Showing 170 results

Authority record
Yaremko, John
Person · 1892-1987

John Yaremko (Іван Яремко) was born in 1892 in Bridok village, Bukovyna, Austro-Hungary and passed away on February 5, 1987, in nursing home in Barrhead. Rose Kotyk, a daughter of Yaremko's nephew Mike Kotyk, wrote his biography which is part to the Yaremko and Kotyk collection.

Yanda, Doris Elizabeth
Person · 1905-2005

Doris E. Yanda, community leader and author, was born on March 16,1905 in Gimli, Manitoba to Anthony and Anna Konashevich, Ukrainian pioneers who arrived in Canada in 1900. The family moved to southwestern Saskatchewan and Doris completed her secondary education in Saskatoon where she attended the P.Mohyla Institute. Throughout her life and career, she continued her education at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Alberta.

She began to write at an early age and wrote poems, articles and stories under the names of Dorothy Yanda, Elizabeth Young and Daria Mohylianka. She was editor of the Women’s Page in the newspapers, Ukrainian Voice and Ukrainian Farmer. She was also on the editorial committee of the Ukrainian Voice.

In 1923, she was one of the organizers of the Ukrainian Ladies Society of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and she held various executive positions including vice-president and president. n June, 1926 she married DmytroYanda, a lawyer. In 1926 she was one of the founders of the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada (UWAC) and held various executive positions at the local, provincial and national levels for many years. In 1933 and 1934 she was National Vice-President and Provincial President of Alberta and in 1935 and 1936, she was National President of the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada. She convened the Ukrainian National Handicraft Exhibit in 1935. In 1952, Mrs. Yanda was honoured with an honorary life membership in the UWAC. She was also active in the National Council of Women and the Women’s Council of Canada.

She was a member of the Canadian Authors’ Association since 1934. She has published numerous articles including books of poetry, in Ukrainian and in English. She has published twelve books on various literary subjects under several pen names.

During the Second World War, she was very active in voluntary war work in Edmonton. She was involved in numerous organizations such as Red Cross, War Savings Stamps, Regional Advisory Committee of the Wartime Price Control Board and others.

In 1948 she was involved with the British Columbia Flood Relief Fund and she also wrote on this disaster for the popular press.

She was also active in the Local Council of Women in Edmonton. Through her work she facilitated the immigration of many Ukrainian Displaced Persons and Refugees to Canada. In 1949 she visited over twenty Displaced Persons Camps in Germany with her husband for three months and they made speaking tours on their return to Canada. She was also involved in voluntary work to assist the newly arrived Ukrainian Displaced Persons.

She was widowed in 1969 and then married John McMullan. She is recognized as a master weaver and taught weaving in Edmonton and organized courses at the Banff Centre - School of Fine Arts from 1976 to 1987.

During her life, she received many awards and distinctions from various national organizations and from the Ukrainian community including the Taras Shevchenko Medal.

Wytwycky, Wasyl
Person · 1905-1999

Composer and musicologist Wasyl Wytwycky (b. 1905, Kolomyiia, Ukraine, d. 1999, Summit, USA) was born into a family of teachers spent part of his childhood in Prague. He studied at the Kolomyiia Gymnasium, the Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian University and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where he completed a doctorate in 1932. He taught at the Music Institute in Przemyśl and worked for the Ukrainian Publishing Institute in Lviv. During the Second World War he moved to Austria. Following the war, he lived in a displaced persons camp in Bavaria, before immigrating to the United States and settling in Detroit in 1949.

As a composer Wytwycky was interested primarily in chamber music, composing works for string quartet, piano trio and four-hands piano, as well as choral arrangements, incidental music and a ballet. Wytwycky published over 250 musicological articles and wrote monographs about composers Michael Hayvoronsky and Maksym Berezovsky.

