UASP in the NEWS
SCRUTINY / By Joseph So on August 22, 2024
Ukrainian Art Song Project 2024 Concert Showcases Voices Of Promise
Mayanna Carter, soprano; Dariyan Dubik, baritone; Nicholas Kluftinger, tenor; Polina Kornyushenko, soprano; Baille Melnyk, soprano; Olesia Shewchuk, soprano; Isabel Stanyer, piano; Anna Tanczak, soprano; Jordan Welbourne, baritone / Steven Philcox, piano; Leanne Regehr, piano. Temerty Theatre, Telus Centre for Performance and Learning, Sunday, August 18, 2024.
How time flies! Founded in 2004, the Ukrainian Art Song Project is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The goal of the UASP is to introduce to music lovers everywhere the vast treasures of Ukrainian art song. Thanks to this initiative, music lovers in Canada and around the world have been exploring and enjoying the wealth of Ukrainian Art Songs, both in live performances and in recordings…
operaramblings
Ukrainian Art Song Intensive 2024
Posted on August 19, 2024
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Ukrainian Art Song Project and the sixth time a summer intensive for young singers has been held in Toronto. The final concert on Sunday afternoon in Temerty Theatre was run on similar lines to the previous year. There was a piano in the middle of the room with the audience “in the round” and singers singing from different places in the room…
Baille Melnyk / soprano
A brilliant interview with one of our favourite collaborators at this year's summer institute. Andrea Ludwig
Meet our 2024 Summer Institute Participants
We have a full roster of 8 Singers and one pianist. They are ready and keen to start their journey in the 2024 UASP Summer Institute, starting Aug.12th. Stay tuned for information on master class auditing and Concert details.
The Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute is funded in part by the Temerty Foundation, Shevchenko Foundation, Irena Martynec Memorial Fund, SUS Foundation of Canada, The Kalimin Foundation, Franko Family Foundation, The Olzhych Foundation/ Delta Bingo, Eugene Laskiewicz & Marta Warwaruk, and Bohdan Leshchshyn & Myroslava Dubyk . We are grateful to these lead sponsors of the Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute 2024, and thank all our donors and supporters, without whom the Institute would not be possible. Your support allows us to educate vocal artists so that they will perform and share Ukrainian art songs with audiences on the worldwide stage.
We need your help to continue with programs such as the Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute. Your donation is critical. This is the only program of its kind in the world. Your continued support for which we are truly grateful, allows us to continue educating artists, and to raise global awareness of Ukrainian art songs.
The Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute continues our efforts to expand recognition of Ukrainian art songs through live
performances, our resources, the recordings, and outreach to vocal professionals and lovers of classical music.
Now more than ever it is of the utmost importance to preserve, promote, and foster our Ukrainian culture.
Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute at The Royal Conservatory’s TELUS Centre For Performance And Learning In Toronto, August 12-18, 2024:
We are excited to announce that plans are well underway for what promises to be another successful Summer Institute. Our faculty returns to share their wealth of knowledge and experience with both vocal and collaborative pianist students. The faculty includes Benjamin Butterfield, co-director/vocal coach; Dr. Melanie Turgeon, co-director; Andrea Ludwig, vocal coach; Steven Philcox, collaborative pianist; and Dr. Leanne Regehr, collaborative pianist. Click here to learn more about each faculty member.
Only eight vocal artists who wish to develop their classical singing skills while learning a rich and varied repertoire of Ukrainian art songs will be accepted. This year, one pianist will be accepted and have the opportunity to work alongside faculty members and the eight vocal artists/participants while honing the skills required for a successful career as a collaborative pianist.
the Art Song Project in concert
On November 16, 2023, over four hundred people attended UASP’s pre-concert at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, ahead of the historic debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine’s celebrate conductor Oksana Lyniv, and prize-winning concert pianist, Illia Ovcharenko.
On November 16, 2023, over four hundred people attended UASP’s pre-concert at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, ahead of the historic debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine’s celebrate conductor Oksana Lyniv, and prize-winning concert pianist, Illia Ovcharenko.
Tenor, Benjamin Butterfield, mezzo-soprano, Andrea Ludwig and collaborative pianist, Steven Philcox performed a brilliant concert of Ukrainian art songs, ranging from Myola Lysenko’s Oriental Melody to Myroslav Volynsky’s stirring duet, An Evening Tryst. All three are also faculty members of the Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute and great supporters of UASP’s mission to keep raising awareness of these musical treasures through education and live performance. It was a magical evening!
