Shevchenko Concert in Edmonton 2025
How quickly the last year has flown by! It’s March again, and once again we honor our Kobzar and genius Taras Shevchenko — poet, writer, artist, and prophet. Shevchenko was born in March (9th) and passed away (10th). This year marks the 211th anniversary of his birth and the 164th anniversary of his death, and we, Ukrainians in Edmonton, like Ukrainians all over the world every year, celebrated this anniversary with a concert in his honor.
Why do we honor Shevchenko every year? The answer to this question is quite simple. Praising the magical nature of his homeland in his works and describing its history and difficult fate, Shevchenko revealed all the beauty of Ukraine and thus awakened his compatriots and taught them to love it as he loved it himself – infinitely!
“Shevchenko was a professional artist by the grace of God and a poet by God’s calling for the salvation of the Ukrainian people,” writes Halyna Kotovych in the concert script she prepared for host Ola Myts. “In her ardent love for Ukraine, Shevchenko composed picturesque descriptions of Ukrainian lands in his poems. His poetic genius went hand in hand with the visual arts.”
And we must not forget that although the foundations of the new Ukrainian literary language were laid by Ivan Kotlyarevsky, the process of forming a new Ukrainian literature and literary language lasted almost half a century and ended with the literary and linguistic activities of Taras Shevchenko. As the scholar Ivan Ohienko (later Metropolitan Hilarion) writes in his work “History of the Ukrainian Literary Language”: “In the history of the development of the Ukrainian literary language, Shevchenko ended the era that began with Kotlyarevsky and was led by his followers. He became the synthesis of this language and he also put it on a good path for further development. … , it became clear to everyone that Shevchenko did lead this language onto the path of broader literary development.”
It was thanks to these monumental achievements of his during his extremely difficult life path that Ukraine was able to hold on and withstand all the trials of the following years.
The concert, jointly organized by the Edmonton branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the Ukrainian Musical Society of Alberta (UMTA), took place on Sunday, March 9, in the premises of the Ukrainian Youth House. The slogan of the concert was “Fight … you will overcome!” Admission to the concert was by voluntary donations to the Friends of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Fund. This fund was founded by the League of Ukrainian Canadians and the League of Ukrainian Canadians, and since 2014 has been supporting servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The concert began with two greetings — the first from the Edmonton branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which was delivered by Mykola Vorotilenko instead of the chairman Dmytro Petrushchak, and then by Viktoria Bozhko, the Consul General of Ukraine in Edmonton.
According to the tradition of concerts in honor of Shevchenko, the concert program began with the singing of “The Testament”. The Chamber Choir “New Life” came out, the audience stood up and the sounds of the well-known Hymn-Testament rang out. The program was as follows:
THE TESTAMENT (T. Shevchenko, harmonization by L. Yaschenko);
THE SUN IS SETTING (T. Shevchenko, music by V. Ikonnyk);
THERE IS WAR IN OUR LAND (lyrics and music by an unknown author, arranged by V. Semkovych), Chamber Choir “New Life”, conductor: Oleksandra Hrynyuk;
STUDENTS, MY BROTHERS! (literary and musical composition), Native School of the Parish of St. Yuri the Victorious, grades 3, 4 and 5, conductor: Olena Shevchuk, director: Olya Myts.
