Zynoviy Lavryshyn (June 4, 1943, Rudnyky village, Lviv region - February 1, 2017, Toronto, Canada) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, and conductor. He graduated from the Royal Conservatory (1961) and the University of Toronto (1969). He studied piano in Paris (1965-1966).
Biography.
Zenoviy Lavryshyn was born on June 4, 1943, in the village of Rudnyky (now Stryi district, Lviv region), to a priest. His father, Fr. Vasyl Lavryshyn, was from Krasne, Rozhniativ district. His mother Maria came from the Bobovnyk family of Hlibovychi. His father had a pleasant baritone voice, and his mother was a piano student of Vasyl Barvinsky. In the spring of 1944, the Lavryshyn family emigrated to Germany, and five years later to Canada, where they settled in Toronto.
His first piano lessons were taught by his father, and later he studied privately with Kateryna Hvozdetska, Lev Turkevych, and Lyubka Kolessa.
"I knew even then that she was a world-famous pianist," says Mr. Zenoviy. "I still remember the illustrations of the pieces she performed. That was music! Recalling those times, I repeatedly catch myself thinking how important my meetings with such great people as Lyubka and Khrystia Kolessa, Mykhailo Holynskyi, Vasyl Tysiak, Yosyp Hoshuliak, Olenka Zaklynska, and Volodymyr Kolesnyk were. All of them left a noticeable mark on my life, albeit not immediately."
After graduating from high school, Zenon entered the Royal Toronto Conservatory and studied in the class of Professor E. Moss. At the age of 17, he was already a good accompanist. Such famous opera and concert chamber singers as Mykhailo Holynskyi, Vasyl Tysiak, Yosyp Hoshuliak, Antonina Piddubna, Stefania Fedchuk, Raisa Sadova, and others sang to his accompaniment.
In 1961, when he graduated from the conservatory, Zenoviy created the youth choir "Lisova Pisnia" and performed with it at various concerts and performances of the Ukrainian community. T For a year, he studied with Professor André Jolivet in Paris. It was here that his choral arrangements and solos "The Cherry Orchard," "The Wind Talks to the Grove," and "The White Aster of Love" were born.
After a year of studying composition in Paris, he applied to the Canada Council Grand to continue his studies. But not having received confirmation in time, he decided to return to Toronto and enrolled in the university for a master's degree. The Canada Council later agreed to accept this change.
In 1967, while continuing his studies at the university, Mr. Lavryshyn became the director of the Boyan Mixed Choir. It was with this direction in music that he connected his entire life. He began with the Chaika Children's Choir in Hamilton, with which he performed a number of concerts in Canada, the United States, and even Europe. At the same time, Zenoviy Lavryshyn took over the direction of the choir at the Church of the Intercession. His outstanding achievement was conducting the combined choirs in the 1967 Massy Hall, and a year later, the combined choirs and symphony orchestra in the performance of sacred works and his own cantata, The Great Day, at Maple Leaf Gardens.
His instrumental works for symphony orchestra, chamber trios, quartets, quintets, solos for violin, cello, woodwinds, etc. are less well known. His piano work "Fantasy on Shevchenko's Themes", two symphonies, and a symphony for harp and piano accompanied by a symphony orchestra are quite interesting. The composer's operatic works are almost completely unknown. Unfortunately, few people know that he is the author of the operas Sammy and Orphan Princess.
Together with Marta Kravtsiv-Barabash, Zenoviy Lavryshyn thoroughly worked on the last five volumes of the 11-volume edition of Ukrainian Folk Melodies, a series of folk gems, continuing what was started by the composer Zenoviy Lysko. The composer is the author of several musicological works, including Ukrainian Classical Music in Canada and The Manuscript Heritage of A. Vedel.
The artist's organizational and social activities were prominent in Toronto. In September 1975, Zenon Lavryshyn founded the Ukrainian Canadian Opera Society here. This initiative was supported by the Ukrainian community of the city, as well as the press. Thus, the Svoboda newspaper of October 24 of that year wrote: "For many years this was planned, and finally, after analyzing the community's capacity to create large art forms to promote their native culture, a group of enthusiasts created the Ukrainian Opera Society in Canada under the auspices of the National Association in Toronto."
The first production they undertook was the opera Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube by S. Hulak-Artemovsky. The performances took place on December 4, 5, 6, and 7, 1975, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The main roles were performed by Raisa Sadova (Oksana), Stefania Fedchuk (Odarka), Leonid Skirko (Karas), Viktor Sheveliv (Sultan), and Andriy Soroka (Imam). The opera was conducted by Zenoviy Lavryshyn. The dances were choreographed by Semen Dzhuhan and directed by Orest Kovalsky. This production of Ukrainian opera in Toronto was a significant event in the life of the Ukrainian community.
The year 1978 was particularly fruitful for his achievements, when Mr. Lavryshyn was choirmaster of the newly formed Ukrainian Canadian Opera Choir and taught a course in music history at conducting courses in Edmonton.
At this time, the opera society founded by the composer continued to work. His efforts led to the organization of the Ukrainian Opera Week in Toronto from June 1 to 8, 1984, which culminated in a major performance at the MacMillan Theatre. It should be noted that after this performance, Zenoviy Lavryshyn handed over the leadership of the company to conductor Volodymyr Kolesnyk, and he continued to work with choirs and paid more attention to composing. In 1990, together with the Burlaka Choir, the composer visited the cities of Lviv, Ternopil, Rivne, Zaporizhzhia, and Kyiv and conducted the choir at Taras Shevchenko's grave in Kaniv.
The following decades were especially full of creativity. During this time, the artist's oeuvre was enriched by numerous arrangements for various types of choirs of light genre songs by composer Bohdan Vesolovsky, works to the words of Oleh Olzhych, V. Samoilenko, P. Hrabovsky, and M. Voronoi. And if Ukrainian historians recognize that the Western diaspora made an invaluable contribution to the preservation of Ukrainian sacred choral music, then the composer Zenon Lavryshyn is to be credited with this.
