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Nicholas Kostyniuk was born December 9, 1921 in Plain Lake, AB. His parents were Joseph and Annie Kostyniuk (Predyk). They married in 1917 in the old Plain Lake church and settled on a farm. They had four children: Mary, Nick, John and Tillie. Joseph died in 1938 at the age 44. Nick's older sister Mary married Peter Stepushyn in the fall of 1938. In 1946 Tillie married Alex Werbitsky of Innisfree. In 1949 John married Mary Chmilar of Two Hills and moved to farm in that area.

Nick contributed a great deal to running the household. He hurt his hip in an accident as a young man, causing a permanent limp. For this reason, he did not participate in the war. Nicholas taught at Plain Lake school for one year. He wrote and published poetry. He was active in the youth activities of his parish and was active in the Ukrainian Catholic church his whole life. In 1950, Annie and Nick moved to Edmonton. Two years later in 1952, Nick married Olga Soldan of Two Hills and settled in Edmonton. For a little while he owned a hat store on Whyte Ave close to 99 St. He worked at "Inland Cement" for over 25 years. Nick and Olga had two sons: Brent and Alan.

Annie lived in her home and kept boarders until early 1981, at which time she moved to the St. Basil's Senior Citizens' Residence in Edmonton. She passed away in March of 1975.

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.

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.

In September 2001, Myeong Jae Lee went to Kyiv, Ukraine where he taught Korean language at the Kyiv National Linguistic University. He lived in Ukraine from November 2001 to February 2004. In 2005, he graduated with a master of Russian studies degree from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea. His master's thesis was "The Festival Culture of Eastern Slavs: National Identity and Vitality as a Revival." In 2015, Myeong Jae Lee started his PhD studies at the Department of Information & Archival Science at the same university.

In 2013-2014 academic year, Myeong Jae Lee was the Academic Visitor at the University of Alberta at the Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore. In 2016-2018, he served as the attache at the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Myeong Jae Lee has been always interested in the theme of culture, especially folklore, festival and religion. The coexistence of four kinds of festivals with completely different characteristics was the most striking element that he observed in Ukraine: Christian festivals, traditional festivals, Soviet festivals, and new festivals (after the collapse of the Soviet Union). He began to document the festivals by taking pictures and video, and did so for 27 months while in Ukraine. Myeong Jae Lee lived "according to the local calendar", experienced more than 40 festivals, and found every one of them gorgeous. He was able to see the different dimensions of the Ukrainian culture, and the Eastern Slavs’ culture.

Myeong Jae Lee was also attracted by Ukrainian natural landscape and characteristic local colour. He visited about 30 cities and villages in Ukraine including Uzhhorod, Kharkiv, Yalta, and Bila Tserkva.

Myeong Jae Lee thinks photography is one of the best ways to document something, and that as time passes, the value of photography as a record increases. When he stayed in Ukraine he thought he should record Ukrainian daliy life. These photographs and video films will become valuable records and good representation of Ukraine 100 years from the time they were recorded. He was the author of several photo exhibits in 2003-2014, among them: Two Diaries (Gallery Palitra, Kharikiv, Ukraine), The Festival Chronotope of Eastern Slavs (Sejong Center, Seoul, Korea), The Time on the Way (Artbit Gallery, Seoul, Korea), The Wonderland (SangSangMadang Gallery, Seoul, Korea), The Week of Ukrainian Culture (Wangsan Culture&Art Hall, Yongin, Korea), and Photo & Travel (COEX, Seoul, Korea). He also co-authored two publications: The Wonderland, KT&G SangSangMadang (2010) and Youth, Share, and Time On the Way, Photonet (2008).

Monica Kindraka Jensen holds graduate degrees in Art History, Comparative Literature, and a PhD in Folklore. She was a graduate student in the Ukrainian Folklore program at the University of Alberta in 1999-2005. Monica defended her doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky.

Monica worked as a curator in a succession of Contemporary Art museums, Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, Texas, the last among them. In 1984, she moved to Berkeley where she met her future husband. They now live in Bloomington, Indiana, where Monica continues scholarly pursuits as a Visiting Associate Professor. She volunteers as a docent at the university's Eskenazi Museum of Art and she loves sewing.

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.

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.

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.

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 and violinist Roman Prydatkevytch (b. 1895, Żywiec, Poland, d. 1980, Owensboro, USA) was born into the family of a painter and sculptor and received his initial education at the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian School in Yavoriv and at the Ukrainian Academic Gymnasium and the Lysenko Music Institute in Lviv. He continued his studies at the Vienna Music Academy and the faculty of law of the University of Vienna. During the First World War he was drafted into the Austrian army and fought on the Italian front. Following the war he joined the Ukrainian Galician Army and was later Kyrylo Stetsenko’s assistant as director of music for the Ukrainian armed forces. He worked at the Institute of Public Education in Odesa and the Odesa Theatrical Institute. He was forced to emigrate in 1922 and settled in New York in 1923. With Michael Hayvoronsky he founded the Ukrainian Conservatory of Music in 1924. Prydatkevytch continued his music studies at Columbia University, the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, the College of Music in New York, the Julliard School and the Eastman School of Music, and received a master’s degree in composition from the University of Minnesota and a doctorate from the Ukrainian Free University. In 1930 he organized the Ukrainian Trio in New York, and he was a conductor at the American Chamber Orchestra. From 1946 until 1965 he taught at the Murray State University of Kentucky, and from 1967 until 1971 at the Kentucky Wesleyan College.

Prydatkevytch’s compositions include three symphonies, the Ukrainian Suite for chamber orchestra and harp, Ukrainian Rhapsody for violin and orchestra, a string quartet, three violin sonatas, solo piano works and art songs. He wrote one of the first English-language histories of Ukrainian music. His grandson is conductor and violist Theodore Kuchar, who was previously chief conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.

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).