Composer and pianist Larysa Kuzmenko (b. 1956, Mississauga, Canada) studied piano and composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and composition at the University of Toronto. She began performing as a pianist in 1972, while still in high school. She has taught piano, music theory, harmony and music history through the Royal Conservatory of Music since 1981 and at the University of Toronto since 1989. Kuzmenko began composing in the late 1970s, and her works include three piano concertos, a cello concerto, a cello sonata, chamber music for string quartet, winds, brass, percussion and accordion, works for solo piano and organ, song cycles and choral works. She has been a frequent collaborator of the Vesnivka Choir of Toronto and her works on Ukrainian themes include In Memoriam: To the Victims of Chornobyl for solo piano, “A Journey to a New Life” for string quartet, the oratorio The Golden Harvest and “Holy God” for a cappella choir. She is married to composer Gary Kulesha.
Composer and conductor Gary Kulesha (b. 1954, Toronto, Canada) studied piano, music theory and composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He later studied composition with John McCabe in London and John Corigliano in New York. As a conductor he is largely self-taught. Kulesha has worked as composer in residence at the Stratford Festival, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company, and as composer-advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Since 1991 he has been on the music faculty of the University of Toronto. Kulesha’s output includes three symphonies, concertos for violin, cello, winds and brass, numerous orchestral pieces, chamber works for strings, winds, brass and percussion, solo piano works, two operas, art songs, choral works and incidental music. He is married to composer Larysa Kuzmenko.
Composer Marian Kouzan (b. 1925, Isai, Ukraine, d. 2005, Fremont, France) moved to France at a very young age and began music lessons at the age of eight. In 1945 the entered the Paris Conservatory and graduated in 1948. He supported himself by taking various positions in the music entertainment industry and wrote music in popular music genres. Kouzan considered the 1960s to be the beginning of his composing career, which combined music for stage, and film and television soundtracks for the “show business” industry, as well as a wide variety of instrumental music for unusual combinations of instruments, with an emphasis on brass and percussion. Many of his works had Ukrainian themes, including the soundtrack to a documentary film about artist Jacques Hnizdovsky, the oratorios Neofity and Poslaniie to texts by Taras Shevchenko and the Chornobyl Requiem to a text by Vasyl Barka.
Composer and pianist Wadym Kipa (b. 1912, Kuchmisterska Slobodka, Ukraine, d. 1968, New York, USA) was born into the family of a railway inspector, who encouraged his son’s interest in music. Kipa trained at the Kharkiv Music School, Kharkiv Conservatory and Kyiv Conservatory, from which he graduated as a piano major in 1937 and joined its faculty. Until 1941 he performed as a concert pianist. When the Second World War interrupted his post-doctoral studies at the Kyiv Conservatory, he turned to composing. During the war he found himself in Berlin, where he taught at the Klindwort-Scharwenk Conservatory. In 1951 he settled in New York, where he engaged in composing and teaching. His compositions in a Neo-Romantic style consist primarily of solo piano pieces, art songs and incidental music.
Composer and conductor Andrij Hnatyschyn (b. 1906, Chyzhykiv, Ukraine, d. 1995, Vienna, Austria) studied at the Ukrainian Academic Gymnasium in Lviv, the Lviv Theological Academy and the Lysenko Music Institute. He worked for the Prosvita educational society in villages near Lviv. Awarded a scholarship by Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, he continued his music studies at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium and graduated in 1934. From 1931 until the Nazi occupation of Austria, Hnatyschyn directed the choir of St. Barbara’s Ukrainian Catholic church in Vienna. He spent part of the Second World War in Berlin, where he conducted the choir of the local Ukrainian Catholic parish. Following the war he returned to Vienna, and from 1954 until the end of his life he again directed the choir of St. Barbara’s, which was the center of Ukrainian cultural life in the city. Hnatyschyn used the choir as a platform for promoting Ukrainian music, particularly through recordings and performances on Austrian radio. Beginning in the 1990s he was able to travel once again to Ukraine, and in 1994 the Liatoshynsky Chamber Choir gave a concert of his works in Kyiv. At the time Hnatyschyn also began transferring his archive to the Vernadsky National Library.
Hnatyschyn was primarily a composer of sacred music, including numerous liturgies and cantatas. He also produced orchestral suites, an opera, chamber pieces for violin and piano, a piano trio and string quartet, and choral arrangements.
Composer and violinist Michael Hayvoronsky (b. 1892, Zalishchyky, Ukraine, d. 1949, New York, USA) received his first music lessons from the church choir conductor in his native village. He subsequently studied music education at a teaching seminary and violin at the Lysenko Music Institute in Lviv. During the First World War he enlisted in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. After the war he worked as a music teacher in Lviv and as a choral conductor. Following his emigration to the United States in 1923 he continued his studies at Columbia University and co-founded the Ukrainian Music Conservatory in New York with Roman Prydatkevytch.
The majority of Hayvoronsky’s compositions are for voice: songs, choral arrangements and sacred choral works. He also composed tone poems for orchestra, music for brass band, incidental music and chamber pieces.
