-week concert tour of China, which took place on November 8-23, as part of an initiative to promote cultural relations between Canada and China. The tour, which comprised eight performances in six cities in various provinces of China, was organized by the Performance Department of Huihuang Business and Advertising Co. of China and supported by the Arts Promotion Division of Foreign Affairs, Canada, and the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. The concert tour featured performances by the Zuk Duo in Shijiazhuang, Guangzhou, Changxing, Beijing, Guiyang and Kunming. The duo's concert program included works by Max Bruch, Johann Nepomuck Hummel, Franz Liszt, Yannis Constantinides, Arvo Pärt, Myroslaw Skoryk, and Canadian composers Clermont Pépin, Violet Archer and Roger Matton. The Zuks, who are professors at McGill and Queen's universities, respectively, also visited academic institutions, giving master classes and meeting with faculty at Shijiazhuang College, the Changxing Grand Theater, the University for Ethnic Minorities in Guizhou and the University for Art and Music in Kunming. The piano duo also appeared in a special concert held on November 14 at the Ambassador's Residence of the Canadian Embassy in Beijing.

"Music at the Institute," sponsored by the Ukrainian Institute of America (Mykola Suk, artistic director), presented the following five concerts in New York City as part of the institute's 16th-17th classical music concert season: Valida Rassoulova-Suk, piano (January 22); Cerberus Trio - Mykola Suk, piano, Byron Tauchi, violin, and Andrew Smith, cello (February 19); "Music at the Grazhda" Chamber Music Society," Volodymyr Vynnytsky, artistic director, Solomiya Ivakhiv, violin, Yuri Kharenko, violin, Randolph Kelly, viola, Natalia Khoma, cello, Mr. Vynnytsky, piano (March 19); The program "Mostly Beethoven," with Julius Berger, cello, Marina Strum, clarinet, and Mr. Suk, piano (April 16); and, the Colorado String Quartet, with Mr. Suk, piano (December 3).

The Sunday Music Series sponsored by The Washington Group Cultural Fund (Svitlana Fedko Shiells, director), under the patronage of the Embassy of Ukraine presented the following five concerts and two events as part of its 11th season: Mariana Sadovska, vocal artist and folklorist (February 13); Juliana Osinchuk, piano (March 13); Cerberus Piano Trio (May 20) The Continuum Music Ensemble - Joel Sachs, piano; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; and Airi Yoshioka, violin, in a program devoted exclusively to works of 20th century Ukrainian composers: Borys Liatoshynsky, Valentin Sylvestrov, Leonid Hrabovsky, Virko Baley, Alexander Shchetynsky, and Valentin Bibik (October 16); and, Solomiya Ivakhiv, violin (November 13). Two other events forming part of the Cultural Fund's programming were a lecture on Ukrainian jazz by Larry Applebaum, jazz specialist and senior studio engineer at the Library of Congress (January 27) and an exhibition of works by the late artist Jacques Hnizdovsky (May 26).

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago (Oleh Koverko, president; Lubomyr Krushelnycky, UIMA Music Committee Chairman) presented the following four concerts as part of the institute's 14th classical music concert series: Oksana Krovytska, soprano (February 6); Oleh Krysa, violin, and Tatiana Tchekina, piano (March 6); Yuri Kharenko, violin, Natalia Khoma, cello, and Volodymyr Vynnytsky, piano (October 16); and Dana Pomerants-Mazurkevich, violin, and Yuri Mazurkevich, violin, with Aidas Puodziukas, piano (December 4).

