(UE). — On Palm Sunday, the capital of our nation played host to theUKchoir “The Bulava Chorus” under the direction of its conductor Pavlo Hunka, the famous international opera singer. Both conductor and choir had long planned this trip to Kyiv and its purpose was two-fold – learning and artistic. After numerous successful performances inBritainand in other European countries, the choristers initially decided to travel toUkraineto test their vocal skills and artistic performance of their choral repertoire by the harshest critics – in front of a Ukrainian audience, on the very soil where this musical culture was first created and performed. This was, for the majority of the singers, a most extraordinary challenge – both emotionally and professionally. The choristers did not explore Kyiv for long – only a few days – to acclimatise and familiarise themselves with the spirit of Maidan, to experience famous Ukrainian hospitality, and also to take part in rehearsals to achieve their main goal: on Palm Sunday, to accompany the Archeparchial Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, led by the blessed Patriarch Sviatoslav, and after the Divine Liturgy, to perform a concert in honour of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Taras Shevchenko in the same church which is nestled into the left bank plains of the eternal Dnipro.
The Bulava Chorus was founded in 2001 and originally consisted only of male voices, from amateur singers and solely from Ukrainians – descendants of political refugees after the Second World War. Subsequently the choir was replenished with female voices and became a mixed choir, where the conductor meticulously picked voices with a marked Slavonic timbre. The artistic mantra of the choir, in the words of its founder Pavlo Hunka is that “We are trying to create a single, unified sound in performance, which combines the dark and sonorous Slavic tone with a free western spirit.” In this current phase of the choir, Bulava has been enriched by new singers, including 14 talented soloists from the Royal Northern College of Music inManchesterand among them are gifted Scottish singers. The British choristers have demonstrated a high level of culture through their performance of the works of Ukrainian Classical composers to the words of Taras Shevchenko.
Unlike many others choirs that enhance the celebration of the Divine Liturgy with the works of various composers, while randomly mixing different music styles during one Mass, artistic director and conductor of The Bulava Chorus, Pavlo Hunka, mastered, not only artistically but prayerfully, the full Divine Liturgy of St. Chrysostom by composer Kyrylo Stetsenko which is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Byzantine-Ukrainian church music of the 20th Century.
Despite the fact that the choir is “amateur”, and is partly composed of students of music from RNCM, they performed surprisingly professionally from a musical and vocal perspective, meaning the choristers sang in full voice and in keeping with a high culture of choral singing. Combining Ukrainian voices and scores with English educated performers is a formula which yields wonderful artistic results. With a choir like this, you could find success performing all over the world.
The choir highlighted yet another well know maxim, namely, “Every choir is only as good as their conductor”. In this case, the success and standard of vocal performance of the members of Bulava owes a debt of gratitude to the talent, knowledge and inspiration of their conductor Pavlo Hunka, for its energetic, talented and musically erudite performances.
Believers who came en masse to celebrate Palm Sunday at the Kyiv Cathedral of the UGCC really enjoyed the liturgy. The choir sounded surprisingly natural and aroused deep emotions in those participating in the celebration of the Liturgy. One could even say that at times the choir sang in the style of Verdi, where their solemn religious way of singing turned into a lively dialogue in its manner of performance in some parts of the Liturgy, which the conductor achieves by dividing the performance of one melodic phrase to the male voice section and then to the female voice section which is unusual and unexpected for visitors to liturgies of the Eastern Rite. The Epistle was read by Xenia Zwarycz who is gifted with a fine soprano voice – her voice had a pure, bright tone and she sang with clear diction of the text. Before Communion, the prayer “Lord, I Believe”, against the quietened tones of the choir, was expressively recited by a Bass reader, also with a clear and solemn sound – like a voice emanating from heaven which rained down gently onto the faithful…
And one more observation: the vocal preferences of the conductor can also be seen in the fact that he personally works with the group of voices which he loves most. Under the leadership of Pavlo Hunka some of the most expressive parts are performed by the basses and baritones because the conductor himself performs bass-baritone arias. It not only sounds natural, but sounds particularly energetic and beautiful in unexpected places and makes the choir sound very dynamic.
