Cultural Fund Music Series Performance

Sunday, May 19, 2002 at 3:00 pm

Ola Herasymenko, vocalist and bandura player, and Yuriy Oliynyk, pianist, perform a program of Ukrainian folk and classical music at:

The Lyceum
201 S. Washington St.
Old Town, Alexandria

Need directions?

Suggested donation $15, students free.

Reception for the artists will follow the program.

Presented by The Washington Group Cultural Fund in collaboration with the Embassy of Ukraine, as part of their 2001-2002 Music Series.

For more information, please contact Laryssa Courtney at 202-363-3964.

OLA HERASYMENKO OLIYNYK, born in Lviv, Ukraine, is the first professional bandurist to have been featured as a soloist with American symphony orchestras. Together with her husband, composer and pianist Yuriy Oliynyk, she has performed Ukrainian music throughout North America. Her repertoire includes works of Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Bortniansky, among others. Prior to settling in the United States, she performed in and directed a bandura trio that toured Europe and Japan. Mrs. Herasymenko Oliynyk received her Bachelor’s degree at the Lviv Lysenko Conservatory and her Master’s at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Kyiv. In 1999 she recorded three of her husband’s concertos for bandura and symphony orchestra. This was the first recording ever featuring the bandura and a symphony orchestra on a CD. Subsequently, she was awarded a medal and the title of Merited Artist of Ukraine by President Leonid Kuchma. Her instrument was custom built by her father, Professor Vasyl Herasymenko. His concert banduras are highly sought by musicians in Ukraine and abroad.

YURIY OLIYNYK, born in Ternopil, Ukraine, began to study piano at age seven. World War II forced his father, a prominent Ukrainian lawyer, and the entire family to flee to Austria, and later to Germany in order to escape an advancing Soviet Army. His music studies continued in Germany after the war. Having emigrated to the United States in 1950, he received a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Master of Arts degree in Musicology from Case Western Reserve University. Mr. Oliynyk has been active as a concert pianist, a teacher and composer in the United States and Europe. His compositions include works for piano solo, piano with orchestra and voice, bandura solo, and bandura with orchestra. In 1999 three of his concertos for bandura and orchestra were recorded on a CD, with his wife Ola Herasymenko as soloist. This was the first CD featuring the bandura with a symphony orchestra. His works for bandura and piano and bandura solo were recorded on a separate CD that same year, also with Ola Herasymenko as soloist. Subsequently, he received a citation with a medal for his contribution to music from the Ukrainian government. In October of 2000 a World Premiere of Mr. Oliynyk’s piano concerto took place in Europe with Oksana Rapita as soloist. Currently, Mr. Oliynyk teaches music at American River College in Sacramento, California.

PROGRAM

Bandura- Piano

Yuriy Oliynyk – Spring Dance (bandura and piano)
Yuriy Oliynyk – Harvest Rites (bandura and piano)
Walking through the Orchard – Ukrainian Folk Song (bandura and vocal)
Petro Honcharenko – Tropak Dance (bandura)
O, Native Country – Victor Matiuk (bandura and vocal)
Yuriy Oliynyk – Toccata (bandura)
Olexander Bilash, words by Dmytro Pavlychko – “The Cranes Flew toward Chornobyl” (bandura and vocal)
Oksana Herasymenko – Elegy (bandura)
Yuriy Oliynyk – Concerto No. 2, Movement II (bandura and piano)

Intermission

Serhiy Bashtan – Barcarole (bandura)
Petro Kucherenko, words by Taras Shevchenko – “Yaroslavna’s Lament” (bandura and vocal)
J. S. Bach – Counrante (bandura)
Kost Novytsky – Variations (bandura)
Ukrainian Folk Song – “The Green Oak” (bandura and vocal)
Oksana Herasymenko – “Passacaglia” (bandura)
Unknown Ukrainian Composer of the 18th century – Variations on a Theme of Mozart (bandura)
Ukrainian Folk Song – “The Dove Flew over the Meadow” (bandura)
Dmytro Bortniansky – Concerto in D Major (bandura and piano)