"Music at the Grazhda" (Volodymyr Vynnytsky, artistic director), presented the following seven concerts as part of its 23rd summer concert season, held on July 16-September 3 under the auspices of Music and Art Center of Greene County in Jewett, N.Y.: Lydia Artymiw, piano (July 16); Virlana Tkacz, artistic director, Yara Arts Group, and poet Wanda Phipps in a program of Ukrainian poetry in the original and in translation, titled "In Verse" (July 23); "Music at the Grazhda" Chamber Music Society - Alexandre Brussilovsky, violin, Solomiya Ivakhiv, violin, Borys Deviatov, viola, Natalia Khoma, cello, and Mr. Vynnytsky, piano (July 30); Oksana Krovytska, soprano (August 6); Iryna Krechkovsky, violin, and Marta Krechkovsky, violin, with Kevin Kwan Loucks, piano (August 13); Yuri Kharenko, violin, Mr. Vynnytsky, piano, in a program titled "A Viennese Evening" (August 27); and Vladimir Viardo, piano (September 3).

Accordionist Chango Spasiuk, a third-generation Ukrainian Argentinean, who refers to his Ukrainian heritage as a source of influence for his music, has garnered continued public attention since 1988, going on to establish himself as an Argentinean folk virtuoso. Playing in a musical style native to Argentina, dubbed "chamamé," Mr. Spasiuk uses elements of chamamé - an accordion-based derivative of tango, with various other forms of South American and African styles. Mr. Spasiuk's albums have been noted by The New York Times, BBC Radio and other prominent news media. His latest release was "Tarafero de Mis Pagos."

Ukrainian vocal artist, composer and folklorist Mariana Sadovska, who specializes in little-known songs and rituals from rural Ukrainian villages, led the San Francisco Bay Area Women's Vocal Ensemble Kitka on a three-week performance tour and research expedition of Ukraine on June 12-July 4. The tour, which included visits to the rural villages of Svarytsevychi, Havronschyna and Kriachkivka, as well as larger cultural centers such as Kyiv and Lviv, offered the group opportunities to collaborate with professional folk singers, village musicians, choral directors and contemporary theater artists, as well as to gather stories and songs from village elders and perform in concert with Ukraine's premier folk singers and ensembles. As part of the tour, festival-style anchor performances, titled "Enchantment Songs," were held in Lviv (June 17) and Kyiv (July 1). The tour was documented by New York-based videographer and director Lars Jan.

The Kule Chair in Ukrainian Ethnography and the Ukrainian Folkore Center of the University of Alberta sponsored a visit by Michael Taft, head of the Archive of Folk Culture at the American Folklore Center of the United States Library of Congress on March 16. While at the University of Alberta, Dr. Taft examined the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives, assessing preservation and indexing procedures. On March 17, Dr. Taft gave a public lecture titled "The Ethnographic Archive in the 21st Century." Among Dr. Taft's most notable current projects is "Save Our Sounds," a U.S.-wide effort to digitize and preserve folksong recordings. Dr. Taft and an international team of folklorists are also working on a thesaurus to facilitate digital information exchange.

A Kyivan Liturgy Symposium was held in Chicago in early October as part of the Festival of Kyivan Liturgical Music. The symposium examined the development of liturgical music in Ukraine in the ancient, classical and modern eras. Among presenters at the symposium were Archbishop Oleksander Bykovets of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, Archbishop Vsevolod Majdanski of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A.; Prof. Lawrence Ewashko, choral studies professor at the University of Ottawa; and Dr. Vasil Truchly. The festival was held on the 120th anniversary of the birth of Prof. Ivan Truchly, an eminent Ukrainian choral conductor and an expert on the Kyivan liturgical tradition, whose book of notation and research, titled "Liturgy," was recently published by his son, Dr. Truchly. The Festival of Kyivan Liturgical Music was organized to rectify the problem of neglect of liturgical music in the Soviet era and the lack of adequate support in the Ukrainian diaspora that has contributed to its decline. The two-day festival included a concert of liturgical and folk music presented by four Chicago Ukrainian choirs and two ensembles, with Dr. Truchly serving as conductor of the Festival Choir. Full text documents of the lectures delivered at the symposium, as well as a list of liturgical compositions by Ukrainian composers were made available via the e-mail address kyivliturgyfest@aol.com. A feature on the symposium and festival, written by Maria Kulczycky, appeared in the December 25 issue of The Weekly.

Ukrainian jazz was the subject of an extensive report by Larry Appelbaum, a jazz specialist and senior studio engineer at the Library of Congress, who posted his findings on the art form on the Internet, on the site www.jazzhouse.org. The report came about as a result of Mr. Appelbaum's research trip to Ukraine, undertaken in November 2004, during which he met with jazz musicians, composers, technicians, journalists, students and fans in Kyiv and Lviv. As part of his engagements, Mr. Appelbaum spoke about contemporary developments in jazz at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy and met with his counterparts at the Ukrainian National Library. As part of his report Mr. Appelbaum noted that while Ukrainian jazz musicians are taking the genre in their own unique direction, their music is almost completely unknown in the United States and there is no outlet for Ukrainian artists' CDs here. Mr. Appelbaum's trip was organized by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to launch its 2004-2005 "Open Lands" music project. On January 27 Mr. Appelbaum shared his experiences and played some examples of contemporary Ukrainian jazz at a lecture and discussion held at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, organized by The Washington Group Cultural Fund. Selections of Ukrainian jazz were played on Mr. Appelbaum's radio jazz show, "The Sound of Surprise," on WPFW-FM.

Music recordings

The recording "Requiem for Larissa" by contemporary Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov was nominated for two of this year's Grammy awards in the category of best choral performance and best classical contemporary composition. Mr. Silvestrov composed the work for mixed choir and orchestra between 1997 and 1999, after the death in 1996 of his wife, musicologist Larissa Bondarenko. The work was recorded in Kyiv in 2001 with the Dumka Ukrainian National Choir (Yevhen Savchuk, choirmaster), and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (Volodymyr Sirenko, conductor). The recording was released by ECM Records in 2004.

The Detroit-based Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus (UBC), which travels the world with Ukraine's rich musical heritage, undertook a tour, after a 10-year hiatus, of western Canada this November. The UBS also undertook two projects, augmenting its extensive discography. Among this year's recording releases were "Bayda - A Tribute to Four Centuries of Kozak Heroism by the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus," which documents the chorus' historic repertoire. The recording was distributed in Ukraine, and to North American libraries and music institutions. Also released was a DVD and video of the chorus's 2003 tour of Europe. Photography editor for the project was the renowned James Ho Lim.

A project of chronicling immigration songs of the Lemkos, many of whom upon immigrating to the United States in the early 1920s had worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, resulted in the creation of a CD titled "Immigrant/Emihrant" featuring Lemko folk singer Julia Doszna. With the release of the album, which was recorded in the United States this year, Ms. Doszna, along with pianist David Libby, appeared in a performance of Lemko songs in New York City on September 8 as part of the events held at the Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia University. Initiator of the recording project was Brian Ardan of Lock Haven, Pa., faculty member in the Stevenson Library at Lock Haven University, who traveled to Polany and the greater Lemko region (located in current southeastern Poland) to collect and research Lemko songs with the aim of learning about his cultural heritage. The project was realized as a tribute to the early immigrants and to Mr. Ardan's grandfather, Stefan, who was born in the village of Polany and upon emigrating, worked in the coal mines in Marion Heights, Pa. Stephan was a grandfather whom Mr. Ardan never knew.

"Fragmenty," the latest compact disc by the Paris to Kyiv Ensemble, with Winnipeg's Alexis Kochan, principal vocalist, which was released this year, constitutes, in the words of reviewer Robert B. Klymasz, Ph.D., curator emeritus with the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec, "a powerful, beautifully crafted tribute to the Ukrainian lyrical folk song tradition and its overriding female dimensions: a rich sampling that underlines the plight of the woman in village society in a most eloquent way. These are haunting, poignant and often gut-wrenching songs nipped out of their Old Country setting and universalized." The recording which may be classified under "world music," includes 17 musical items presented in a characteristically innovative manner. "Fragmenty" was released by the Winnipeg-based Olesia Records; the CD booklet includes introductory remarks by Marcia Ostashewski, song texts in Ukrainian and interpretive notes and art-design by Ron Sawchuk.

Philanthropy

Ian Ihnatowycz, president and chief executive Officer of Acuity Funds Ltd. and Acuity Investment Management Inc., and his wife, optometrist Dr. Marta Witer, donated $5 million to the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) in an announcement made on November 17 by Florence Minz, chair of the RCM Board of Directors. The gift, made to the RCM's Building National Dreams Campaign, went toward providing funds to advance the construction of the RCM's new home, preserve the conservatory's heritage building, and fund a special Piano Scholars Program. In recognition of their generous contribution, the historic wing of the conservatory's TELUS Center for Performance and Learning - 124-year-old McMaster Hall and 104-year-old Mazzoleni Hall - will now collectively be known as Ihnatowycz Hall, and the scholars program will be known as the Ian Ihnatowycz Piano Scholars Program. It was also announced that Mr. Ihnatowycz would be joining the RCM Board of Directors.

Popular music

Ukraine hosted the finals of the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest at Kyiv's Sports Palace on May 21. Singers and rock bands from 24 nations competed in front of an international audience of 9,000 spectators and over 150 million television viewers worldwide. According to Mykola Tomenko, vice prime minister of humanitarian affairs, who was in charge of organizing the event, "This wasn't just a song competition, but above all a European presentation of Ukraine." Amid some controversy as to contestant status and eligibility, Ukraine was represented by Gryndzholy (Greenjolly) - the Ivano-Frankivsk trio. The group was brought into the contest, at the prompting of Ukraine's new government, directly into the final run-off; it had to rewrite its politically tinged hip-hop song "Razom Nas Bahato - Nas Ne Podolaty," which became the popular anthem of the Orange Revolution, as decreed by Eurovision executives or be eliminated from the competition. At Gryndzholy's performance the entire audience rose from their seats to clap, dance and sing along, finishing with rousing chants of "U-kra-yi-na." Despite the audience's enthusiasm, the group faired poorly in the international televoting. Helena Paparizou, a Swedish citizen representing Greece, won the competition with her song "My Number One" and was duly congratulated by President Viktor Yushchenko, who appeared on stage to offer congratulations. Eurovision's executive director, Svante Stockselius, expressed his satisfaction with the excellent organization and execution of the Eurovision festival.

With the release of its latest album, "Gloria" in September, Okean Elzy, one of Ukraine's leading rock bands, embarked on a tour, with concerts held in its hometown of Lviv in October and in Kyiv on November 15. The recording features lead singer Sviatoslav Vakarchuk and Denis Hlinin, with a changed line-up of newcomers Denis Dudko, Milosh and Petro Cherniavsky. The band, which has been in existence for nearly 17 years, has six albums to its credit, and its success has taken it beyond Ukraine's borders, with tours of Western Europe and Russia. Original band members included Pavlo Hudimo, lead guitarist, back-up vocalist and co-songwriter; Yurii Khustochka, bass guitarist; and Dmytro Shurov, keyboard player. Since last year's Orange Revolution, Mr. Vakarchuk has worked for President Viktor Yushchenko, who named him as a presidential advisor on youth issues in January.

Anthony Fedorov, a 20-year-old from Trevose, Pa., was one of the last four contestants, from the original 100,000 auditioners, vying for the title of this year's "American Idol," the popular reality show currently in its fourth season. As a toddler in Ukraine, Mr. Fedorov was diagnosed with a growth in his throat, underwent a series of surgeries in Moscow, with doctors ultimately telling him that he would never be able to speak again. Concurrent with his studies at Bucks County Community College, Mr. Fedorov is pursuing a singing career in New York City.