Vesey, Olga
Person · 1907-1995

Olga's parents Anna and Andrew Lesik were Stundists who came to Canada in 1903 with their families from a small town called Tarascha near Kiev, Ukraine. Her mother Anna had been married to her father Andrew about a year by then. She was 18 years-old and he was 25. All of mother’s family migrated with them including: Anna's parents Mowchan, Olga's married aunt Nadia, her husband Vasyl, and their small daughter Christina, and her four unmarried uncles – Mike, Stephen, John, and Peter. They settled in Winnipeg, the adults found jobs and eventually built a fine house where they lived for several years. Later they decided to move to Saskatchewan where they took up farms in the south-west of the province. Anna and Andrew had children: John Lesik, Eva (Lesik) Babiuk, Vera Lesik (Vera Lysenko), Olga (Lesik) Vesey born 1907, Nadya and Peter.

Olga graduated from Normal School and taught in rural Manitoba. Because of poor health, Olga moved to teach in Winnipeg. After a number of years teaching her health gave way and she had to resign her position. Olga decided to move to British Columbia. For a short while she taught in interior BC, and then moved to Vancouver and then to Vancouver Island where she worked as a principal of a four-roomed school. Olga got married and had her daughter Nina in Victoria. Since Olga's husband didn't have a job, they had to move to Vancouver where they stayed first with Olga's sister Vera Lysenko. Their son David was born with the serious heart condition and he died during heart surgery at the age of six. Olga taught Aboriginal children in Bella-Bella, on the Campbell Island. Eventually she returned to Vancouver, and in 1962 they bought a house in North Vancouver.

Olga's brother John Lesik was the first Ukrainian-Canadian in all of Canada to become a dentist, practicing in Alberta and Ontario. Her sister Eva (Lesik) Babiuk raised three children on her own, working at the Hotel Vancouver until retirement. Vera Lesik (pen name Vera Lysenko) worked as a journalist and was one of the first Ukrainian-Canadians writing in English: Men in Sheepskin Coats, Westerly Wild, and Yellow Boots. One sibling (Nadya) died in a street car accident at an early age. The youngest brother, Peter Lesik was a radio operator in the Second World War.

Olga was a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, hosting yearly garden parties. She translated stories from Ukrainian and some of these were published in The Flying Ship. Some of her translations were African folk tales and stories from ethnic regions from the former Soviet Union—still unpublished. She studied Russian at night school and with a private teacher. Later on in her life she went to UBC part-time, enrolling in upper grade Slavonic Studies, where she studied Ukrainian, the Russian language, Russian history, art and culture, and translation. She finished fourth year studies at the age of 76, having achieved excellent grades. In her eighties she helped to re-publish her sister Vera Lysenko’s novel Yellow Boots.

Turko, Gregory
Person · 1888-1977

Gregory Turko (February 11, 1888 - March 10, 1977, Edmonton, Alberta) was born “in one of the Carpathian Villages” to a family of Ivan and Anastasia Turko. Gregory went to the Ukrainian Gimnasium in Peremyshl. In 1915, he married Maria Horodetska. Turko worked for the tobacco industry. He fought in WWI and WWII.

Turko immigrated to Canada after WWII through the German camps of Displaced Persons and settled in Calgary. After his wife passed away, he moved to Edmonton, where in 1967, he married Ksenia Shklanka. Turko was a member of the Edmonton Branch of the Brotherhood of Former Soldiers of the First Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army (Станиця Братства колишніх вояків Першої української дивізії Української національної армії в Едмонтоні) and Ukrainian War Veterans Association of Canada.

Source:
Турко, Ксеня. “Спомин про бл. П. Григорія Турка.” Ukrainian News, april 21, 1977, p. 6.

