President Zelensky released a video celebrating Ukraine’s 33rd anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union, and its ongoing fight to defend itself:
History rhyming: Carol of the Bells, Carnegie Hall and Ukrainian resilience
History rhymed on multiple levels last Sunday afternoon, on January 4th, when Carnegie Hall presented “Notes from Ukraine, A 100-Year Celebration of ‘Carol of the Bells.’” The Ukrainian song, “Shchedryk” (“Epiphany Carol”) was among the pieces performed at Carnegie Hall by the Ukrainian National Chorus in October, 1922.
Then, as now, the performance was an affirmation of Ukrainian culture—of its existence, really—in the face of an onslaught by Russia, which would soon become the Soviet Union. Then, as now, the newly established Ukrainian National Republic’s national anthem was “Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy” (“Ukraine has not yet perished”). Then, as now, Russians claimed that Ukraine, and Ukrainian culture, did not exist.
Today Ukraine continues to draw crucial military support from European countries and the United States. Then, the debacle that was the end of the Great War was underway, when the great powers carved up Europe and the Middle East, sowing the seeds of decades of conflict. Despite affirmations of high principle including Woodrow Wilson’s assertion of the right of nations to self-determination in his Fourteen Points, the war-weary members of the victorious alliance allowed Ukraine to be overrun.
Before this happened, in May 1919 Ukrainian president Symon Petliura dispatched a choir to Europe with the mission of showcasing Ukrainian culture in hopes of winning the support of European powers, who could make possible Ukraine’s survival as an independent nation. “Shchedryk” was part of their repertoire. Its lyrics mention the arrival of swallows, which for Ukrainians represents the first sign of spring.
“Shchedryk” had been composed by Mykola Leontovych, a brilliant Ukrainian ethnomusicologist, conductor, and composer of more than 150 compositions for unaccompanied choral ensembles, who drew upon the melodies and texts of Ukrainian folk songs for inspiration.
Under the direction of Olexsandr Koshyts the choir visited 10 European countries and gave more than 200 concerts. The response was spectacular, a diplomatic triumph. Over 500 reviews in 10 languages extolled the virtues of the choir, of Ukraine, and of its culture. “Shchedryk” was frequently lauded.
However, although Ukraine was triumphant in its diplomatic offensive it faltered on the battlefield and was overrun by Russian troops. After the country succumbed to the Russian military, members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia began to be purged—murdered—in some cases shot in the street. Among these victims was “Shchedryk” composer Mykola Leontovych. The official cause of his death in 1921 was that he had been shot by a burglar during a robbery of his parents’ home, but he is widely believed to have been murdered by the Cheka, the Soviet secret police.
Despite these tragedies, the Ukrainian National Chorus continued to tour extensively, including a series of performances throughout North and South America, appearing at Carnegie Hall on October 5, 1922.
A popular American conductor and music educator of Ukrainian descent named Peter Wilhousky (who also composed a well-known 1944 choral arrangement of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”) created English lyrics for “Shchedryk,” calling it the “Carol of the Bells.” Wilhousky had a relationship with the NBC radio network, and a performance of “Carol of the Bells” was broadcast over that network in 1936. This was well-received, creating demand by choir conductors who had heard the broadcast for publication of the piece by Carl Fischer Music. Their performances led to its widespread and enduring popularity.
For last week’s historic Carnegie Hall performance, the Ukrainian Children’s Choir was joined by the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York, the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America, and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street.
Meanwhile, in a brief New York Times story with photos and sound clips, Marc Santora reported from Kyiv that despite the difficulty of maintaining its power grid under the continuing assault of Russian bombardments, “Ukraine’s Philharmonic Plays On.” Audiences for these performances are capped at 160 so everyone can fit into the facility’s underground shelter. Sound files accompanying the story include a brief interview with the orchestra’s director, Dmytro I. Ostapenko, and short clips from performances of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581, and a number from Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady, “I Could Have Danced All Night” – a selection certainly chosen to convey a message of resilience. Thus, music continues to help inspire Ukrainians to endure, to persevere, and to celebrate the preciousness of life.
More at:
100 years ago, ‘Carol of the Bells’ came to America — from Ukraine (NPR audio story – 3 minutes)
As war rages at home, Ukrainian choir heads to Carnegie Hall to celebrate 100 years of ‘Carol of the Bells’ (Five minute + audio story from the public radio show The World <PRX>)
“Carol of the Bells” at Carnegie Hall: Celebrating the Centenary of a Christmastime Classic (This page on the Carnegie Hall website includes multiple pictures and historical images plus an 11-minute mini-documentary)
https://www.carnegiehall.org/explore/articles/2022/11/29/carol-of-the-bells
Ukraine’s Philharmonic Plays On (short New York Times report with brief video clips)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/12/06/world/europe/kyiv-philharmonic-blackout.html
Additional reference
Virko Baley, “Leontovych, Mykola Dmytrovych” in Grove Music Online https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.16442
Senior Citizen Plays Piano…Then Magic Occurs
This should put a smile on faces – music bringing people together! Submitted by Carol.
Senior Citizen Plays Piano…Then Magic Occurs
Achord is seeking contributors of positive stories about using music to bring people together
Achord is seeking blog-posting sized stories (c. 150-750 words) that report specific examples of music being used to bring people together, especially, but not limited to examples that demonstrate how music can help bridge societal divides. Links to music within the stories are welcome. Examples may be seen here, here and here.
Americans share many beliefs and values: love for country, expectations of fairness and the idea you can believe what you want and express it freely.
Music can create experiences that foster unity, opportunities for Americans to come together and appreciate their shared humanity, and AchordSM: A new Musical Alliance calls upon musicians and musical ensembles to join in using music to connect people and promote positive social change.
Many musicians already use music in this way. Achord aspires to increase the frequency of using music to bring people together in this way at a time when the need for increased social harmony is critical to our future as a nation.
If successful, this will serve as proof of concept for expansion of this project to a site where musicians and others interested in music’s potential to contribute to social harmony can interact, reporting their accomplishments and activities and offering each other encouragement.
Please send stories about using music to bring people together to: srgreene@achord.us
Ethno-chaos from Ukraine: DakhaBrakha
Ukraine has come under renewed attack by the Russian Federation, and it brings to mind a memorable event that occurred near the end of the summer. After following the Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha for years, I finally had the opportunity to see them in concert this past August at The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, near Washington, DC. I arrived at the concert with high hopes and great expectations, but despite this the evening far exceeded what I had anticipated. Their performance was superb, and the evening was extremely moving in many ways.
DakhaBrakha’s four members—Nina Garenetska, Olena Tsibulska, Iryna Kovalenko and Marko Halanevych—play a variety of instruments that include cello, accordion, bass drums, piano, mouth harp, a variety of bird call whistles, and a seemingly endless collection of other instruments, but their music is vocally centered. Despite drawing upon a wide range of musical styles, all of their music is deeply rooted in Ukrainian culture. The women use a bracing, full-throated Ukrainian-style vocal production with minimal vibrato, which accentuates their unison singing, polyphony and close harmony, with Halanevych providing contrast through his vocals that at times include falsetto.
In the performance they combined their distinct musical style with visual elements that greatly enhanced the effect of the music and added to the richness of the evening. To accomplish this the band’s production team included two control boards, one for the wall of wonderfully produced sound that came from the stage, and one for a series of amazing projected backdrops. Some incorporated AP news photography—for example, aerial photographs of neighborhoods in Ukraine where buildings had been blown apart—but the most engaging ones were fantastical, highly colorful graphic creations. When entering the hall prior to the concert, audience members were greeted by a large backdrop that filled the stage behind the waiting chairs and instruments. Using the colors of the Ukrainian flag, it makes a strong statement of intention, showing four abstracted figures in blue that represent the performers holding two banners overhead reading, “NO WAR,” and “STOP PUTIN,” on a vast yellow background. The group has been using this image for several years and it can be seen on many of their pieces available on YouTube.
DakhaBrakha, which means Give/Take in Ukrainian, was created as a theater project in 2004 at the Dakh (Roof) theatre in Kiev when that company’s founder and director, Vlad Troitsky, decided to experiment with Ukrainian folklore and began producing plays that required musical accompaniment. He was surprised to learn that there was little communication between Ukrainian artists, and so he began to stage “art parties” at the Dakh. Halanevych, who earned a degree in philology and then taught himself to play the tabla and accordion, was working as an actor when he met the other three members of what would become DakhaBrakha at these parties. Garenetska, Tsibulska and Kovalenko, who had been trained in ethnomusicology, were steeped in Ukrianian traditional music and had been singing since early childhood.