After the Liturgy, when Patriarch Sviatoslav thanked the choir and announced that it had been sung by guests fromEngland, the faithful did not hold back and applauded excitedly. During the concert after the Liturgy, the choir presented the people of Kyiv with performances by soloists and the chorus alike, to the words of Taras Shevchenko in honour of the 200th anniversary of his birth. The pinnacles of the choir’s performances were, for the Mass, the prayer for Ukraine - “O Great God”, and for the concert, the famous National Anthem of Ukraine - “The Glory and Freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished”, to which the audience spontaneously responded with a rendition of “Many Years” for their guests from Britain.
After this very fulfilling and successful premiere in Kyiv for The Bulava Chorus and its English soloists, the reputation of conductor and singer Pavlo Hunka has been elevated inUkraine. The wider general public ofUkraineneed to be informed about Pavlo Hunka as he continues his work as an operatic Bass-baritone, performing operatic roles on many stages throughout the world, and as conductor of The Bulava Chorus. However, they need to know another little known but important fact about Pavlo Hunka – he is the devoted creator and inspiration behind the Ukrainian Art Song Project (for more information, you can learn about the project at www.uasp.ca) which he started in Toronto, Canada where he gained active support from the community. He has spent many years gathering scores and musical materials of Ukrainian Solo works and encouraging famous foreign singers to incorporate Ukrainian classical works into their repertoires and he also makes records and CDs of these works – to date he has released the works of Mykola Lysenko, Kyrylo Stetsenko, Jakiv Stepvij and most recently a CD of recordings of the solo works of various composers to the words of the poet whose anniversary we now celebrate, Taras Shevchenko.
By performing these cultural research activities on an international stage with the devoted aim of preserving these Ukrainian classical musical treasures, which could otherwise have been lost or forgotten, and popularising them on the world stage, Pavlo Hunka can deservedly be put forward into the competition to win the Shevchenko Prize in 2015. To achieve this, they would need to put in more informational and organisational effort but then they could be crowned with the laureate’s success.
Through his artistic activities in popularising the best samples of Ukrainian musical culture throughout the world, Pavlo Hunka continues the historic mission, started in the last century by his famous predecessors, conductors O. Koshyts’, H. Kytastyj, V. Bozhyk, P. Potapenko, M. Maksymiv, J. Babunjak, composers A.Hnatyshyn, Prof. M. Antonovych and his famous Utrecht Chorus, tenor M. Skala-Starytskyj, I. Malanjuk, J. Hoshuljak, P. Plishka, V. Lutsiv – to name but a few of the most famous names.
Each new generation of Ukrainian artists emerges from the ranks of talented and dedicated ambassadors of Ukrainian high culture, in this instance, musical culture, which is just as important for the promotion of the distinctive high culture ofUkraineamongst the social elite of developed countries. Many talented Ukrainian singers and musical performers are prepared to aid and even succeed Pavlo Hunka in his role as a global cultural ambassador of Ukraine, namely, M. Lukjanets, L. Monatyrska, O. Dyka, A. Kocherha, T. Konoshenko, M. Talaba, D. Popov etc. and a young and promising conductor Kyryl Karabyts and new talent continues to grow in Ukraine.
Letters
Dear Pavlo, Larysa and Bulava,
I, like many of my friends in Bulava, was quite apprehensive at times about what Kiev was going to bring and throw at us on our visit, but when the day came, and I was getting up at some ungodly time to catch the flight, I was only a few days ago nervous about catching, I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of excitement about the trip and the worries seemed to have disappeared. These lack of worries were confirmed on our arrival toKiev, as we very quickly realised, while although it was and is a city of mourning, they are such a wonderful people (unless they are driving, that ability seems to have escaped them). On the walk to the Opera theatre on the first day all of those emails saying "don't worry, we know people there and they are telling us all is well" suddenly rang very true.
As I and the rest of the gang continued to discoverKievand what it had to offer us, which turned out be everything when the exchange rate was 21.50 to the pound (i'm still astonished). We started to fall in love with place, or at least i did, and not because of its looks, which lets be honest, it's no Leicester city town centre ;) and that's saying something, but it had it's own unique charm that i have never experienced anywhere before, it probably exists all over eastern Europe, although i do suppose recent events have added to this sense of unity that was clearly apparent wherever you went.