The Ukrainian Art Song Project TSO pre-concert was funded in part by the BCU Foundation, and by Bohdan Leshchyshen and Myroslava Dubyk. We are grateful to these lead sponsors and thank all our donors and supporters. Your support allows us to educate vocal artists so that they will perform and share Ukrainian art songs with audiences on the worldwide stage.
Concert Review | Two Outstanding Ukrainian Artists Make Memorable TSO Debuts
BY JOSEPH SO ON 20 NOVEMBER 2023
It is always a pleasure for the discerning music lover to experience the artistry of world class musicians for the first time. This week, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s audience was treated to not one, but two sensational TSO debuts of Ukrainian artists, conductor Oksana Lyniv and pianist Illia Ovcharenko….
Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Photo by Jag Gundu)
Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Photo by Jag Gundu)
A Resounding Success
2023 Artists in performance
The performance in review
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Ukrainian Art Song Project – round 5
Sunday afternoon in the Temerty Theatre the participants in this year’s Ukrainian art song intensive presented the results of their efforts during the week. There were eight singers (nine if one adds in mentor Benjamin Butterfield who came in for a couple of numbers). Steven Philcox and Leanne Regehr shared the piano parts.
Like previous years it was staged “in the round” in Temerty with the piano at centre and the audience ranged around it on all sides. Singers came and went, singing from the centre or the periphery. It was really quite slick and ensured that the two halves of the programme flowed. A variety of composers and poets from the 19th century to the present were featured. A lot of Ukrainian art song has significant folk influences but it seemed particularly strong in the twenty odd songs chosen this year. There were touches of church music influence too. Perhaps given current events it was inevitable that there would be a bent towards the wistful, sad and even downright depressing. There were songs explicitly about Ukraine’s tragic history:
The fields, the field!
Mother Earth herself!
What endless blood and tears
The wind has scattered on you[1]But even the love songs are sad:
Why does the wound in my heart fester,
Singed by the poison of your arrow?There was one comic song though; The Chumak and the Tar Pot with music by Yakiv Stepovy and text by Stepan Rudansky. This got a staging that was as silly as the song and was presented with excellent fooling by Yanina Kosivanova, Benjamin Butterfield and Sergey Lavrentyev.
There was some really good lyric singing. I was particularly impressed by Jennifer Turner’s rich, expressive and rather dramatic soprano but there was much to like too in the younger, brighter sounds of Maria Pottle and Yanina Kosivanova. Mezzo Kimberley Denis showed some impressive low notes in the rather beautiful ensemble number that closed the concert.
Among the gentlemen I really enjoyed Andrew Wolf’s expressively beautiful tenor but there was fine singing from the baritones too. Sergey Lavrentyev was solid across a range of emotional registers, Nazaril Mykhailenko showed some beautiful tone especially when singing softly and Alastair Thorburn-Vitols showed some real dramatic flair. All in all it was pretty satisfying!
note 1: Oleksander Konysky trans Uliana Pasicznyk & Maxim Tamawsky
note 2: Yaroslav Bodnar trans ditto note 3: At Night on the Burial Mound; music – Kyrylo Stetsenko, text – Boris Hrinchenkon text goes here -
By Joseph So on August 29, 202
Now in its fifth year, the Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute is designed to introduce the wealth of Ukrainian art songs to singers from Canada and abroad in a week of intensive masterclasses, culminating in a final concert. Having been attending these events except for 2020 and 2021 when the concerts were cancelled due to COVID-19, I am always struck by the high calibre of the performers, young artists with fresh, attractive voices, some of them may well become stars of the future.
This year was no exception. The concert took place at its usual venue, Temerty Theatre. It’s essentially a large rehearsal studio in the Telus Centre for Performance and Learning, a new building that houses the superb Koerner Hall, adjacent to the Royal Conservatory of Music. Sunday’s concert featured nine of the ten young artists, with theatre in the round seating and an ideal, intimate feel to the proceedings. The space was totally full — my guess is there were likely close to 200 in attendance. We were treated to a most enjoyable afternoon of vocalism.
The program consisted of 22 songs by Ukrainian composers, chosen from over 1,000 art songs known to be in existence. Stylistically, these songs range from the high Romanticism of Mykola Lysenko and Kyrylo Stetsenko to the more angular and edgy Modernist style of Stefania Turkewich. Incidentally, all audience members received as a lovely souvenir a 2 CD box set of Stetsenko songs, recorded in 2006 and featuring bass-baritone Pavlo Hunka and Canadians Russell Braun and Ben Butterfield.
