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| Koshetz and Sheptytsky, Chicago 1922 |
On 21 September 2024 we mark the 80th anniversary of the death of the great Ukrainian composer, director, and musicologist, Oleksander Koshyts (often spelled Koshetz). Among his achievements are his Ukrainian folk, sacred, and religious choral compositions. The choral ensembles he directed made history under his baton. He was best known internationally for the performances of the Ukrainian National Chorus, commissioned by the fledgeling Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) to spread the good word about Ukrainian identity and culture to the world, during Ukraine’s struggle for independence from 1918–1923.
Koshetz had a special link to the city of Winnipeg, where he spent his final years teaching and where his mortal remains are entombed, awaiting the trumpet call of the Final Resurrection. He was one of those, together with fellow musician, Dr Paul Matsenko, who worked to unite the Ukrainian community through music and cultural formation. The two men were Orthodox Christians who worked closely with Catholics and others for the greater Ukrainian cause. Their work gave rise to a number of choirs that fostered ecumenical collaboration in the Province of Manitoba and beyond. The most prominent among them is the O. Koshetz Choir.
Oleksander Koshetz died in 1944, two weeks before another of his great countrymen, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, whom he knew and much admired. The feeling was mutual. The two met had met in Chicago in 1922, when the maestro was touring with his UNR choir and Sheptytsky was visiting his own church communities in Canada, USA, Brazil, and Argentina.
Koshetz remembered the grand success of his Chicago concert, after which a dinner was held at a fine hotel. His diary entry for 31 October 1922 recalled: “There were closed to 500 guests all Ukrainian organizations came together, even Catholics with Orthodox which, as they said, was the first such occasion in the history of Ukrainian emigration. Greek Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky gave a wonderful speech.” It took the work of those two men to achieve such a feat. Although they saw each other again the following day, this were probably the only occasion when they met.
When researching Sheptytsky’s visit to Canada, I stumbled upon correspondence between the Metropolitan and the Maestro. It consists of two letters about a concert which the Ukrainian community in New York had arranged in May 1936 to mark Metropolitan Sheptytsky’s 70th birthday and 35th episcopal anniversary. Koshetz had agreed to conduct a mass ensemble made up of eight Ukrainian choirs from New York and New Jersey. The community had booked Carnegie Hall, where he debuted the-famous Schedryk or Carol of the Bells performed in 1919. The leaflet for the event read as follows:
UKRAINIAN CHOIRS IN A NEW YORK KEY
These are: Boyan Choir from Newark, directed by Teodoziy Kaskiv; Lysenko Choir from Jersey City, dir. Vasyl Hel; the Ukrainian Choir of New York, dir. Teodor Onufryk; Ukrainian Youth Choir from Brooklyn, dir. Vasyl Savytsky; Boyan Choir from Yonkers, dir. Mykhailo Fatyuk; Boyan Choir from Bayon, dir. Vasyl Melnychuk; Boyan from Elizabeth, dir. Mykhailo Yadlovsky; Boyan Choir from Passaic, dir. Stefan Grabar.
Together, these choirs, forming a total of 300 voices under the general direction of the famous conductor and composer
PROF. OLEKSANDER KOSHYTS,
will give a concert at New York's largest music hall, Carnegie Hall, 6th Ave. & 57th St., New York City, on Green Holiday (Pentecost), Sunday, 31 May 1936, at 8:15 PM.
The Concert will include a sample program of Ukrainian Church Music. Newspapers will provide details. Prominent American church and public representatives have been invited.
This concert is organized to honour
ANDRIY SHEPTYTSKY, METROPOLITAN OF HALYCH,
the greatest living Ukrainian, the true father of the nation, the founder of national Ukrainian institutions, a protector of youth, patron of Ukrainian art and scholarship, martyr of the sufferings of the Ukrainian church and people, well known throughout the world and highly esteemed by his own and others, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of his life and the 35th anniversary of his mission and important office.
We ask all Ukrainians, from near and far, to come en masse to this important holiday in order to honour one whom the world honours and esteems. […]
Metropolitan Andrey was not much honoured in Rome, during most of Pius XI’s pontificate, and congratulations were not forthcoming from the Roman Curia on this occasion. (This attitude began to change the month after the concert, when Cardinal Eugène Tisserant was appointed head of the Vatican department for the Eastern Churches).
In his citadel on Saint George’s Hill in Lviv (then under Polish rule), Sheptytsky was informed of the American celebrations and sent the following letter to Koshetz:
Lviv, 31 May 1936.
Dear Professor, I have heard that the Professor was kind enough to take the trouble to arrange a concert on the occasion of my anniversary, so I hasten to thank you for your efforts and wish you all the best on that occasion. May God bless you.
