Roman Hurko is a
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
based composer who specializes in
Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople.
Th ...
Music.
Biography
Early life
Roman Hurko is an American-Canadian of Ukrainian descent, born in Toronto, Canada (1962). A graduate of The
Yale Institute of Sacred Music
The Yale Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) is a joint venture between the Yale School of Music and Yale Divinity School focused on the study of music, visual arts, literature, liturgy, and other forms of the arts.
M.M., M.M.A., or D.MA. students in ...
(Master of Arts and Religion) and The
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
(B.A. Music History and Theory), he has also studied composition privately with composer Father
Ivan Moody
Ivan L. Moody (born Ivan Lewis Greening on January 7, 1980) is an American singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist of Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch (FFDP). He performed for several other bands including Mo ...
in Portugal.
He has been a member of the Composers' Union of Ukraine since 2004.
Hurko began composing music while still in high school. His first composition "Ave Maria" for SATB choir was premiered by the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir, at the Guelph Spring Festival in 1983, with the composer conducting.
In the summers of 1983 and 1985 he attended choral conducting seminars led by
Wolodymyr Kolesnyk, former director of the
National Opera of Ukraine
The Kyiv Opera group was formally established in the summer of 1867, and is the third oldest in Ukraine, after Odessa Opera and Lviv Opera.
The Kyiv Opera Company perform at the National Opera House of Ukraine named after Taras Shevchenko in ...
. In the fall of 1985, he co-founded the St. Evtymyj Youth Choir at St. Nicholas
Ukrainian Catholic Church Ukrainian Catholic Church may refer to:
* Latin Church in Ukraine
* Greek Catholic Churches (Eastern Catholic communities of the Byzantine Rite, centered in Ukraine, in communion with the Church of Rome)
**Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church
**Ukraini ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. Hurko soon began setting sections of the liturgy for the choir, and in 1999 completed and recorded the entire Divine Liturgy of St.
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom (; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος; 14 September 407) was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his homilies, preaching and public speaking, his denunciat ...
in commemoration of the second millennium of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
.
Career
Along with composition, Hurko has a career in Opera Stage Direction. A former member of the
Canadian Opera Company
The Canadian Opera Company (COC) is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and one of the largest producers of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Cent ...
(COC) ensemble, he worked as staff assistant director at the COC from 1988-93. After freelancing as an assistant director in Europe and the US (
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
in
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
,
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amad ...
,
De Nederlandse Opera
The Dutch National Opera (DNO; formerly De Nederlandse Opera, now De Nationale Opera in Dutch) is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Dutch National Opera & Ballet housed in the Stopera building, a m ...
,
Opéra de Monte-Carlo
The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is an opera house which is part of the Monte Carlo Casino located in the Principality of Monaco.
With the lack of cultural diversions available in Monaco in the 1870s, Prince Charles III, along with the Société des ba ...
,
Teatro de la Zarzuela
The Teatro de la Zarzuela is a theatre in Madrid, Spain. The theatre is today mainly devoted to zarzuela (the Spanish traditional musical theatre genre), as well as operetta and recitals.
History
The theatre was designed by architect Jerónimo ...
, The Washington Opera) he made his stage directing debut in 1996 at the
Spoleto Festival
The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conce ...
(Italy) with
Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...
's ''
Semele
Semele (; Ancient Greek: Σεμέλη ), in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia (Greek goddess), Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.
Certain elements of the cult of Dionysu ...
''. In
Spoleto
Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome.
History
Spolet ...
, he co-directed
Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...
's ''
War and Peace
''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...
'' together with festival founder and composer,
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept h ...
. Most recently, he directed
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
's ''
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...
'' and
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's ''
The Flying Dutchman
The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dut ...
'' at the
Vancouver Opera
Vancouver Opera is the second largest performing arts organization in British Columbia and the largest opera company in western Canada. Its mainstage performances occur in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, other venues in Vancouver and occasionally els ...
.
During this period he composed incidental music for two plays with the Yara Arts Group at
La Mama Experimental Theater Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
: A Light From the East (1991) and Explosions (1993).
Hurko has composed and recorded 5 major pieces of sacred music
Liturgy 2000Panachyda/Requiem for the Victims of Chernobyl(2001)
Liturgy No.2(2003), an
Vespers(2005). His latest recording, Liturgy No.3, an English language setting of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, was recorded in Chicago with the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle (J. Michael Thompson, conductor), and will be released in the fall of 2011
Liturgy 2000was premiered in Chicago by the
Schola Cantorum
The Schola Cantorum de Paris is a private conservatory in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera.
