We invite you to listen to a beautiful interpretation of
Evensong~Вечірня Пісня

Composer: Kyrylo Stetsenko
Poet: Volodymyr Samiilenko

Performers: 
Benjamin Butterfield, tenor
Albert Krywolt, pianist

KYRYLO STETSENKO (1882 - 1922)

Joy and sorrow embrace the art songs of Kyrylo Stetsenko. Tsarist repression, revolution, censorship, exile and war are their companions.  Only a free spirit like Stetsenko could survive the times and create songs of unsurpassed beauty, inner strength and delicate intimacy.  The songs display a stunning array of changing emotions-from impassioned patriotism, bitter irony and cruel disappointment to hopeful yearning, ardent love and peaceful reflection.  

There are moments of epic timelessness, mystic invocation, heroic struggle and domestic bliss.  These are songs that express Ukraine's poetic soul through the universal language of music.  Kyrylo Stetsenko was born in central Ukraine. His father was a painter of icons and his maternal uncle was an Orthodox priest. At age 10, Kyrylo was taken by his uncle to Kyiv to study art.  There, he enrolled at Saint Sophia's Church School and later at the Seminary.  In school, Kyrylo studied the masters of Ukrainian church music Dmytro Bortniansky, Maksym Berezovsky, Artem Vedel, and others. He also met Mykola Lysenko, the most important Ukrainian composer of the time, and participated in several ethnomusicological expeditions.  Completing his studies in 1903, Stetsenko chose not to become a priest.  Instead, he began working as a music teacher, music critic, church conductor and composer.  

The Ukrainian Art Song Project has been bringing Ukraine's musical treasures to light since 2004. With your support, we will continue to bring Ukraine's finest composers and their masterpieces to the world stage, where they belong.

Проєкт "Українськa Мистецькa Пісня" поширює найкращі зразки української музики з 2004 року. З Вашою підтримкою ми продовжимо презентувати найкращих українських композиторів та їх шедеври, які належать до світової музичної спадщини.