The sense of Unity brings me on the most moving, and humbling day of the trip. Maidan. wow, that took my breath away, and having Olia there was for us the best thing, as it really made it hit hard and make it real having someone with us was so connected with the place where we stood, and her emotions which she allowed us to see and hear was very brave and wonderful of her, as it made our experience move on to that next level up, and is something I will and cannot ever forget, so thank you Olia for that, and thank you for everything else you have done for us during our entire involvement with the choir.
Maidan was the main reason i brought my camera to theUkraine, I wanted to be able to take images that really meant something, and that i hope i could attempt to portray some of what has happened and continues to happen to those people who were not there. As it turns out, the experience was too much, and i don't think any photo can really stand up to the emotion we all felt in it's presence. One photo i did take, which if i picked a single moment from the trip as a the most stand out moment, it was when one of the men living in Maidan, a man who had been there for four months! so i'm told and came fromCrimeato help fight the cause and never left, allowed me to take his photo. At this moment my heart started racing slightly, and my hands were a little shaky, as this was the picture i had wanted to take, but though i would be too nervous to do so, but he honoured me be standing still for me, looking right at me and allowing ME to take his photo. That is a moment that really will always be with me, and i can never forget his face and quite how humbled and proud and honoured i felt that i was allowed to take his photo, I was, if i'm honest almost brought to tears by it.
The experience of Maidan suddenly made the music we were singing and why we singing it, specifically the Art songs make sense. They brought a reality to the whole thing. I can compare this to when I play Irish fiddle, performing slow airs i think of the rolling hills in south west cork and the hardship that many irishmen went through during the Potato famine, and it bring life to the music. This same effect happened here. Seeing what's happened on the news doesn't do it, you have to be there, feel it, smell it, hear it. I think these feelings were evident in every performance the RNCM did of our solo songs, we had all discussed our feelings as they were so out in the open at the time and we had all felt this sense of reality for the music we were singing.
The service and the concert were just magic, the choir really came through and every single one of us was on the tips of Pavlo's fingers, all expressing the music as one. This was then hit for six byXenia's wonderful singing of the Apostle, i was transfixed the whole time, and she put us all to shame with such stunning singing and emotion.
Finishing on Reve ta stohne was incredible, from Pavlo's solo to the part of "duh-duh-duh; REVE TA STOOOOHNE" it was just immense and finished the day of with a roar!
This is all i really have to say other than the fact that I am so happy that I came toKievthis week and that I really hope that it is not the last time I will see you all, and that you may bless me with all of your wonderful and passionate voices.
Slava BULAVA! (don't know if that's correct but i'm going for it!)
Eugene
Dear Pavlo, Larysa and Bulava,
It was with heartfelt thanks that I compose this e-mail to you all after what has been one of the most incredible, eye opening and humbling experiences of my life. Having the opportunity to visit a part of the world I previously knew little about with as wonderful a group of people as Bulava is something I will never forget.
Performing the liturgy for the Palm Sunday Service as part of Bulava was a truly memorable experience. Singing such beautiful music in somewhere as extraordinary as the Cathedral is a memory I will treasure forever and I cannot thank you enough for allowing us to sing with your wonderful chorus.
As my RNCM colleagues have said, I was unsure what to expect of the trip due to recent events inUkraine. However, what I observed of this proud nation was fascinating and extremely moving. I have never before witnessed the sense of passion and unity that we experienced in Sunday’s concert, especially during Zapovit and the National Anthem, and any of you that saw me afterwards will realise just how overwhelming I found the whole experience, especially after our incredibly touching visit to Maidan a few days previously. I must mention a woman who kindly gave me a well-loved Ukrainian ribbon as a token after the concert, I have kept this in my liturgy along with a pressing of the flowers we were presented so the next time I open it I will be reminded of this very special day. Throughout our time inKiev, we were told many times how touched people were that we were singing Ukrainian art songs in Ukrainian to Ukrainian people, but it was my absolute delight and privilege to be introduced to the beautiful art songs ofUkraineand share them with you all.
I cannot express how grateful I am to Bulava for welcoming us so warmly to the Chorus and allowing us to join you in song. I feel most honoured and look forward to singing with you again in the future!