Composer, conductor and music critic Mykola Fomenko (b. 1894, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, d. 1961, New York, USA) was raised in a large family by a widowed father, who encouraged his son to pursue a “practical” profession. Fomenko began studying piano only at age 17. During the First World War he fought in the Caucasus. In 1929 he graduated from the Kharkiv Conservatory, where he studied composition and conducting. He was music director and conductor of the Kharkiv Music and Drama Theatre, until he was dismissed for refusing the join the Communist Party. Subsequently he worked at the Mystetstvo publishing house. Following the Second World War he was a displaced person in Europe until he immigrated to the United States in 1951. There he taught at the Ukrainian Music Institute of America in New York and worked for the Ukrainian section of Voice of America.
His output as a composer consists of more than 100 works, including two symphonies, a piano concerto, chamber works for strings, solo piano pieces, several operas, incidental music, choral works and art songs.
Composer George Fiala (b. 1922, Kyiv, Ukraine, d. 2017, Montreal, Canada) was born into a family of amateur musicians, and he enrolled in a preparatory school for the Kyiv Conservatory in 1934. He subsequently studied at the Kyiv Conservatory with Borys Liatoshynsky and Lev Revutsky, received his doctorate from the Akademische Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where he studied with Wilhelm Furtwängler, and completed post-doctoral studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. In 1949 he settled in Montreal.
As a composer, Fiala combined the traditions of Ukrainian music, German Neo-Romanticism and the twelve-tone techniques of the New French School. He produced more than 150 works, including symphonies, concertos for piano, violin and flute, quintets, quartets, trios and sonatas for strings and winds, solo piano works, choral pieces, art songs, an operetta, a ballet and a liturgy. His works have been performed by virtually every orchestra in Canada, and commissions on Ukrainian subjects constitute an important part of his output.
Composer, arranger, conductor and bandurist Peter Deriashnyj (b. 1946, Calden, Germany) emigrated to Australia with his family in 1950 and completed an engineering degree from the Sydney Institute of Technology. He began studying the bandura with his father at age 10 and in childhood was exposed to Ukrainian church music at his local parish. Initially self-taught, he later pursued private studies in music theory and composition, as well as the playing of Kharkiv-style bandura in Sydney. He has conducted several Ukrainian choirs and ensembles in Australia. His works include numerous arrangements for chorus with bandura accompaniment and original choral compositions for liturgical use. He has also produced standardized vocal scores of liturgical music for use in Ukrainian Orthodox parishes in Australia.
Composer, conductor and pianist Virko Baley (b. 1938, Radekhiv, Ukraine) spent his early childhood in Slovakia and at a displaced persons camp in Germany owing to the Second World War. His first music lessons took place at the camp with Roman Sawycky, although his music studies did not begin in earnest until after his family settled in Los Angeles in 1949. He completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and composition at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. After military service with a U.S. Army band in Germany, he joined the faculty of his alma mater, renamed the California Institute of the Arts, in 1967. In 1970 he joined the faculty of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Music, where he worked for the next 46 years. The founding music director of the Nevada Symphony Orchestra, he has conducted orchestras in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Ukraine and Russia.
Baley’s compositions include a symphony, a piano concerto, two violin concertos and other orchestral works, chamber pieces, compositions for solo piano, violin, oboe, bass clarinet, bassoon and contrabassoon, a one-act opera titled Hunger, about the Holodomor, and the score to Yuri Illienko’s film Swan Lake: The Zone. In 1996 Baley became the first American to receive Ukraine’s Shevchenko State Prize for music.
Composer Fedir Akimenko (Yakymenko; b. 1876, Pisky, Ukraine, d. 1945, Paris, France), the older brother of composer Yakiv Stepovy, was recruited by the Imperial Court Chapel Choir in St. Petersburg at age 10. There he studied piano with Mily Balakirev and composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Lyadov, graduating from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1900 or 1901. He subsequently taught at the Tbilisi School of Music, in Nice, his native Kharkiv, the Moscow Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where his pupils included Igor Stravinsky, and during which time he was an active member of the city’s Ukrainian Art and Literary Society. In 1924 he joined the faculty of the Drahomanov Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute in Prague, where he wrote the first Ukrainian textbook on counterpoint, harmony and theory. From 1928 onward he lived in France.
As a composer Akimenko is associated with the Symbolist movement. Although he is regarded primarily as a miniaturist, having composed more than 50 art songs, numerous solo piano pieces and works for chamber ensemble, he also wrote symphonic music, operas and ballets.
Kucher, Mykhailo Stanislaw (September 27, 1924, village of Chornokintsi Velyki near Chortkiv, Halychyna - March 31, 2007, Edmonton, Canada) was born to the family of Petro and Maria (Mniendzybrodzka - Мнєндзибродзка [Mendzydrocka???]) Kucher. Arrived in Canada in 1952.
In 1960, he was one of the founders and a secretary of the Edmonton Branch of the Brotherhood of Former Soldiers of the First Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army (Stanycia Bratstva kolyshnikh voiakiv Pershoi ukrainskoi dyvizii Ukrainskoi natsionalnoi armii v Edmontoni). Later on, he became the head of the Edmonton branch of the organization and held this position for 12 years. He was also the head of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Alberta Provincial Council. Worked as an electrical engineer.
