Musicianship
The St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church Choir has welcomed within its ranks talented conductors and composers who have contributed to liturgical composition in both North America and Ukraine.
Founding conductor Roman Hurko, a University of Toronto graduate in Music History & Theory with a Masters of Arts in Religion from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, also studied privately with composer Ivan Moody in Portugal. A member of the Composer’s Union of Ukraine since 2004, Mr. Hurko began writing music while still in high school. His first composition, Ave Maria for full choir, was premiered by the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir at the Guelph Spring Festival in 1983, with the composer conducting.
Shortly after founding the youth ensemble at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in 1986, Mr. Hurko began setting parts of the Divine Liturgy for his choir. His first new composition at that point was a setting of Our Father, followed by It is Meet to Praise Thee - a hymn to the Mother of God, and a range of others. In 1999 he completed and recorded the entire Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom to commemorate the second millennium of Christianity in Ukraine (Liturgy 2000). He went on to compose and record two additional liturgies: Vespers and Requiem for the Victims of Chornobyl. For details on Mr. Hurko’s extensive work, visit www.romanhurko.com. Although Roman Hurko now resides in New York City, he continues to sing with the choir during regular visits to Toronto.
In 1987 Adrian Ivakhiv took up the conductor’s baton and led the choir for more than a decade. During these years, Mr. Ivakhiv, who refers to himself as an experimental composer, composed various parts of the Divine Liturgy which the choir continues to sing to this day. (We Glorify Thee, The Hymn of the Cherubim, Magnificat, The Creed, and the Eurcharistic Cycle to name a few). During tours to Ukraine, the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church Choir shared Mr. Ivakhiv’s liturgical compositions with choirs in Ukraine. Since leaving Toronto, Adrian Ivakhiv has joined the faculty of the University of Vermont as a Professor of Environmental Thought and Culture. He too sings with the choir whenever he visits Toronto.
Pavlo Fondera has been a guest conductor with the Parish Choir since 2016. A graduate of the Kyiv National University of Culture & Arts with degrees in choir conducting and vocal performance, he has been a chorister and soloist with many renowned choirs in Ukraine and has toured extensively in Europe, North America and Asia.
Currently, Mr. Fondera is choirmaster-conductor of the Canadian Bandurist Capella (Toronto Chapter), artistic director and conductor of Prometheus Choir, assistant conductor, chorister and soloist with the Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir (Vesnivka) and artistic director and conductor of the Crescendo ensemble.
The January 2020 Christmas Collaboration
When the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Choir took part in three “Festivals of Carols” in Ukraine (Lviv & Ivano-Frankivsk) in January of 2020, three of the choir’s conductors contributed three original Christmas carol arrangements for the tour. Ms. Zinchenko conducted the world premiers of Roman Hurko’s arrangement of The Saints Sat, Breaking Stone, Adrian Ivakhiv’s arrangement of Above the Beech-tree Forest and her own arrangement of O, We Shall Go, My Brother. Singing in Ukrainian, French, English and Wendaat, the language of the Huron-Wendat people, the choir also debuted a specially prepared quadrilingual version of The Huron Carol/Iesus Ahattonia, composed circa 1642 by the Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf. These same works made their North American premieres at the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church Choir’s 14th annual Kolyada Concert late January of the same year.
Today
Ms Zinchenko continues to maintain her extensive contacts with the choral community in Ukraine and incorporates the works of the country’s contemporary and modern composers into the choir’s repertoire.