By Olena Wawryshyn

The Chornobyl 20 concert, held on April 9 at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster, was a great success on all accounts.

The event was presented by the Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (CCCF). 

The performances were outstanding. The programme consisted of four choral pieces sung by a massive choir that combined the voices of the Amadeus Choir, Elmer Iseler Singers, Orpheus Choir, Vesnivka, and the Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir. The first two choirs are under the direction of Lydia Adams, who is one of Canada’s most distinguished conductors, as is Robert Cooper, the artistic director of the Orpheus Choir.

Lydia Adams and Halyna Kvitka Kondracki, well-known in the Ukrainian-Canadian community as the founder and conductor of the award-winning Vesnivka women’s choir, took turns at the podium. Kvitka Kondracki conducted the two pieces written by composers with a Ukrainian background, Toronto’s Roman Hurko and Ukraine’s Oleksander Kozarenko. 

At the Chornobyl 20 concert, the joint choir sang Hurko’s Requiem/Panachyda for the Victims of Chornobyl, written five years ago, and Kozarenko’s version of Blessed is the Man (Blazhen Muzh), which is the middle movement of a triptych based on an Ostroh chant from the late 16th century. Baritone Doug MacNaughton was the soloist.

The highlight of the programme was the world premiere of Wormwood, a moving piece by Canadian composer Christos Hatzis. Wormwood was created as a response to a commission by the Gryphon Trio (cellist Roman Borys, violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon and pianist Jamie Parker).  Hatzis discovered that Chornobyl is the Ukrainian word for wormwood, the English word for Apsinthos, the name of the “death star’ in the Book of Revelation that was hurled to the earth and poisoned the planet’s waters, causing many people to die.  This knowledge inspired Hatzis to turn to the Book of Revelation for the texts for his piece.

While composing the work, originally meant for only choir, piano, violin and cello, and baritone, Hatzis felt the need to add two other singers to the piece. Both singers are “alter egos” of the baritone.  The Fifth Angel is sung by a rap singer and a child soprano, who represents a spiritual rebirth.

The baritone part was scheduled to be sung entirely by international opera star Pavlo Hunka, the Ukrainian-British bass baritone.  He was suffering from laryngitis and needed to conserve his voice, so certain sections were sung by Doug MacNaughton. The child soprano part was gloriously sung by Lauren Saunders, a 14-year-old member of the Toronto Children’s Chorus.  Her singing ended Wormwood on a powerful and uplifting note.

The final piece in the programme was The Hour Has Come – Poem VI. This short but rousing work for piano and organ, played by Peter MacDonald, and prominent performer, composer and broadcaster Peter Tiefenbach, respectively, was a perfect choice for the finale.

Throughout the performance, on large screens positioned above the choirs,  photos from Chornobyl taken by Kyiv photojournalist Igor Konstantin and Montreal-born, New York-based Robert Polidori were screened.  Konstantin captured his footage while flying in a helicopter above the still-burning reactor hours after the explosion on April 26. The radiation was so intense it fogged his film and seized up his cameras.  Three days later, he returned to the scene to document the clean-up being done by young soldiers. He has been in the zone many times since to photograph the effects of the radiation on both humans and animals.  Now 69, he is seriously ill with radiation sickness.

Polinari took his photos during three days in 2001 when he documented the ruins in two towns, Pripyat and Chornobyl, that were evacuated as a result of the disaster.  In addition to the multi-media presentations of these two photographers’ work, a video presentation about the work of the CCCF was also featured.

To stage such a large-scale concert as Chornobyl 20 takes a massive effort. To fill the 2,800-seat Roy Thomson Hall virtually to capacity is no small feat. Many people contributed their time to serve on the programme and organizing committees as well as to assist as volunteers.  In addition, many corporate and individual sponsors donated generous amounts to stage the event.

The artistic driving forces behind the event were Roman Hurko, who had the initial vision for a large-scale event to commemorate the Chornobyl tragedy. Hurko, along with Roman Borys, encouraged their many prominent contacts within the Canadian music world to get on board.  From the CCCF, Win Kuplowsky successfully took up the colossal challenge to head the organizing committee and to galvanize the volunteers.

Chornobyl 20 was noteworthy in that it showcased Ukrainian music and Ukraine and was staged with the equal collaboration, at the organizational and performance levels, of some of Canada’s most respected and prominent conductors, guest performers and choirs. 

There have been other very important achievements by Ukrainian-Canadian music groups. But, unlike the case with Chornobyl 20, the impetus and support for the organization of and participation in those events came largely only from Ukrainian-Canadians.

Chornobyl 20 was an important event, not only for the Ukrainian-Canadian community, but also for the larger Canadian music community. Thus, it represents a significant turning point for the Ukrainian-Canadian music community, at least in Ontario.