Person · 1898-1977

Composer Stefania Turkewich-Lukianowicz (b. 1898, Lviv, Ukraine, d. 1977, Cambridge, United Kingdom) was born into a priestly family active in Ukrainian choral music. She studied in Lviv, in Vienna with Guido Adler, in Berlin with Arnold Schoenberg and in Prague with Zdeněk Nejedlý and Vitězslav Novák. She taught theory, musicology and composition at the Lysenko Music Institute in Lviv, Lviv University and the Lviv Institute of Folk Art. In 1944 she fled Ukraine and settled in the United Kingdom in 1946. Her music combined elements of traditional Ukrainian music with the avant-garde compositional techniques of the Second Viennese School, making her the most experimental and innovative Ukrainian composer of her generation, and also Ukraine’s first professional woman composer. Her output includes seven symphonies, four children’s operas, five ballets, chamber music, solo piano music, art songs and sacred choral music, some of which was lost during the Second World War and little of which has been published.

Telychko, Kost'
Person · 1907-1999

Kost’ Telychko was born in Ohiltsi village, Kharkiv region on May 27, 1907 to the family of Mykhailo and Tetiana Telychko (nee Tymchenko). In 1927 he graduated from the Institute of National Economy. In 1931, he was imprisoned, after getting out of jail, he managed to build a successful career.

By the end of WWII, Telychko lived in Austria, working on construction and Austrian farms. In 1945 he moved to Germany and lived first in Karsfeld DP camp; when the camp was closed in spring 1946, he moved to Mittenwald DP camp, Germany. While in Karsfeld, Telychko became a secretary of the newly founded Ukrainian National State Union organization (Український Нац. Державний Союз). After relocating to the Mittenwald camp, Telychko was elected as the organization's head and participated in all its conventions in 1946, 1947 and 1949.

Telychko arrived in Canada on June 10, 1949, and settled in Edmonton. The same year he became a Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church member. In September 1949, he also joined the Edmonton division of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and remained its member for 22 years. He was also a member of the Ukrainian Self-Reliance Association where in 1950 he served as elected secretary. Telychko worked towards the founding of the Committee for the Ukrainian National Council (Комітет Сприяння Українській Народній Раді), was its secretary for many years and, later, the head of the initiative.

On November 1956 Telychko initiated a radio broadcasts in Edmonton. By 1982 over 381 programs were aired through the CKUA Radio Network. Majority of the programs were written by Kost' Telychko.

He often was elected a convention delegate. On July 6, 1960, he delivered a main speech at the USRL/CYC Convention in Toronto. In the 1970s and 1980s, he also worked as an advisor and journalist, taught at the Ukrainian Saturday school (Рідна школа), was an author of radio broadcasts and newspaper articles. Kost’ Telychko was awarded the Shevchenko medal and many scrolls of honour. He died on April 23, 1999, in Edmonton, Alberta.

Stec, Myron
Person

Myron grew up in Kozava a town near Ternopil. He and his sister joined UPA, and eventually he had to flee to the west. His sister stayed behind and was arrested and sent to Siberia. Myron made it to the west, and lived in England, Montreal and finally Kelowna BC. He passed away in 2021.

Sopuliak, Michael
Person · 1908-1982

Michael Sopulak was Head of the Department of Social Care of the UCC, later a professor at the Ukrainian Theological Seminary in Hirschberg (Germany) and Kulemborg (Holland), since 1949 chancellor of the diocese in Edmonton (Canada), and director and co-editor of the "Ukrainian News" publishing house.

Michael Sopulak graduated from the Seminary of the Holy Spirit in Lviv with a bachelor's degree in Theological Studies, M.A., and Ph.D. in Theological Studies in Innsbruck, Austria.

After graduation, he was ordained a priest in 1936 by the Auxiliary bishop Ivan Buchko. The subdiaconate was conferred on him by the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.In Lviv he was a director of the Vocational School, and therefore director of the Publishing House "Biblos".

During World War II, Michael went west and began working in Krakow for the Ukrainian Central Committee as the head of its Social Welfare Department. There he provided important assistance to Ukrainians in need and, especially, Ukrainian political prisoners.

During the Surrender of Germany in 1945 Michael was in Nuremberg. After the arrival of the Americans, he began to work in the committee in Fürth near Nuremberg. Later he was called to become a professor of dogmatics at the Ukrainian Theological Seminary in Hirschberg, Germany, where he also served as deputy rector.