Photography

The retrospective exhibit, "Manufactured Landscape: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky," organized and circulated by the National Gallery of Canada, was shown throughout the year at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego (March 20-June 5), the Iris and B. Ferald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University in California (June 29-September 18) and at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York (September 23-December 11). The mid-career retrospective comprised 64 large color photographs taken from different series produced over the last 20 years. Mr. Burtynsky, a Ukrainian Canadian from St. Catharine's, Ontario, is a graduate of Ryerson Polytechnical University in Toronto and the founder of Toronto Image Works. He has become internationally known for his industrial and manufactured landscapes of astonishing but troubling beauty. His photographs form part of the collections of the leading world museums and art galleries. Mr. Burtynsky's numerous solo shows have been reviewed by Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, Art in America, Art Forum and Flash Art, among others. Mr. Burtynsky's book "Before the Flood," which documents the construction of the Three Gorges Dam project in China, won the Roloff Benny Photography Boook Award (2004). In his acceptance speech at the Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference held in Monterey, Calif., last year, Mr. Burtynsky, as one of the three winners of the inaugural TED prize which carries a honorarium of $100,000, proposed to use his art to open a global discussion about our ability to sustain the present pace of industrial development. In his own country, Mr. Burtynsky has been elected to the Royal Canadian Academy and has had the rare honor of having the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa organize a traveling retrospective exhibition of his work. A feature on Mr. Burtynsky, written by Alexandra Hawryluk, appeared in the October 16 issue of The Weekly.

An exhibition of photographs by Vera Elyjiw Sytch, titled "Scenes of Village Life in Ukraine," documenting a trip to Ukraine taken by the photographer and her family, was on view from July 12 through August 31 in Rochester's Kodak Park. Ms. Elyjiw Sytch's photo journalist work covering a medical mission in Senegal, West Africa, in 2003 won her first and second place in Kodak's International Salon photo contest. Ms. Elyjiw Sytch, who holds a photography degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, worked in Japan for the Minolta Camera Company as a technical writer and is currently a marketing communications writer for Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, N.Y. Ms. Elyjiw Sytch's photographs can be found in the Kodak Image Library.

Theater

Lidia Krushelnytsky, director of the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble, was honored during a festive luncheon held on April 17 at the Pierre Hotel in New York in a dual celebration of her 90th birthday (which fell on May 1) and the 40th anniversary of the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble which she has been directing since 1965. For the past four decades, Mrs. Krushelnytsky, known as "Pani Lida" to her students, honed the talents of some 250 students, meshing amateur thespian and backstage abilities with the professional skills of guest choreographers, composers, actors and set decorators to produce 150 notable performances of plays and dramatic readings. Her troupe, acclaimed in New York and numerous U.S. towns and cities, received public and critical praise during appearances in Ukraine. At the celebration, Mrs. Krushelnytsky was presented with the St. Volodymyr the Great gold medal by keynote speaker Askold Lozynskyj, president of the Ukrainian World Congress, and the Kyiv pectoral award from Kyiv governmental and cultural organizations, presented by Dr. Valerij Hajdabura, artistic director of the Ivan Franko Theater in Kyiv. The event was planned and presented by the friends of the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble, all former students of Mrs. Krushelnytsky.

"Koliada: Twelve Dishes," was performed by the Yara Arts Group at La MaMa Theater in New York City on March 4-20. The idea for the play came about as a result of director Virlana Tkacz's research travels in the Carpathian Mountains, where many of the rituals relating to the winter solstice that are invoked in the play are still practiced. The play is framed by the traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner. Music, which forms an important component of the play, features Hutsul "koliadnyky" (carolers) Ivan Zelenchuk and Dmytro Trafiychuk from the village of Kryvorivnia in the Carpathian Mountains. Ukrainian and English are interwoven in traditional folk song and spoken word, which includes the poetry of contemporary poet Serhiy Zhadan. Musical arrangements are by Mariana Sadovska; set design, Watoku Ueno.