Working within a theatrical sensibility, the group creates musical amalgams that inflect traditional Ukrainian music with a wide variety of other musical styles. In a 2015 interview Halanevych explained, “Every song has a traditional source recorded in a Ukrainian village,” but these field-recorded tunes are modified, some in subtle ways, others more radically, by drawing on a wide range of traditions. He says, “We described our style as ethno chaos and realized that it flowed with the global river of world music.”
Their signature costumes reflect this approach. Because they do not play authentic traditional Ukrainian music using traditional performance styles, they realized from the start that they could not wear traditional Ukrainian costumes. Thus, although their appearance seems vaguely traditional, in truth it is a post-modern statement that mirrors their music. The most obvious example of this is the towering hats worn by the three women. These signature elements of their costumes were suggested by an actress at the Dakh named Tetiana Vasylenko. They are not Ukrainian, per se, and most closely resemble hats worn by Bulgarian men on special occasions.
No printed program was provided for the concert, but their amazing musical offering lasted almost two hours without an intermission, and was received with overwhelming enthusiasm by the audience, which seemed to include a significant number of Ukrainian expatriates.
The opportunity to hear DakhaBrakha on a future tour is not one to be missed. It will be a singular experience.
Here are some links to more information on the group:
DakhaBrakha’s website: http://www.dakhabrakha.com.ua/en/about/
Musical performances:
NPR Tiny Desk Concert: https://youtu.be/hsNKSbTNd5I
Live on KEXP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxg1dL_x0gw
Live at the Kennedy Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxmCVEGpKyw
“Monkh”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFJ717atqaw
“Vesna”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OJVMuHwcU
“Carpathian Rap”: https://youtu.be/7Tn9TtU9E5c
Articles:
“Harmonizing Ethno Chaos” [The Ukrainian Week, link currently not working]
“DakhaBrakha rolls world’s music into Ukrainian folk”
“From Ukraine with pride: The band DakhaBrakha waves their flag in Minneapolis”
Get to know funky Ukrainian folk band DakhaBrakha
“Friday Night Music: Dakhabrakha in Kyiv” (Blog posting by Paul Krugman)
[includes this YouTube link: YELENA The Khmeleva project DakhaBrakha & Port Mone live in Kyiv
Sources for this blog post:
“Harmonizing Ethno Chaos.” The Ukrainian Week (16 September, 2013). Accessed 02-11-2018: http://ukrainianweek.com/Culture/89386; “DakhaBrakha rolls world’s music into Ukrainian folk.” The Seattle Times (September 24 & 26, 2015). Accessed 02-11-2018: https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/music/dakhabrakha-to-bring-world-music-hybrid-to-the-neptune/
Photo credits: S. Greene (pre-concert photo); M. Wilpers (all other photos)
Music as a tool for healing in Boston: Shaw Pong Liu and Code Listen
While working as an artist in residence for the City of Boston in 2015, violinist Shaw Pong Liu created Code Listen, an ongoing, collaborative effort that sought to build relationships between the Boston Police, teen artists, survivors of violence and the families of victims of homicides, and musicians. Code Listen describes itself as “a listening-centered project using the transformative power of creative music and performance to support healing and dialogue on violence, racism and policing…, an ensemble and memorial project that brings together members of the Boston Police Department, homicide survivors, teen artists, and community organizations….”
Michael Brown had been shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri the year before, leading to a crisis in which allegations of police brutality and concern about police killings of unarmed men of color were answered by efforts within organizations such as the Boston Police Department to build police community relationships by initiating dialogue with those they served.
The original project had two components that eventually merged: members of the Boston Police Department who were musicians and artists, and mothers and siblings of victims of gun violence. Liu explains, their efforts were “about coming together through music-making and dialogue to try to build very direct, person-to-person relationships between folks who don’t always get a chance to do that kind of relationship building.” Eventually both parts merged into a single project.