In 1949 Dr. Sopulak moved to Canada for permanent residence in the Edmonton Eparchy, Alberta. Michael served as a Chancellor of the Eparchy and the Director of the “Ukrainian News” Publishing House. He worked in this position for more than 30 years, later serving as an editor-in-chief and as the head of the “Ukrainian News” publishing house.

Michael Sopulak founded the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Eucharist in North Edmonton in 1950, and St. Michael's Ukrainian Cemetery in 1955. Among other achievements, on the initiative of Dr.Sopulak, was purchased and built the Ukrainian Village, which annually hosts summer camps for Ukrainian school children.
Dr. Sopulak was struck down with a serious illness in 1981. The last 24th issue of the weekly “Ukrainian News” newspaper was already edited on his hospital bed.

Sonevytsky, Ihor
Person · 1926-2006

Composer and musicologist Ihor Sonevytsky (b. 1926, Halynkivtsi, Ukraine, d. 2006, Lexington, USA) was born into the family of a philologist, writer and teacher, and a journalist, art gallery manager and amateur singer. He studied at the Lysenko Music Institute and the First Ukrainian High School in Lviv. Later he studied at the Vienna Music Academy and graduated from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Munich with a degree in composition and conducting. Following his arrival in New York, he was among the founders of the Ukrainian Music Institute of America in 1952, and following the death of Roman Sawycky in 1960, Sonevytsky became its director. He completed a doctorate from the Ukrainian Free University in Munich in 1961 and was a visiting lecturer of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Rome. Sonevytsky’s extensive experience conducting Ukrainian-American choirs resulted in him composing many sacred and secular choral works, and owing to his work with the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble in New York, incidental music became the dominant genre in his output. He also composed an opera, a ballet version of Cinderella, chamber works for winds, solo piano compositions and many art songs. Sonevytsky wrote a monograph about composer Artem Vedel.

Soltykewych, Roman
Person · 1909-1976

Roman Soltykewych was born on February 4, 1909 in the Village of Ulucz in the Lemko region of Western Ukraine (at that time in Austro-Hungary). His parents were Rev. Orest and Leontyna (née Min'kevych) Soltykewych. (The village was known for having been the location of the founding in 1860 of a choir by Rev. Mykhailo Verbyts'kyi, the author of the music to the Ukrainian national anthem.)

Roman Soltykewych completed gymnasium (high school) in Peremyshl', and went on to study music and conducting at the Lysenko Musical Institute in L'viv, and continued his musical studies in Krakow, where he conducted the students' choir.

Roman Soltykewych returned to his native Lemko lands where he conducted folk and church choirs. And because of his activities as a Ukrainian community activist, he spent time in Polish prisons. And during the Second World War, he also experienced persecution under the Nazi regime.

In 1944, when many were fleeing the Soviet occupation of Ukrainian lands, Roman Soltykewych spent time in Austria and eventually ended up in France, where the founded yet another choir.

in 1951, Roman Soltykewych arrived in Edmonton, and began conducting the choir at St Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral. And in 1953, he formed the Dnipro Male Chorus, which began with a small number of singers and eventually grew to be one of the finest Ukrainian choirs in Western Canada.

In 1955, Roman Soltykewych married Stephanie Derech, and they had three children - son Orest, and twin daughters Nadia and Vera.

For several years, Roman Soltykewych conducted the choir at St George's Ukrainian Catholic Parish, and from 1965 until his death he conducted the St. John's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral Choir. During those years, he also founded and conducted the Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada (CYMK) Choir.

In 1971, the Dnipro Male Chorus brought female singers into its fold, and became the Dnipro Choir, which had many performances with the Cheremosh Dancers, including a week of performances at Expo '74 in Spokane, Washington. Eventually, the Dnipro Choir became the 120-member Dnipro Ensemble, with orchestra and dancers.

In 1973, Roman Soltykewych was the recipient of the Alberta Achievement Award.

On November 17, 1976 Roman Soltykewych passed away at the age of 67.