Yara Arts Group went on to celebrate its 15th anniversary on September 24. The celebrations included the premiere of two short documentary films, Andrea Odezynska's "The Whisperer" and Amy Grappell's "Light from the East" as well as a performance by Yara artists offering excerpts from the 16 theater pieces that Yara created since its founding in 1990.

The independent arts group "Teatr v Koshyku" (Theater in a Basket), which, since its founding in 1997, stages productions in both Lviv and increasingly in Kyiv as well as abroad, came to the United States as participants of I-Fest, the first annual festival of international solo performances that was held in Chicago on October 22-30 at the Chopin Theater. In Chicago, the theater presented "White Butterflies, Plaited Chains," a work based on narrative vignettes by master of the short story genre, Ukrainian writer Vasyl Stefanyk (1871-1936). A special performance was held at Columbia University in New York City on November 11, with leading actress Lidiya Danylchuk, a co-founder of the theater, in a solo performance based on "The Dream," written in 1844 by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. Ms. Danylchuk was also featured in a solo performance at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York on November 13 in a repeat of the production "White Butterflies, Plaited Chains." Director and co-founder of Teatr v Koshyku, Iryna Volytska-Zubko, is a graduate of the St. Petersburg Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography, and a recent recipient of the Les Kurbas National Theater Award. Ms. Danylchuk, who graduated from the Karpenko-Karyi National Theater Institute in Kyiv, is a prize-winner of the Ivan Kotliarevsky National Theater Award. Teatr v Koshyku's performances, which are characterized by a minimalist use of sets and props, include contemporary interpretations of Ukrainian classics. Teatr v Koshyku's festival invitations in Europe and abroad attest to the theater's appeal to broad audiences.

"Becoming Natasha," a collaborative multimedia production work-in-progress that draws on the international problem of human trafficking for its subject, had its premiere in New York on October 7-8, as part of the Six Figures Theater Company's fifth annual Artists of Tomorrow Festival. The piece, presented by Isadora Productions, with co-producers Stacey Cervellino and Anna Klein, and director, Nancy S. Chu, was inspired by the book "The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade" by Ukrainian Canadian author and investigative journalist Victor Malarek. A special reading from "Becoming Natasha" was held as part of a series of events to raise awareness of human trafficking sponsored by Amnesty International in New York on October 10 at the HERE Arts Center. A subsequent performance of the work was held at HERE on November 18. Ukrainian cast member in the production is Nina Arianda.

Laryssa Lauret, the well-known Ukrainian TV and Broadway actress (Laryssa Lysniak), who in the early 1960s was a member of the experimental Ukrainian "Novyi Teatr" (New Theater) directed by Volodymyr Lysniak, starred in the off-Broadway production titled "Name Day." The play by Jovanka Bach - a drama about two Serbian immigrant families, set in southern California, circa 1985 - opened at New York City's Barrow Theater Group as a production of the Immigrant's Theater Project, where it ran June 1-19.

"Strike! The Musical," a dramatization of events dealing with the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 - Canada's famous labor disruption that involved more than 30,000 people, opened in Winnipeg at the Theater in the Park on May 26, where it ran through June 14. Music and lyrics for the production were written by Danny Schur, with script co-written by Mr. Schur and Rick Chafe; choreography is by Tom Mokry. The musical includes characters who represent real people who had a role in events as well as fictionalized characters. The play's Ukrainian aspect is driven by the main character, Mike Sokolowski, victim and reluctant martyr of the strike who died when Royal North-West Mounted Police charged into a crowd of strikers on June 21, 1919 - a day that is known in Canadian history as "Bloody Saturday." The production received supporting grants from two wings of the Ukrainian community in Canada - the Taras Shevchenko Foundation and the Ukrainian Labor Temple Foundation. The musical received extensive coverage in the mainstream press, including Toronto's Globe and Mail.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 15, 2006, No. 3, Vol. LXXIV

| Home Page |