Dmytro Kupiak (November 06, 1918, Yabloniwka village, Lviv Region, Halychyna - June 13, 1995, Toronto, Canada) was born in a family of Yuriy and Anna (nee Zdrazhil’).
In 1943, Kupiak graduated from the Institute for Trade in Lviv. In 1943-1945, he was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. He immigrated to Canada in 1948 and settled in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1953, he got Canadian citizenship. The same year, 1953, Kupiak married Stefania Khorkava. In 1955, he and his family moved to Toronto, Ontario. In 1972, he ran for the election as a member of the Conservative Party. At that time, he was charged by the Soviet Union with committing war crimes.
Kupiak was a member of the Ukrainian Professional and Business Club, the Canadian Legion, the Knights of Columbus - Sheptytsky Council, the businessmen’s association “Queens-Tavern” and many others. He was the owner of the “Mayfair Inn” and a tavern in Toronto.
Sources:
“Купяк Дмитро.” Марунчак, Михайло. Біографічний довідник до історії українців Канади. Вінніпеґ: Українська Вільна Академія Наук в Канаді, 1986, p. 362-363.
Michael Nakonechny (Михайло Наконечний, January 20, 1916, Pidlissia village, Zolochiv district, Austro-Hungarian Empire - August 11, 2001, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada). Ukrainian community leader and educator. An alumnus of the Theological Academy of Lviv. Before coming to Canada in 1947 Nakonechny lived in Halychyna (Austro-Hungary) and Germany (Regensburg). After coming to Canada, Nakonechny lived in Winnipeg and Edmonton. In Edmonton, he worked as an Alberta Land Surveyor at the Government of Alberta in the Surveys Branch of the Department of Highways.
Michael Nakonechny was a member of the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada executive; a chairman, vice-chairman, secretary, treasurer, and a board member of the Ukrainian National Federation branches in Winnipeg and Edmonton; a member of the Ukrainian Liberation Fund Committee [Крайовий комітет Українського визвольного фонду]; a member of the Plast organization (nickname Kalamar) and co-editor of the Plast bulletin in Winnipeg; a librarian, secretary and board member of the Ukrainian National Hall in Edmonton; a secretary and member of control commission of the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood of Canada, Edmonton diocese; a secretary of the Ukrainian Catholic Council; a member of the Ukrainian War Veterans’ Association main board and a chairman, vice-chairman, secretary and board member of its Edmonton branch; the first secretary of the Ukrainian Canadian Archives and Museum of Alberta; chairman of the Winnipeg Ukrainian National Association [Український народний союз] District Committee, an executive board member and a secretary of Edmonton UNA District Committee; a secretary and board member of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Edmonton branch. He was awarded two St George silver medals and the scrolls of honour by the Canadian Foundation for the Ukrainian Free University (December 1, 1988) and the World Congress of Free Ukrainians (November 14, 1987).
Translator and editor of the Composers of the Ukrainian Diaspora articles, Lada Hornjatkevyc, is an editor and Ukrainian-English translator. She has a BA with distinction from the University of Alberta in Ukrainian Language and Literature with a Minor in English Literature. She has also worked in media as a television news editor and has many years’ experience producing and hosting radio programs about Ukrainian music.
Halyna Kild was born on July 17th, 1955, in Ukraine (in the Yunashky village in the Prohrebyshche district of the Vinnytsia region). She is a journalist, editor, translator, and a freelance radio correspondent at Radio Canada International (1992-1998). She came to Canada in 1998. She is a specialist in the field of graphic communications, advertising, and publishing affairs (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, 1999). She worked at the private technology company of Yotta Yotta Inc. which was in charge of globally distributing and transmitting large volumes of email information and security of electronic networks (2000-2002).
From 1992 to 1997, she prepared and recorded around 200 reports and radio interviews for RCI (Radio Canada International) about political and public events, news of Ukrainian studies in Alberta, and innovative approaches in science and agriculture.
In 1994, she covered the visit to Alberta of the former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. She has written over 50 publications in Ukrainian and in English in the North American and Ukrainian press. Among them: an article on the status of women in Canada and Ukraine “Sexual harassment: reality or fiction” (“Modernity”, June 1995).
Many of her articles are devoted to the work of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, where she is currently working as a Communication & Research Assistant.
Lupul, Manoly (14 August, 1927 in Willingdon, Alberta - 24 July, 2019 in Calgary). Historian, educator, and community leader. A graduate of the University of Alberta, the University of Minnesota, and Harvard University (PH D, 1963), he taught educational foundations and Canadian educational history at the University of Alberta from 1958. He became a leading figure in the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation and played a major role in the establishment of the Ukrainian-English bilingual program in Alberta schools (1974) and the creation of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS). The Institute's first director (1976–86). He also was prairie regional chairperson and national vice-chairperson of the Canadian Consultative Council on Multiculturalism (1973–9) and a key member and first chairperson (1982–3) of the Ukrainian Community Development Committee.
(Source: Danylo Husar Struk. “Lupul, Manoly.” Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CL%5CU%5CLupulManoly.htm)