Wolodymyr Kolesnyk
Wolodymyr Kolesnyk (1928–1987) was a Ukrainian symphonic and choral conductor.
Kolesnyk before his defection to the West was formerly the director of the Kiev State Opera and Ballet Theatre. In the course of his conducting career he has worked with Jan Peerce, Jerome Hines, and Teresa Stratas, Dmitri Shostakovich and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Early life and education
Born in 1928 in Dnipropetrovsk, at the time in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union (in present-day Ukraine), Kolesnyk completed his tertiary studies in music majoring in bayan at the Kiev Conservatory. In 1949, at the age of 21 while still a student, he received a half-time appointment as a choirmaster in Kiev's Shevchenko State Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 1952 he graduated with distinction as a bayan player from the faculty of folk music instruments at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He later completed the requirements for a second specialty in Conducting and Music Theory in 1954 under Hryhoriy Veriovka.
Career
During the period of de-Stalinization Kolesnyk rose up the ranks at the Shevchenko State Opera and Ballet Theatre to become the First Secretary of the Communist Party at the Kiev opera. In 1964 he was appointed the director of the theatre by the then head of the Ukrainian government, Petro Shelest with a mandate of Ukraininize the theatre. From 1964 to 1971 he lead a campaign to translate and perform the Operas in the Ukrainian language.
During this period he also taught conducting at the Kiev Conservatory and edited a number of anthologies of operatic chorus by Ukrainian composers. He was also involved in a number of films of Ukrainian operas and also a number of symphonic recordings released on the Soviet Melodiya record. label.
Kolesnyk was the recipient of numerous state honours and awards, including the highly regarded Merited Artist of the USSR in 1960. By 1969 he had risen to the highest post of General Director, Artistic Director, Conductor and Head Choirmaster of the Kiev Opera, a position he held until he defected from the Soviet Union in 1972.
With the change of government in Ukraine, and the halt of the period of Ukrainization, Kolsenyk saw the need to defect with his family to the West.
After his controversial defection to Austria via Bulgaria and Yugoslavia he emigrated to Australia in 1972 where he briefly enjoyed engagements with the Sydney Opera Company directing Carmen, and conducting various Australian symphonic orchestras. In 1975 he emigrated to the United States setting in Jersey City and later Toronto where he devoted himself primarily to teaching, and to staging Ukrainian operas and concerts of Ukrainian Symphonic music.
Between 1985-88 Kolesnyk undertook the performances of the 35 sacred choral a capella choral concertos by the Ukrainian composer Dmytro Bortniansky (1751–1825).
From 1985-1996 he was the artistic director and conductor of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus recording numerous CD's and leading successful tours of the ensemble throughout North America, and Ukraine.
In 1988 he began work on a project to research and record the liturgical choral works of the Ukrainian composer Artem Vedel. The collected scores were published, but because of Kolesnyk's illness and untimely death due to brain cancer the recording were not completed.
Wolodymyr Kolesnyk died Saturday, 8 November 1997 in Toronto, Canada.
Repertoire
Kolesnyk's operatic repertoire included over 80 works, including Carmen, Aida, Faust, Prince Igor, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Boris Godunov, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. His Ukrainian repertoire included Taras Bulba by Mykola Lysenko, Taras Shevchenko and Arsenal by Hryhory Maiboroda, Bohdan Khmelnytsky by Kost Dankevych and Mazepa by Peter Tchaikovsky; four of which were released on the Melodiya label.
Publications
3 Compilations of Ukrainian opera chorus's published by the Ukrainian publishing house "Muzychna Ukraina. Collected works of Artem Vedel published by the Millenium foundation in Canada.