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14 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ТРАВЕНЬ 2015 AN AWARD FOR EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY Interview with Natalia Sonevytsky by Olesia Wallo On March 28, 2015, co-founder and president of the Music & Arts Center of Greene County (NY) and longtime member of UNWLA Branch 64, Natalia Sonevytsky, received a Distinguished Service Award from the Greene County Council on the Arts during the Council’s Annual Beaux Arts Ball. The award was a token of grati- tude for many years of extraordinary effort by Mrs. Sonevytsky and her late husband in bringing the best of Ukrainian classical music, as well as workshops in Ukrainian arts, to their communi- ty. I had the honor and the pleasure of speaking with pani Natalia about her work and its recent well-deserved recognition. Pani Nataliu, how did the idea to found the Music & Arts Center of Greene County originate? To found a classical music festival was my husband's dream and idea. He was a professional musician—composer, musicologist, conductor, and pianist. We had a cottage in the Hunter area in the Catskills. Hunter was a well-known Ukrain- ian arts colony from the 1950s through the 1980s. Many Ukrainian painters (Mykhailo Moroz, Ed- ward Kozak, Liudmyla Morozova, Myron Levyts- kyi, Slavko Vyzhnytskyi, Bohdan Tytla, and many others) either lived nearby, or spent their entire summers there; there were also poets and writers such as Mykola Ponedilok, Iker Kernytskyi, