October 13, 2016

Concert by Mykola Suk opens TWG Cultural Fund’s new season

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Yaro Bihun

Pianist Mykola Suk performs at the opening concert of The Washington Group Cultural Fund’s 2016-2017 Music Series at the historic Lyceum in Old Town Alexandria, Va.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – As autumn arrived in this nation’s capital, Ukrainian Americans and other music lovers knew the time had come for The Washington Group Cultural Fund to launch its 2016-2017 Music Series, its annual showcase of Ukrainian culture in the nation’s capital area.

The annual series began on Sunday, October 2, at the Lyceum, the historic venue in Old Towne Alexandria, Va., just south of the capital.

And the honor fell on Ukrainian pianist Mykola Suk, who – as the Cultural Fund’s co-director Chrystia Lucyk noted in her opening remarks – hardly needs an introduction in this capital area, having performed here at two previous TWGCF concerts and other venues, including the National Gallery of Art.

“An internationally recognized and critically acclaimed pianist, first-prize winner at the 1971 Liszt-Bartok competition, his career has spanned four continents,” she said with her co-director Anna Rikova standing beside her. He is “not a stranger to Washington audiences,” Ms. Lucyk noted.

Mr. Suk began this year’s program with three fantasies – by Beethoven, Johan Nepomuk Hummel and Sigismond Thalberg. After a brief intermission, he continued with Myroslav Skoryk’s Partita No. 5 Fantasies “in modo retro,” which Mr. Skoryk composed and dedicated to Mr. Suk; he concluded with Franz Liszt’s Fantasia quasi Sonata.

As in his previous performances here, the audience’s standing ovation reaction was rewarded with Mykola Kolessa’s preludes and then with three more encores.

As Ms. Lucyk noted in her opening remarks, she and Ms. Rykova were elected this year to take over the directorship of The Washington Group Cultural Fund, founded 20 years ago to foster and promote Ukrainian culture in the Washington area. Since then it has sponsored 135 events, including concerts, lectures, exhibitions and film screenings.

“Our programing has sought to represent the creativity and breadth of Ukraine’s musical tradition and the artistry of its people,” said Ms. Lucyk.

The 2016-2017 Sunday Music Series will continue on November 13 with jazz pianist John Stetch and on March 12, 2017, with violinist Solomia Soroka, pianist Arthur Greene and composer Yevhen Stankovych. It is scheduled to conclude on May 21 with a concert by violinist Oleh Krysa, another popular repeat artist in this area.

Ms. Lucyk pointed out that, in addition to the Sunday Music Series, the Cultural Fund also continues to support a variety of other arts projects, including the following week’s concert by Canada’s women’s choir Vesnivka, and the screening of the film “Music of Survival” about the Ukrainian bandurist chorus that survived World War II.

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