+Andrey M.[etropolitan]
After the concert, the following article appeared in the American Ukrainian newspaper Svoboda:
TRIUMPH OF UKRAINIAN SONG AT CARNEGIE HALL IN NEW YORK
About 2,000 people from New York and the surrounding suburbs had the opportunity to experience the kind of musical pleasure that you can rarely experience in your life. And this pleasure was even more precious for them because it was evoked by enchanting Ukrainian music performed by Ukrainian-American youth with the masterful direction of the great Oleksandr Koshetz. And it was at the Concert of Ukrainian Church Music, which took place on Sunday, May 31, at B Carnegie Hall in New York on the occasion of the 35-year anniversary of the Halych Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky.
The grand choir consisted of eight smaller choirs. About 300 male and female singers performed on stage together, all in national Ukrainian costumes. […]
The celebration was opened by Dr. S. Demydchuk in English, and then in Ukrainian, and in the general introduction he explained the reasons for this festivity, as well as the role played by Metropolitan Sheptytsky in Ukrainian public life. Metropolitan Sheptytsky, the interlocutor said, is no longer the name of a person, but of a certain social and cultural movement. The reason is, that name is not only connected with the church, but also with the creation of various public institutions, schools, museums, hospitals, banks, etc. In gratitude, Ukrainians in emigration celebrate this festivity, "in the biggest city, in the biggest concert hall, under the artistic guidance of the greatest conductor, and for the greatest living "son of the Ukrainian nation."
Choral Performances
After the introductory speech, the curtain was opened, and something appeared before the eyes of the audience that touched Ukrainian hearts and filled them with national pride. Three hundred male and female choristers stood in exemplary order on the large stage. Professsor Koshetz then appeared after having been given a loud ovation by the audience during the introduction.
At the magical gesture of the great conductor's hand, the sounds of the music emerged from three hundred breasts, sometimes stronger, sometimes quieter, which immediately captivated the listeners and transported them into a realm of artistic bliss. Koshetz conducted while wonderful human harmonies flowed from his hands. Three hundred faces were turned to the hands of the conductor, and it seemed that they saw nothing else but him. Koshetz went through three hundred keys with his fingers and infused the listeners with a charm for which they will be inexpressibly grateful.
The choir performed ten pieces entirely of a religious character, among which were compositions by Koshetz himself, then Lysenko, Stetsenko, Bortnyansky, and finally a difficult composition from the 18th century by Vedel.
In addition to the performances of the choir, it was pleasant to hear the performance by Miss Luba Kaskiv, who played a composition by Nardini on the violin accompanied by Mr. Kuzmiak on the piano.
Greetings From Americans
Representing Americans was John Lafarge, co-editor of the National Catholic Weekly "America", and Monsignor M. Lavel also spoke on behalf of Cardinal Hayes of New York. Father Lafarge recalled his personal acquaintance with Metropolitan Sheptytsky and emphasized his services to the great Ukrainian people and the Catholic Church. At the end, he wished him a long life. Father Lavelle also remembered that he first met the Metropolitan in 1904 in Rome. His personality was so impressive, Fr. Lavelle remembered, that he was given more attention (here Fr. Lavel humbly apologized) than the Pope himself. Father Lavel also praised the beauty of the Ukrainian Catholic Rite and declared that the Roman Catholic Rite does not in any way want to Romanize Ukrainian Catholics but, on the contrary, wants Ukrainians concisely adhered to their rite, in which they can be just as good and perhaps better Catholics than in the Roman Rite.
Oleksander Koshetz sent Sheptytsky an commemorative album of the event inscribed with a personal dedication. This prompted the following reply from the Metropolitan several months later:
Lviv, 29 October 1936.
Dear Maestro, Thank you very much for remembering me and for sending me such a beautiful album with your dedication. I apologize for responding so late but, for a month, a serious illness did not give me the opportunity to read and respond to letters. I would also like to thank all the Ladies and Gentlemen who worked to arrange of the concert on 13 [sic. 31] May 1936. May God bless your work and grant that you may achieve great success. With expressions of the highest regard
+Andrey M.[etropolitan]
Metropolitan Maxim Hermaniuk (1911–1996) was a pioneer of ecumenism and made great efforts to establish good relations and to work closely with Orthodox churchmen and laity for the good of the Ukrainian people. Shortly after becoming Archbishop of Winnipeg, he gave his blessing to the Redemptorist Fathers to open a minor seminary in Roblin, Manitoba, to foster priestly and religious vocations among high school boys. For many years, Professor Matsenko would teach the young men who frequented Saint Vladimir’s College and conduct their choir, and those of several Orthodox institutions. The Matsenko Choir and Hoosli Ensemble were founded by the college alumni. In March 1982, the Professor forwarded this Sheptytsky-Koshetz correspondence to Metropolitan Hermaniuk. Upon his death, Paul Matsenko was entombed in the mausoleum in Glen Eden Cemetery, very close to his friend and colleague Oleksander Koshetz.
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