Violinist and Chinese erhu player Liu graduated from U.C. Berkeley, and then obtained a Masters in Violin Performance from New England Conservatory of Music, where she participated in NEC’s community outreach program. While in college, she had realized that she did not want to limit herself to impacting the lives of people only through appearances in concert halls, but instead to follow her vision of music as “a powerful healer to bring people together and create space for reflection.” Liu explains, “I’m really interested in the power of listening as an actual skill that we need in music as well as a social societal skill for communication and listening and how those two things can support each other.”
Shaw Pong Liu is the recipient of numerous grants and awards and performs at the highest artistic level, both on her own and with a range of ensembles that include the Silkroad Ensemble.
Sources: http://www.codelisten.org/, https://www.tbf.org/news-and-insights/reports/2021/dec/2021-annual-report/shaw-pong-liu-transcript-2021ar, https://www.nefa.org/news/code-listen-30-dialogue-and-healing-through-music
For more information:
Shaw Pong Liu http://www.shawpong.com/about
Code Listen http://www.codelisten.org/
Shaw Pong Liu, Violinist (The Boston Foundation, The 2021 Annual Report) https://www.tbf.org/news-and-insights/reports/2021/dec/2021-annual-report/shaw-pong-liu-transcript-2021ar
Dialogue and Healing Through Music (New England Foundation for the Arts) https://www.nefa.org/news/code-listen-30-dialogue-and-healing-through-music
Shaw Pong Liu (Silkroad Ensemble) https://www.silkroad.org/artists-shaw-pong-liu
Through the Walls (Shaw Pong Liu, Silkroad Ensemble) https://www.silkroad.org/seeds-2020-through-the-walls
Pianists from Korea, Russia and Ukraine win 2022 Cliburn
Pianists from Korea, Russia and Ukraine were awarded gold, silver and bronze medals in the 2022 Cliburn competition.
Eighteen-year-old Yunchan Lim, from South Korea, won the Gold Medal. Anna Geniushene, 31, of Russia, won the Silver Medal, and Dmytro Choni, 28, of Ukraine won the Bronze Medal. The winners received cash awards of $100,000 for gold, $50,000 for silver, and $25,000 for bronze.
The Ukraine war seemed to create a dilemma for the Cliburn, which is held in Fort Worth, Texas every four years, because of widespread pressure to cut times with Russia. However, the competition honors Van Cliburn, who won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, an event that was understood to show that art can bridge political divides even during periods of high tension, and so Russian pianists were allowed to compete this year despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The awards ceremony was preceded by the Ukrainian national anthem, played the Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko, a previous winner of the Cliburn. Reporting on this year’s competition has been somewhat overshadowed by the specter of the war.
The Ukrainian winner Choni has been living and studying in Austria since 2015, and Anna Geniushene, who has been critical of the war, left Russian after the war began and has been living in Lithuania.
Profiles of each winner and YouTube videos of the preliminary, quarter-final and semifinal rounds are at the following links:
Yunchan Lim (Gold Medal, South Korea) https://cliburn.org/?performer=yunchan-lim
Anna Geniushene (Silver Medal, Russia) https://cliburn.org/?performer=anna-geniushene
Dmytro Choni (Bronze Medal, Ukraine) https://cliburn.org/?performer=dmytro-choni
Additional links:
SIXTEENTH VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION – 2022 CLIBURN WINNERS https://cliburn.org/2022-competitors/
At Cliburn Competition, Pianists From South Korea, Russia and Ukraine Triumph (New York Times)
Pianist, 18, from South Korea wins Van Cliburn competition (Washington Post) https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/pianist-18-from-south-korea-wins-van-cliburn-competition/2022/06/19/885067f8-f01a-11ec-ac16-8fbf7194cd78_story.html
Odesa Opera House Opens Amidst War
Roger Cohen, Paris Bureau Chief of the New York Times, reported that the Odesa Opera reopened for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine, “asserting civilization against the barbarism unleashed from Moscow.” Odesa is Ukraine’s third-largest city, a major seaport located in the southwest part of the country.
The opera house opened in 1887 and was most recently renovated in 2007. It replaced a structure destroyed by fire that had opened in 1810. The horseshoe-shaped hall has excellent acoustics.
Before the performance, concertgoers were instructed on seeking shelter, should sirens sound during the performance.
