Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York is a Ukrainian amateur chorus founded in New York City in 1949, dedicated to secular and sacred choral music from Ukraine. It has a mixed choir and a children's choir. They have performed mostly in New York, but also in Europe.

History

Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York was founded in 1949 with the goal "to preserve and cultivate the rich musical heritage of Ukraine", both for the church and for secular occasions. In the beginning, the chorus was a

men's chorus A men's chorus or male voice choir (MVC) (German: ''Männerchor''), is a choir consisting of men who sing with either a tenor or bass voice, and whose music is typically arranged into high and low tenors (1st and 2nd tenor), and high and low bass ...

of Ukrainian immigrants who met to sing music they loved. The first music director was L. Krushelnycky. The group became a mixed choir in 1959. They have performed in New York at locations including in

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assist ...

Avery Fisher Hall David Geffen Hall is a concert hall in New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic. The facility, designe ...

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

. They toured to the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

in Washington, and in several European capitals. In 1990, the chorus toured Ukraine for the first time, singing in Kyiv,

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

Poltava Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...

, and

Kaniv Kaniv ( uk, Канів, ) city located in Cherkasy Raion, Cherkasy Oblast (province) in central Ukraine. The city rests on the Dnieper River, and is also one of the main inland river ports on the Dnieper. It hosts the administration of Kaniv urb ...

. They made recordings of both church and secular music. Dumka celebrated their 70th anniversary at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

on 6 October 2019, conducted by music director and conductor Vasyl Hrechynsky. The mixed chorus performed mostly Ukrainian classic choral compositions in the first section, and shorter Ukrainian folk songs and humorous works in the concluding section. The program also included the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” by

Peter Wilhousky Peter J. Wilhousky ( uk, Пітер (Петро) Вільговський; 13 July 1902 – 4 January 1978) was an American composer, music educator, and choral conductor of Rusyn descent. During his childhood he was part of New York's Russian Cat ...

, an American of Ukrainian origin, who created English lyrics to Leontovych's "Shchedryk" ("

Carol of the Bells "Carol of the Bells" is a popular Christmas carol, with music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. The song is based on the Ukrainian folk chant " Shchedryk". The music is in the public domain; Wil ...

"). The choir sang Verdi's ''

Va, pensiero "" (), also known as the "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves", is a chorus from the opera ''Nabucco'' (1842) by Giuseppe Verdi. It recollects the period of Babylonian captivity after the loss of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The libretto is ...

'' (Fly, my thoughts n wings of gold from ''

Nabucco ''Nabucco'' (, short for Nabucodonosor ; en, " Nebuchadnezzar") is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, ...

'', written when Italian patriots tried to unify their country, free from foreign control. The

children's choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

also performed, which unites children of all ages, teaching them Ukrainian folk songs, pop songs and religious works. On 26 February 2022, two days after the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

began, the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York conducted by Vasyl Hrechynsky performed the Ukrainian spiritual hymn "

Prayer for Ukraine "Prayer for Ukraine" ( uk, Молитва за Україну, Molytva za Ukrayinu, italic=no) is a patriotic Ukrainian hymn published in 1885, which became a spiritual anthem of Ukraine. The text was written by Oleksandr Konysky, and the music ...

" live in the

cold open A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In Ameri ...

of the ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' episode hosted by former show writer

John Mulaney John Edmund Mulaney (born August 26, 1982) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He first rose to prominence for his work as a writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2008 to 2013, where he contributed to numerous ...

with musical guest LCD Soundsystem, standing behind a table of

votive candle A votive candle or prayer candle is a small candle, typically white or beeswax yellow, intended to be burnt as a votive offering in an act of Christian prayer, especially within the Anglican, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic Christian denominations, ...

s that were arranged to spell "Kyiv".

References

External links

* * * * {{authority control Music of Ukraine Musicians of the Ukrainian diaspora Choirs in New York City Musical groups established in 1949

History

See also

References

External links