WHAT HIS WORDS WERE ABOUT (verse composition), Youth Theater Studio “Homin” at the Organization of Ukrainian Women of Canada named after Olga Basarab, artistic director: Vlad Lisnichenko;
MY THOUGHTS (music by A. Pyvovarov, arranged for the bandurist ensemble by V. Tkachuk);
SUITE (T. Shevchenko, arranged by O. Makhlay);
SADOK VYSHNEVY (T. Shevchenko, arr. L. Tkachenko), Bandura Ensemble “Feeriya”, musical director: Oksana Kolomiyets;
GAMALIYA (T. Shevchenko, arrangement by the group “Fata Morgana”);
MY THOUGHTS (T. Shevchenko, music by M. Lysenko, arr. O. Tokar), Verkhovyna Choir at the Union of Ukrainian Youth, conductor: Namisha Greening, piano accompaniment: Hanya Kambel;
THE PATH OF THE ARTIST, video montage, text: H. Kotovych, video compilation: I. Shmihelska;
NADIYA. DEDICATED TO TARAS SHEVCHENKA (poetic performance), Ukrainian Studies Courses named after Ivan Franko, performed by: Ilya Baranov, Amalia Kril, Heorhiy Nagatskyi, Anna Petrash, Sofia Romanova, Diana Yaremchuk, artistic director: Myroslava Oksentyuk, course director: Liliya Sukha;
WATCH, WHEN IT DAYS (T. Shevchenko, music by V. Prokopenko), performed by the women’s choir;
IN OUR PARADISE ON EARTH (T. Shevchenko, music by M. Datsko), soloist: Nataliya Onyshchuk, choir “Dnipro”, conductor: Iryna Shmihelska;
LET’S GLORIFY, BROTHERS, UKRAINE!, lyrics by S. Alexandrova, read by Solomiya Myts;
THE WIDE DNIPR ROARS AND LOOPS (T. Shevchenko, music by D. Kryzhanivsky, arr. by V. Kosenko), performed by the choirs “Dnipro” and “New Life”, conductor: Iryna Shmihelska, piano accompaniment: Iryna Tarnavska.
In her closing remarks, Iryna Shmihelska, interim head of the UMTA, said: “We honor Taras Shevchenko, whose spirit and resilience continue to inspire man, people, nation and the world. Today we accept him in and we are attached to its credo: to move forward relentlessly, defending justice, truth and freedom. ‘Fight… you will win!’”. She also expressed her gratitude to everyone for their help in making this concert a success, and especially to …the presenter, Ola Myts, for sharing her gift of speaking at the microphone with such ease, and to UMTA member Halyna Kotovych, who skillfully chose the theme of the concert and clearly prepared the text for the presenter.
At the end, the audience, together with the choirs “Dnipro” and “Nove Zhyttia”, sang the STATE HYMN OF UKRAINE.
At the entrance, voluntary donations brought $2,375 to the Friends of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Foundation. We sincerely thank all donors.
Allow me to share a personal memory from my childhood. I admit that I remember too few events from my childhood. But I do remember well when I was not yet seven years old and I studied Shevchenko’s poem “The Dug Grave”. Obviously, it was on the initiative and with the help of my father. “The world is quiet, the land is sweet, my Ukraine…” And I remember how I repeated the lines of this poem, and my dad said: “Come on, once again!”. Thank you, Dad!
I am sure that most of you who read this know exactly why I am mentioning it now. This relatively short poem, written in 1843, consists of 53 short lines that tell us who our enemy is and warn us that we must be very careful in our relations with him. In his works, Shevchenko often glorified the heroic past of the Ukrainian people, especially the Cossacks and their era. But here he reproaches Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky for an act two centuries earlier.
Oh Bohdan!
You foolish son!
Look now at your mother,
At your Ukraine,
That, rocking, sang
About your misfortune,
That, singing, sobbed,
Looked for freedom.
Oh Bohdan, Bohdanochka,
If she had known,
In the cradle I would have strangled you,
Under my heart I would have put you to sleep.
This is how Shevchenko expressed his regret about the event that took place two centuries before him, and warns us and warns us about today’s events.
Finally, I will mention the work “HOLY DNIPRO” (1992), an oratorio chronicle, music by V. Kikta, lyrics by S. Maidanska. The oratorio was created for the 40th anniversary of the Edmonton choir “Dnipro” (1993). This refers to the words in the second part: “… The Slavs, having come, sat down on the Dnieper…”
“We came here so long ago…
And time has flown by so imperceptibly.
We are still here, we came here so long ago…”
As much time has passed as many blizzards have passed “On this land, sanctified by the Dnieper…” … and we are still here!
Taras Shevchenko wrote so much about the Dnieper. In his works, the Dnieper becomes a symbol of our spirituality, our strength, our existence. It seems to me that this is a sign from our Great Kobzar, our Prophet, who awakened us two centuries ago and at this time foretells a better fate for us, Ukrainians.
“Fight – you will win,” says Shevchenko, “God helps you! For you is the truth, for you is glory And holy will!”
Everything will be Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the Heroes!
Orisya Oliynyk,
member of UMTA
