Vesnivka Tribute to Lysenko Offers Lenten Reflection and Spring Fare

By John Pidkowich

The Vesnivka Choir under the musical direction of Kvitka Kondracki presents the concert A Tribute to Mykola Lysenko with the Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir and performances by special guest young performing artists Alexandra Beley – mezzo-soprano and Anna Vertypolokh – pianist. This concert is dedicated to Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko.

Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912) was important to Ukrainian music as a composer of music for piano, string instruments and orchestra, and as a prolific writer of 120 art songs and opera, who arranged sacred and secular choral works. Among his compositions are illustrations and settings to the words of Ukrainian poets. Lysenko was also important as an ethnographic collector and transcriber of Ukrainian folk songs, old ritual songs, dumas and songs performed by kobzars – minstrels, whose melodies and rhythms are often found in his compositions. Lysenko was a musicologist and pedagogue in music performance and choir directing, under whom studied the likes of conductor Oleksandr Koshetz in Kyiv over a century ago and who continued the fine tradition of Ukrainian choral music. Koshetz in turn became a composer of Ukrainian sacred liturgical works and popular folk songs still heard today in church services and concert halls. However, we all are greatly indebted to the dedication and efforts of Mykola Lysenko as one of the first Ukrainian ethnologists who travelled Ukraine extensively to gather and then arranged some 500 Ukrainian folk songs, music characteristic to the country’s regions, and who laid the groundwork for the field of Ethnomusicology. Lysenko contributed much to the awakening of national consciousness of the Ukrainian people by his music and as a result is known as the “Father of Ukrainian Music”.

In the concert programme, Ukrainian Canadian mezzo-soprano Alexandra Beley will sing excerpts from Lysenko’s operas “Eneyida” (Aneid), “Chornomortsi” (Black Sea Cossacks), and “Utoplena” (Drowned Maiden) as well as five art songs to the words of the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.

Ms. Beley recently completed her Masters of Music degree in Operatic Performance at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, Opera Division. From an early age and her love for opera, Ms. Beley sang in the Canadian Children’s Opera Company. At the U of T Opera Division, she has performed many roles to earn an impressive portfolio of extensive standard opera repertoire. In Summer 2011, Alexandra Beley had the privilege of being understudy to Judith Forst as “Irene” in John Estacio’s Lillian Alling with The Banff Centre’s Opera As Theatre Program.

Pianist Anna Vertypolokh will perform Reverie – Mriya in D minor opus 12 (1876) and Gavotte in F major opus 30 (1888).

Ms. Vertypolokh began studying piano at 5 years old in the Kyiv M.V. Lysenko boarding school. From 2004, she continued her studies under Tania Tkachenko at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and completed the piano course in the Glen Gould School of Music under Marietta Orlov. Among her many awards, she won first prize at the Ukrainian Music Festival in Toronto for three consecutive years (2003-2005) and the Cecilia Zhang award in 2004 and 2005. As a soloist and chamber performer, Ms. Vertypolokh has appeared on many concert stages with her orchestral debut at the age of 12, and since with the Toronto Youth Symphony and then Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Anna Vertypolokh has continued her piano studies at the Schwob School of Music under Prof. Alexander Kobryn at Columbus State University (Ohio) with a Woodruff Awards scholarship. Recently, she won the top prize for best performance of works by Chopin from the Chopin Foundation in Anaheim, California.

Vesnivka and the Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choirs will perform some of Lysenko’s sacred and secular choral compositions. These works include Khrestnym Drevom (Chant for Crucified Christ on the Wooden Cross) and Kheruvyms’ka Pisnja (Cherubim Song) with soloist. Excerpts from Lysenko’s operas include “Utoplena”, “Zyma i Vesna” (Winter and Spring), and “Son” (Magical Dream) plus a selection of his art songs in choral arrangement.

The concert, A Tribute to Mykola Lysenko, will take place on Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 3 pm. at All Saints’ Kingsway Anglican Church in Toronto. Tickets are $25 for General Admission and $20 for seniors and students. Tickets are available from Vesnivka Choir and at the door.

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Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko