The Washington Group Cultural Fund 2001-2002 Music Series
Sunday, September 23, 2001 - 3 o’clock
The Washington Group Cultural Fund under the patronage of the Embassy of
Ukraine opens its 2001-2002 Music Series with singer Mariana Sadovska
performing old Ukrainian folk songs collected during her expeditions in the
Poltava, Hutsul and Lemko regions of Ukraine accompanied by slide projections of
these areas.
The Lyceum
Alexandria’s History Museum
201 South Washington Street
(Old Town) Alexandria, Virginia
Suggested donation $15; students free
For further information call 202-363-3964
“After ten years of travel, I understand that a song can be a map which
leads you to your life”
Mariana Sadovska
“Some moments in the performance recalled white gospel music from
Appalachia. At other times... she could have been singing the same material in
front of a rock trio. It doesn’t matter whether she is singing soul or bel
canto or folk. The responsibilities, protocol and tradition of whatever style
she is working in just vanish; she replaces them with pure vitality.”
The New York Times
Singer and actress Mariana Sadovska launched The Washington Group Cultural
Fund's 2001-2002 concert series on September 23, before a capacity audience at
the Lyceum in Old Town Alexandria, with a recital illustrating the depth and
breadth of emotions expressed in the folk songs of Ukraine.
From a young woman's longing for the carefree moments of her childhood in
“Oivershe, miy vershe” to the rollicking “Pyiemo, pyiemo,” in which four
women wonder what kind of liquor could have made them so drunk after three days
of drinking, the program moved the audience from sadness to laughter, and then
further into the heartrending grief of a young widow asking her son about the
whereabouts of his father in "Vdova" and to outright hilarity over a
young village woman's marital problems with a much older man in "Ozhenyvsia
staryidid".
The program selections included songs from Ukraine's various ethnographic
regions — Lemko, Lviv, Poltava, Hutsul and Polissia, to which Ms. Sadovska had
conducted expeditions to collect their authentic folk songs and traditions —
as well as examples from neighboring Poland and from Serbia.
Ms. Sadovska used a harmonium to intensify the colors and shades of her
voice. When she sang about a girl who became a bird in her mother’s orchard,
the audience heard trills, warbling and quivers. And the coloration of her voice
would change from a soothing mother’s lullaby for a nursing baby to a raw,
commanding voice in her “calling” songs, used to draw out spirits and push
away clouds.
To enhance the audience's understanding and appreciation of the program,
Ms. Sadovska introduced and explained each selection in English.
Born in Lviv, Ms. Sadovska performed for three years with that city's
Kurbas Theater. From 1991 to 1999 she worked with the Gardzienice Theater in
Poland, before coming to New York to perform with the Yara Arts Group, where she
is now artist-in-residence.
In her opening remarks, TWG Cultural Fund Director Laryssa Courtney
dedicated the concert to the memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks on
September 11. Minister Counselor Volodymyr Yatsenkivskiy of the Ukrainian
Embassy (which has extended its patronage to the concert series) greeted the
audience, which included the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Green
Miller and his wife Suzanne, both staunch supporters of the Ukrainian arts.
The second of five concerts in the TWG Cultural Fund series on November
4th will feature soprano Lesia Hrabova.
Lesia Bihun
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