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)

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/02/1140441596/100-years-ago-carol-of-the-bells-came-to-america-from-ukraine

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>)

https://theworld.org/stories/2022-12-02/war-rages-home-ukrainian-choir-heads-carnegie-hall-celebrate-100-years-carol

“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

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)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/18/world/europe/odesa-opera-ukraine-russia.html

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

Music helps Ukrainians find ways to cope

Last Saturday (23 April) National Public Radio reported how a jazz club in Odesa continues to help residents of that city to cope with the ongoing war. Odesa is a port city in western Ukraine, just 60 nautical miles from the site where the Russian warship Moskva was sunk.

The club, called Perron Number Seven, now offers free outdoor jazz and theatrical performances through a program called Theater on the Balcony. In the story, NPR’s Tim Mak interviewed Yaroslav Trofimov, who co-owns the club with his wife, Julia Bragina. Trofimov said that their biggest weapon was laughter and creativity, and reported that after a performance he “asked the guests, ‘Do we fear? Do we feel fear right now? Are we scared? And people said, ‘No.’”

A Ukrainian jazz club provides joy in Odesa despite the invasion (7-minute listen) https://www.npr.org/2022/04/23/1094470488/jazz-club-wont-shut-down

Also on Saturday, a missile attack on a residential area on the outskirts of Odesa killed 27-year-old Valerie Glodan, her three-month-old daughter, and her mother. Glodan had recently moved in with her mother.

A mother had found ‘a new level of happiness’ when her daughter was born. Then a missile killed them both. (New York Times)

A short video report in the Washington Post described how musicians in Lviv, Ukraine have created music classes for children to help them cope with the experience of the war:

Lviv artists offer music therapy for kids fleeing the war (April 17, 2022) Local musicians in Lviv, Ukraine are organizing music classes for children fleeing the violence of the of the Russian invasion in their hometowns. https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/lviv-artists-offer-music-therapy-for-kids-fleeing-the-war/2022/04/17/7fe7f929-59e9-4494-b5b0-ae8e63d6abea_video.html

Meanwhile, a newly formed 75-member ensemble, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, created with the help of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, will make an 11-city tour of Europe and the United States in July and August, with proceeds of the tour benefiting Ukrainian artists.

The Ukraine Ministry of Culture will allow male musicians in the orchestra to participate in the tour, despite rules barring men of military age from leaving the country.

Marko Komonko, a Ukrainian violinist who will serve as the orchestra’s concertmaster, said music could be a distraction from the violence. “When you live through all of this, you look at music differently, through different lenses,” he said. “It takes my mind off the war. It allows people to keep living.”

Denouncing War, Ukrainian Musicians Unite for a World Tour (New York Times)

Composer John Rutter performs “A Ukrainian Prayer” and offers it to choirs for free use

On YouTube, John Rutter explains his need to compose his own setting of “A Ukrainian Prayer” as a response to ongoing events in Ukraine, and performs the piece with The Cambridge Singers. In the comments section he offers links making the score available for free, for the sole use of your own choir, and authorizes the creation of an audio or video recording of the piece without a special license.

“A Ukrainian Prayer,” John Rutter

Songs of comfort as Ukraine moves into a more perilous period

With Russia beginning a new phase of its brutal assault on Ukraine, it seems impossible to escape a feeling of helplessness. It is for the Ukrainians and for those able to provide material support for their defense to respond to the moment, and hopefully, to prevail.

Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax posted this heart-felt rendition of the slow movement from the Brahms 3rd Violin Concerto in March, part of Yo-Yo Ma’s Songs of Comfort series. Ax was born in L’viv, Ukraine, into a Polish-Jewish family, and he offers words of encouragement and expresses the hope for peace.

Michigan-based composer Gerald Custer posts newly created lyrics, “For the Children”

In response to a report in the Washington Post about the missile attack on innocent civilians at a train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, who were trying to flee the conflict zone, Michigan-based composer Gerald Custer created the text for a new piece, “For the Children,” and posted it on Facebook on April 13:

For The Children

This is for the children—
The blinded ones,
The wounded ones,
The ones taken far too soon.

This is for the mothers—
The ones who search,
The ones who weep,
The ones whose hope is gone.

This is for the omas and the opas—
And all those left behind,
For all who grieve and mourn,
Who see old ghosts returning.

And this is for the fighters—
Asleep now in the dust,
Scattered across the roads,
Never to be forgotten.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis,
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

Hundreds of people had assembled ahead of an arriving train in Kramatorsk, jostling for space on the platform and in the main hall of the red-brick train station, hoping to flee a looming Russian offensive.

It was then that at least one missile struck the station, tearing through the evacuees, at least 50 of whom were killed. Another 98 were wounded, according to the regional governor. Reporters arrived about 15 minutes after the attack and counted at least 20 dead, including children.

A large piece of a missile had landed about 100 yards from the building entrance. On one side, the words “for the children” were written in Russian. (Washington Post)

Peabody Conservatory graduate students to present benefit concert for Ukraine

Peabody Conservatory graduate students from Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine have organized a benefit concert to raise funds to support humanitarian relief efforts for the people of Ukraine. The performance is to take place at the Peabody Institute’s Cohen-Davison Family Theatre 1 East Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday April 15. Seating is limited, but the concert will be livestreamed.

Two Peabody Institute doctoral candidates, Ukrainian flutist Denis Savelyev and Russian classical saxophonist Nikolai Klotchkov offered a preview of their benefit concert this morning during an interview by Sheilah Kast, host of On The Record, a program on Baltimore’s public radio station WYPR. Links below lead to that interview, to information on the concert, and to a location where donations may be made to support Ukrainian humanitarian relief.

Links:

Peabody students unite through music to benefit Ukraine (WYPR/On The Record, 15 April)

Ukraine Benefit Concert event information

Ukrainian humanitarian aid donation link. (must specify Ukrainian Assistance)