The opera’s chief conductor, Viacheslav Chernukho-Volich, led the performance, which opened with Ukraine’s national anthem, and included selections from Romeo and Juliet, Tosca, and Turandot as well as music by twentieth-century Odesa-born composer Kostiantyn Dankevych.
The opera received permission from the military to stage the performance, but the entire country remains within reach of Russian missiles, and the theater was only one-third full because of security restrictions. Conductor Chernukho-Volich observed, “Could Mr. Putin strike central Odesa? ‘Anyone capable of Bucha, of Mariupol, of what is happening down the road in Mykolaiv, is capable of anything,’ he said. ‘That is what we have learned.’”
Odesa’s mayor, Gennadiy Trukhanov, explained, “It is important to show that Odesa is alive, that Ukraine is alive, that we want to live and create, while the way of the Russian occupiers is killing and death.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Alex Levitsky & Dmitry Shamatazhi, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Odesa Opera House Reopens, Defying Putin’s Barbarism (New York Times)
Cliburn Competition Brings Together Pianists from Countries Divided by the Ukraine War
Today is the final day for the semifinal round of the Cliburn Competition. One American remains among the twelve semifinalists, along with one from Ukraine, two from Russia and one from Belarus, four South Koreans, one pianist each from Japan and China, and one from France and China.
The competition is named for the American pianist Van Cliburn, who won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, during the Cold War. As an article in the New York Times reports, Van Cliburn’s victory “was seen as a sign that art could transcend politics,” and so this year its organizers felt it appropriate to invite participants from Russia and its ally Belarus, despite pressure to exclude their participation. Many of the Russian participants live outside Russia and some have expressed opposition to the war. Russian pianist Ilya Shmukler, 27, is reported to have said he that at times felt guilty about the invasion: “The key words for me,” he said, “are shame and responsibility.”
According to the Fort Worth-based website Culture Map, 28-year-old Ukrainian Dmytro Choni and 23-year-old American Clayton Stephenson are audience favorites. Only one woman advanced to this round, Russian Anna Geniushene, who lives in Lithuania. The Times reported that in order to prepare for performing a series of Brahms Ballades, “she said… she thought of suffering in Ukraine.”
Profiles of each participant and links to performances posted to YouTube are available on the Cliburn website (below).
Six finalists will be announced later today, with final round performances beginning on Tuesday, June 14.
Links:
Russian and Ukrainian Pianists Meet in Texas at Cliburn Competition (NY Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/arts/music/cliburn-piano-competition-texas-ukraine-war.html
12 semifinalists make the cut in 2022 Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth (Culture Map) https://fortworth.culturemap.com/news/arts/06-06-22-12-semifinalists-van-cliburn-international-piano-competition-bass-hall-fwso-nicholas-mcgegan/#slide=0
The Cliburn 2022 (includes live performances, competition schedules, & links to profiles) https://cliburn.org/
Solidarity through music: Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra at Eurovision 2022
The Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision song contest, held this year in Turin, Italy. The initial vote by judges from forty countries placed the Ukrainians fourth, but the audience, voting in those countries, moved them up into first place, followed by the United Kingdom and Spain.
This reflects the widespread support of Ukraine as it continues to respond to the unprovoked invasion by the Russian Federation.
Here is the official version of the winning performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiEGVYOruLk&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest
Here are some links to articles on the contest and the band:
Ukrainian band wins Eurovision Song Contest as war rages back home (Washington Post) – https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/10/eurovision-italy-2022-ukraine-kalush-orchestra/
Ukraine wins the Eurovision Song Contest (New York Times) – https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/14/arts/ukraine-wins-eurovision.html
Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra feted on return home after Eurovision win (Reuters) – https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-kalush-orchestra-feted-return-home-after-eurovision-win-2022-05-16/
Eurovision winners sing at Polish border on way back to Ukraine (The Guardian) – Kalush Orchestra gives impromptu rendition of Stefania, which includes lyrics ‘I’ll always find my way home’ – https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/may/16/eurovision-winners-sing-at-polish-border-on-way-back-to-ukraine
Ukraine wins Eurovision Song Contest in wave of goodwill following invasion by Russia (CNN) https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/14/entertainment/ukraine-wins-eurovision-song-contest-2022-after-russian-invasion-intl/index.html