History
La Schola was founded i ...
of St. Peter the Apostle, conducted by J. Michael Thompson, at Sts. Volodymyr and Olha's Ukrainian Catholic Church on July 14, 2000. Requiem/Panachyda, "Chornobyl Requiem" dedicated to the memory of the victims of the nuclear
disaster
A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources ...
, received its premiere at
St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
, on April 26, 2001 (the 15th anniversary of the disaster), with the composer conducting the Frescoes of Kyiv
Chamber Choir A chamber choir is a small or medium-sized choir of roughly 8 to 40 singers (occasionally called 'chamber singers'), typically singing classical or religious music in a concert setting. (This is distinct from e.g. a church choir, which sings in rel ...
. A subsequent recording of the
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...
received its broadcast debut in April 2003 on the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
(CBC) Radio 2 programme "Choral Concert".
Selections fro
Liturgy No. 2were given their North American premiere by the
Elmer Iseler Singers
The Elmer Iseler Singers is a professional chamber choir based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The twenty-voice choir, conducted by Artistic Director ''Lydia Adams'', founded by Dr. Elmer Iseler in 1979, is one of Canada’s leading choral ensemb ...
at concerts in Ottawa and Toronto, conducted by Lydia Adams. In September 2005
Vesperswas premiered in Kyiv's
Pecherska Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) by the Vydubychi Church Choir (Volodymyr Viniar, conductor), as the opening concert to the 16th
KyivFest International Music Festival.
On April 9, 2006, the Requiem was performed in concert at Toronto's
Roy Thomson Hall
Roy Thomson Hall is a concert hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located downtown in the city's entertainment district, it is home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Toronto Defiant. Opened in 1982, its circ ...
by the combined: Elmer Iseler Singers, Orpheus Choir, Amadeus Choir, the Vesnivka Women's Choir, and the Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir in a concert to solemnly mark the 20th anniversary of the
Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
nuclear disaster. This concert was subsequently broadcast on April 26 (the 20th anniversary of the disaster) on the CBC Radio 2 programme: "In Performance", and again on Sunday, May 14 on "Choral Concert".
Many of Hurko's recordings have received their US broadcast premiere on Princeton Radio's "Classical Discoveries" program (103.3 FM), hosted by
Marvin Rosen. Most recently, Roman has become involved in a series of recordings entitled "The Ukrainian Art Song Project" as producer. The goal of the project is to record the complete art songs of Ukraine's major composers. Volume 1 of the series, The Complete Art Songs of
Kyrylo Stetsenko
Kyrylo Hryhorovych Stetsenko ( ua, Кирило Григорович Стеценко; May 12, 1882 – April 29, 1922) was a prolific Ukrainian composer, conductor, critic, and teacher. Late in his life he became a Ukrainian Orthodox Priest and ...
(1882–1922) was recorded during the summer of 2006 by
Pavlo Hunka, Bass and
Albert Krywolt, piano on Toronto's Musica Leopolis label.
Also featured on the recording are
Russell Braun
Russell Braun (born 19 July 1965) is a Canadian operatic lyric baritone and Juno Award winner.
Much sought-after as a soloist and for opera roles, Russell Braun performs regularly at the Metropolitan Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Lyric ...
, Baritone and
Benjamin Butterfield, tenor. The recording was launched on September 14, 2006 at the new Four Season's Opera House in Toronto. Volume 2, The Complete Art Songs of
Mykola Lysenko
Mykola Vitaliyovych Lysenko ( uk, Мико́ла Віта́лійович Ли́сенко; 22 March 1842 – 6 November 1912) was a List of Ukrainian composers, Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist of the late Romantic mus ...
(1842–1912) was launched on December 5, 2010 at Toronto's Koerner Hall. Volume 3, The Complete Art Songs of
Yakiv Stepovyi (1883–1921) was released on February 6, 2011 at Edmonton's Winspear Center. Galicians I, the art songs of Denys Sichynsky, Stanyslav Liudkevych, Vasyl Barvinsky, and Stefania Turkewich were launched on November 2, 2014 at Koerner Hall in Toronto.
External links
Roman HurkoUkrainian Art Song Project
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurko, Roman
Ukrainian classical composers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)