Myroslava KOTOROVYCH: The Treasure of Hlodosky award will help me release father’s last album
The Treasure of Hlodosky award is now five years old. It was founded by Ukrainian writer, publicist and publisher Hryhorii Huseinov, and has survived changes in government, economic crises, political arrangements, and some “friendly persons” on the award committee.
Having received the Shevchenko Prize in 2006 for The Lord’s Grains, a semi-documentary novel in ten volumes, Huseinov decided to use the prize money (100,000 hryvnias) to establish a new award. He presented this idea to scholar Mykola Zhulynsky and Executive Director of the League of Ukrainian Philanthropists Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky. The idea was for the founder to have the right to determine an iconic person in Ukrainian culture at his own discretion. The first winner of the Treasure of Hlodosky was the young bandurist Taras Kompanichenko from Kyiv. Having received the award, he was later decorated with the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine. Next year, the award went to poet Viktor Neborak. He was succeeded by Donetsk-born poet Emma Andijewska from Munich, Germany. Author Kost Moskalets was the penultimate winner.
This year, the award was won by Myroslava Kotorovych — a famous Ukrainian violinist known for her creative experiments and discoveries, the winner of multiple international competitions, author of a cycle of music and theater projects in the musical novel genre (consisting of The Role for the Violin, The Creation, Violin Caprices, On the Stairs, and Necklace of Childhood Dreams), and co-author of the Feeling on the Scales project. Incidentally, she performed the soundtrack to poems read by Lina Kostenko, when recording the accompanying CD for Kostenko’s book Heraclites’ River. According to Kotorovych, she will use the award to further the development of Ukrainian culture, in line with her earlier achievements. For example, in 2009 she managed to record a classical music album for children together with her father, the founder of Ukrainian violin school Bohodar Kotorovych. It was her father’s last record. The album was never released, but now it has become possible thanks to the Treasure of Hlodosky award.
Over the award’s lifetime another tradition has been established: for the winner to visit some charming places in Ukraine on The Day after the award ceremony. Observing the tradition, the previous project’s participants visited the hometown of poet Yevhen Malaniuk in Kirovohrad oblast, the native village of poet and scriptwriter Mykola Vingranovsky in Mykolaiv oblast, the hometown of Neo-Classic poet Pavlo Fylypovych in Cherkasy oblast, and the native village of poet Vasyl Symonenko in Poltava oblast. In 2011, the award recipient will visit, together with Huseinov, the places associated with Lesia Ukrainka, including the city of Lutsk. They plan to go beyond exploring the city and perform a concert in the Liubart Castle. Kotorovych will be joined by Kompanichenko, Zhulynsky, Slaboshpytsky, and Andijewska. By the way, there was another reason for the choice of Lutsk. The great-grandfather of this year’s Treasure of Hlodosky award winner was Father Ioann, a priest in the town of Kivertsi in Volhynia, of which Lutsk is the capital.
