Ukrainians on New York’s Artistic Olympus: Autumnal Sketches

It is normal to look for one’s ethnic roots in the multinational American culture and feel gratified spotting ones. It is gratifying to know that Ukraine is among the participants in the culture of a country claiming the lead worldwide. One of the local newspapers, Mist (The Bridge), a US-Canadian publication, carried a sensational feature: Ukrainians were among those that wrote the American Constitution, a document praised over the past 200 years. Its principal author, Samuel Adams, had Ukrainian roots. His ancestor, Petro Adamovych, is alleged to have immigrated to England shortly after the Battle of Poltava where he changed his name to Adams. In 1710, he appeared on the American continent. Samuel Adams was his descendant. It will not be easy for any of the readers to explore the Adams family tree to verify this extremely intriguing assumption. However, every fact cited below is an irrefutable current reality.

UKRAINIANS IN METROPOLITAN OPERA

In New York, a lot of publicity was centered on the premiere of Puccini’s Adelia that took place at Carnegie Hall on November 11 staged by the world-famous Metropolitan Opera. Two vocal parts were sung by Ukrainians: Paul Plishka (bass) and Stephen Pyatnychko (baritone).

Paul Plishka, a Ukrainian American, a soloist with Metropolitan Opera since 1967, famed for leading parts in Aida, Othello, Lucia di Lammermoor, etc. In 1988 he won a Grammy Award (1988) for a classical music album. He appears regularly in leading European operas and is acutely aware of his ethnic origin.

Stephen Pyatnychko, 36, is also a soloist. Born in Ternopil oblast, graduate of Lviv Conservatory (1987), he debuted in Europe in 1996 with Vienna Opera, followed by operatic appearances in Austria, Baltimore, and is under contract in San Francisco until 2002. And now New York. Kudos for Ukrainians!

AMERICAN BANDURA TRIO

Hryhory Kytasty’s name is well known in Ukraine and North America. Bandurist and composer from Poltava oblast who used to head the world-famous Bandurist Choir which immigrated after WW II first to Europe and then to Detroit in the United States, almost in full strength. After almost 50 years of successful tours of America the second generation grew to follow in the fathers’ footsteps, among them Hryhory’s son Julian Kytasty, currently artistic director of the Kobzar School, head of an experimental bandura trio in New York, currently with a modern arranged classical repertoire for this instrument. In mid-November, the trio appeared in a concert, Old Ukrainian Songs in Modern Rendition, at the Ukrainian Institute of America (New York) as part of the Urozhai (Harvest) Festival. Ukrainian Song Today. Incidentally, the Yara group, member of the reputed La Mama experimental theater, led by Virliana Tkach, an American-born Ukrainian, was the festival’s organizer and participant. Thanks to Virliana, Yara’s international composition propagates Ukrainian art (poetry, songs, and music) among English- speaking Americans. The group has several times appeared at Kyiv’s Berezillia Theatrical Festival.

CHOREOGRAPHER MARTYNIUK, WINNER OF A PRESTIGIOUS US AWARD

Niusha Martyniuk, a Ukrainian-American, is currently a professor of dance at Oberlin College, Ohio, and is part owner of a modern dance company, with 26 years of terpsichorean experience. She started by learning Ukrainian dancing from her father. In her words, as a choreographer she still uses fiery Ukrainian techniques in her renditions, acknowledged as best by the Art Jury of Cleveland, Ohio.

FRANCHUK AND DOSTOYEVSKY’S IDIOT IN NEW YORK

Kyiv theatergoers must remember Anatoly Franchuk’s stage version of Metamorphoses that remained in the repertoire for a decade. Odesa knows him as well. Today Franchuk can refer to himself as a citizen of the world. Since 1994, he has lived and worked as a stage director in New York. At the Art Theater, founded by him together with his colleague, former Moscow actor Stas Klassen, he has staged Chekhov and Ostrovsky over the past 4-5 years, moonlighting in Madrid, Stockholm, Moscow, and Novokuznetsk.

Late this year — rather, this millennium — Franchuk presented another premier in the capital of the world, New York, Dostoyevsky’s Idiot. He considers the play not only a classic, but also modern from an artistic standpoint. The English version covers the whole text, names included, because he thinks them too meaningful to be left untranslated. Thus, Count Myshkin is Mousy and Lebedev, Swanie. Working with the US cast is easy, because every actor and actress is willing to follow the Ukrainian director’s direction. “Two rehearsals here produce the kind of effect I could hope for after two months of work back in Ukraine,” he says.

Anatoly Franchuk began his theatrical education in Kyiv, in a class guided by Les Kurbas’s student, Verkhadsky. In America, all Soviet and post-Soviet immigrants are collectively referred to as Russians by force of habit, including classics such as Bortniansky, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, et al., whose talent thrived or just appeared in Ukraine. Therefore, additions and corrections about who came from where are quite relevant and useful for us.