January 8, 2015

A coda to the 2014 Shevchenko bicentennial in the U.S.

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A view of the performance at Merkin Concert Hall.

Oksana Dyka, Angelina Gadeliya and Solomia Ivakhiv during the Shevchenko bicentennial concert at Merkin Hall.

Vasyl Lopukh

Oksana Dyka, Angelina Gadeliya and Solomia Ivakhiv during the Shevchenko bicentennial concert at Merkin Hall.

NEW YORK – A memorable concert, “Ukraine, Shevchenko & Music,” took place on December 7, 2014, in the Merkin Concert Hall located next to Lincoln Center. It was the culmination of a yearlong series of events aimed at remembering and rethinking the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.

The concert, organized by the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the U.S. and the Ukrainian Institute of America, with the support of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S., featured the world-renowned soprano Oksana Dyka, whose talent was praised by The New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini as “cool, penetrating intensity, fearless high notes and a glint of steel in her sound.” Ms. Dyka’s breathtaking singing was accompanied by the virtuoso performances of pianist Angelina Gadeliya and violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv.

Ms. Dyka, a graduate of the Kyiv Conservatory and a main soloist of the Ukrainian National Opera in Kyiv in 2003-2007 who has performed in the most prestigious concert halls across the world, such as La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera, gladly accepted the invitation of Virko Baley, the director of the Shevchenko Society’s Arts Section, to play a vital role in this event.

A view of the performance at Merkin Concert Hall.

A view of the performance at Merkin Concert Hall.

From Shevchenko’s letters, diaries and accounts by his numerous friends, it is known that he was broadly involved in musical culture and had a special interest in the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Mendelssohn. Taking into account Shevchenko’s musical interests, Dr. Baley created a masterful two-part program. In the first part, works by Rossini, Beethoven and Bellini were performed along with compositions by Shtoharenko, Silvestrov, Shamo, Skoryk and Mussorgsky set to Shevchenko’s poems. In the second part, the audience had a chance to listen to music by Beethoven and Vieuxtemps, along with the works of Lysenko, Rachmaninoff, Stetsenko and Dankevych, which were also set to the poet’s lyrics.

The yearlong program of events to commemorate the bicentennial of Ukraine’s national poet began on November 9, 2013, at the Ukrainian Institute of America with a presentation of Shevchenko Society scholarly publications devoted to Shevchenko, i.e., the three-volume book set containing the monograph “Shevchenko’s ‘Haidamaky’: The Poem and Its Critical Reception” by Prof. George G. Grabowicz; the monograph “The First Edition of Shevchenko’s ‘Haidamaky’: The History of the Book” by Dr. Oles Fedoruk; and the first-ever facsimile edition of the poem “Haidamaky” (1842). Also presented then was the first volume of a major comprehensive study, “Taras Shevchenko: The Critical Reception,” edited by Prof. Grabowicz, which collected and annotated the entire critical reception of Shevchenko and his works published during his lifetime. Both publications were sponsored by the Shevchenko Scientific Society.

On March 28-29, 2014, the Shevchenko Society, in collaboration with the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S., the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the Ukrainian Institute of America, organized an international conference dedicated to Shevchenko’s bicentenary and involving Ukrainian and American literary scholars. The Ukrainian scholars Oleksandr Boron, Dr. Fedoruk and Tamara Hundorova of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Mykhailo Nazarenko from Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, together with their American colleagues Roman Koropeckyj (University of California), Anna Procyk (City University of New York), Vitaly Chernetsky (University of Kansas) and George G. Grabowicz (Harvard University) participated in sessions devoted to the multi-faceted work of the Ukrainian poet.

While formally the celebrations planned for 2014 have been completed, the Shevchenko Society is committed to continuing its commemoration of the legacy of Taras Shevchenko, the father of modern Ukrainian national consciousness. Scholarly publications and monographs devoted to Shevchenko and his time will continue, and a conference on Shevchenko is already planned for March 2015.

– Shevchenko Scientific Society Press Group

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