Renowned Ukrainian violinist to perform at UMaine on March 26
Renowned Ukrainian violinist Solomia Soroka will perform in a free public concert at 7:30 p.m. March 26 in Minsky Recital Hall at the University of Maine.
Soroka’s performance, hosted by the UMaine School of Performing Arts, will feature music faculty members Phillip Silver, professor of piano and musicology, and Noreen Silver, instructor of cello and chamber music. The program will include works by Ukrainian composers Mykola Lysenko, Yevhen Stankovych and Vasyl Barvinsky as a tribute to the nation of Soroka’s birth.
Soroka, a professor of violin at Goshen College, Indiana, was born in Lviv, Ukraine. She made her solo debut at age 10, playing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra. Her playing combines warmth and passion with consummate technical skill. Soroka has appeared as soloist and chamber musician at concerts and festivals throughout the world, and has served on the faculty of the Kyiv Conservatory.
The inclusion of music by Ukrainian composers in this program is a change from the originally planned selection.
“Music is a reflection of the soul of a nation,” says Phillip Silver. “In these terrible times, this choice of repertoire can be understood as an assertion of the national soul engaged in a struggle for survival. Particularly poignant is the fate in an earlier time of composer Vasyl Barvinsky, whose music was either destroyed or banned from performance by the Soviets.”
Soroka has performed premieres of a number of contemporary Ukrainian compositions for violin and has recorded many of them for Toccata Classics in London. She is praised for being “a truly wonderful musician” (The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand), and as one who “plays with great warmth and authority” (BBC Music Magazine).
For more information, contact Brian Jansen, brian.jansen@maine.edu.