Commemorating Kvitka Cisyk

On the eve of Kvitka Cisyk’s birthday (1953–98) the Maria Zankovetska National Academic Ukrainian Drama Theater held a memorial soiree. The participants included People’s Artists of Ukraine Nina Matvienko and Ivan Popovych, Merited Artists of Ukraine Viktor Pavlik and Liubov Kachala, and others.

“This soiree is a unique precedent of taking pride in outstanding people of Ukrainian origin who spread and defend Ukraine’s positive image in the world with their lives and creative work. This is also the first high-level Ukrainian-American project dedicated to Kvitka Cisyk in Ukraine — the country of her origin, which she visited only once in 1983. She was dreaming of making a tour across independent Ukraine,” the organizers of the event have told The Day.

Kvitka Cisyk was born in the US to a family of Ukrainian emigrants. She studied at the New York Conservatory, where she mastered the vocal technique and perfected her voice, the coloratura soprano. Never forgetting her roots, Kvitka recorded two albu-ms of Ukrainian songs, “Kvitka, Songs of Ukraine” and “Kvitka, Two Colors.” The singer planned to record also an album of lullabies.

Eleven years ago Kvitka Cisyk died of breast cancer. Thus the organizers of the soiree will donate part of the money raised from ticket sales to the Woman’s Health and Family Planning charitable foundation within the framework of the international program “Together against Breast Cancer.”