Many of the songs in this concert were chosen to reflect and underscore the strength and resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of Russian aggression. The program grouped into four sections, namely The Fate of Ukraine, Love, Challenges of Life, and Thoughts of Eternal Life. Weighty material to be sure, delving deeply into the psyche of each listener. Reading the text of some of the songs, I found a lump in my throat, so I can imagine how emotional an experience it must be for the Ukrainians in the audience.
The 22 songs were mostly solos, with a few duets and one trio, the last sung by the full ensemble. The singers are in different stages of their vocal journey — some are more works in progress, while others are nearly ready for a professional career. What they do have in common are uncommon potential, sincerity, enthusiasm, and full commitment to the material, to communicate the joy of music-making. Yes, I can hear it in their voices, in their interpretation of the songs, and in their body language.
Highlights? I confess I tend to gravitate towards the more melodically inspired, tonal and accessible songs, many by Stetsenko and Lysenko. This is not to say I cannot appreciate the more angular and dissonant works, like “I Yearn for You” by Stefania Turkewich. It’s just that these more stylistically Modernist songs are a harder nut to crack so to speak, requiring more work on the part of the listener, perhaps more of an intellectual probing into its musical kernel of truth to gain a full appreciation.
Having been interested in art songs most of my life, I’ve noticed that songs from Slavic folk cultures like Ukraine are predominantly composed in minor key and shrouded in melancholia, with exquisite and evocative melodies that linger in the consciousness. Even the happy songs sound sad, and I am only half joking! Well, there was a singular exception this afternoon, the ironic ditty “The Chumak and the Tar Pot” by Yakiv Stepovy, here given a broad comic stroke in its delivery, with tenor Benjamin Butterfield gamely deputizing for the indisposed Ian Bannerman.
Once again, a beautiful recital, now taking place a year and a half after the Russian invasion. Last year’s concert took place only six months after the start of the war. Now 18 months later, the war continues. It really underscores the importance of music, serving to calm the spirit and soothe the soul.
At the end, the audience joined in to sing “Bozhe velykyi, yedynyi,” a patriotic song by Mykola Lysenko, same as last year. Sadly, this year there was no proclamation, in Ukrainian, of “Glory to Ukraine, Glory to our Heroes,” but I am sure everyone present felt it in their heart.
In the news
Our Founding Sponsors
Stand with Ukraine
The Canadian Ukrainian Opera Association and Ukrainian Art Song Project stand with Ukraine in its battle for freedom. We pray for the courageous Ukrainian nation as it defends its right to peace, democracy, and the rule of law. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!
Ukrainian Canadian Leadership Establishes Humanitarian Relief Hub in Preparation for Further Russian Invasion
TORONTO/OTTAWA – The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) today announced the establishment of a Humanitarian Relief Committee in preparation of a humanitarian crisis ensuing from further Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Art Song Project
The Ukrainian Art Song Project and the Musica Leopolis recording label were founded in 2004 with the dream of acquiring and promoting the classical treasures of Ukrainian art song. The project is a ground-breaking initiative that aims to record and publish a veritable anthology of over 1,000 art songs by 26 of Ukraine’s greatest composers for distribution to the music world. Equally important is introducing Ukrainian art songs to students in international conservatories and Faculties of Music.
The label has recorded over 350 dramatic songs, many of them masterpieces, of composers such as Mykola Lysenko, Kyrylo Stetsenko, Yakiv Stepovyi, Stefania Turkewich and Vasyl Barvinsky. Musical scores are published on the Ukrainian Art Song Project website and can be downloaded free of charge.
This landmark project was envisioned and founded by Pavlo Hunka, acclaimed British bass-baritone, who teamed with Roman Hurko, composer and opera director, to produce the recordings. The project operates under the auspices of the Canadian Ukrainian Opera Association, a registered charity, whose objectives are to promote Ukrainian classical music in all forms including live performances and recordings. The Ukrainian Art Song Project is managed by a volunteer Board based in Toronto that is responsible for fulfilling the aims of the project and spearheading communication, fundraising and events.
The Ukrainian Art Song Project is supported by an international cast of artists and enthusiastic music lovers, and will leave an extraordinary musical legacy to the world. Imagine being part of this.
UMF song library
Over 300 hundred songs and counting in Lyric sheets, Scores and Sibelius files, free to download.
