Kvitka’s city
Lviv hosts the first international competition of Ukrainian romance
Lviv — The international competition was held within the framework of the Ukrainian-American project “Unforgettable Kvitka,” which aims at holding concerts and soirees in commemoration of Kvitka Cisyk, an American singer of Ukrainian ethnicity, who died of breast cancer in 1998, at the age of 44.
The founder and producer of the competition is a former Odesa resident, currently an American citizen Alex Gutmacher, who underwent cancer treatment in the same hospital as Kvitka and overcame the disease.
“We want to show with the help of this competition that the entire world loves Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian songs,” Gutmacher emphasized in his comment to The Day. “But our competition also has a social-charity context: we aim to draw attention to oncology problems, specifically breast cancer, which was not only the cause of Kvitka’s death, but her mother’s and sister’s too. So we want to buy a mammogram for the mountainous region of Lviv oblast.”
Over 30 participants volunteered to take part in the event. The jury, including the People’s Artist of Ukraine Nina Matviienko, head of the Department of Ukraine’s Ethnicities and Ukrainian Diaspora at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Ukraine Liubov Zubko, director-general of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine Oleksandr Hornostai, composer Kyrylo Stetsenko and Alex Gutmacher, selected 14 participants representing, besides Ukraine, eight countries: Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Hungary, Russia, Moldova, the US. The youngest participant, 15-year-old Tetiana Lavriv, came to the competition from Ivano-Frankivsk.
The competition was a noteworthy event for Lviv residents. The hall of the Lviv Philharmonic Society was overcrowded both on the first day, when the competition was actually taking place, and on the second one, when the results were announced. The grand-prix went to Lviv resident Oksana Mukha. The audience’s prize went to 17-year-old Khrystyna Makhno (US), who incidentally studies at the same school that Kvitka Cisyk used to study. The first place was divided between Liutsyna Khvorost from Kharkiv and Vitalii Soboliev from Chernivtsi; Olha Akulova from Donetsk and Roman Medenu from Hungary shared the second place, and the third place was divided between Svitlana Sasu from Moldova and Eduard Natochev from Russia. The performers from Estonia, Romania, Poland, and Latvia received diplomas.
Within the competition’s framework Cisyk’s museum was launched in school No. 54. It displays her documents and personal possessions, which Gutmacher brought from Kvitka’s family in the US. Kvitka was commemorated by planting an apple tree and guilder rose at the World Ukrainian Garden, which was founded last year at the Shevchenko Grove. A certificate was given to Kvitka’s family in Lviv, which indicates that a star has been named after Kvitka.
According to the producer, Gutmacher, and the main sponsor of the competition, an entrepreneur from Odesa, Dmytro Volkov, they will do their utmost to make the competition “Unforgettable Kvitka” an annual event. Remarkably, the event was noticed at the highest levels. Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych, and the ministries of culture and foreign affairs sent telegrams approving of the competition.
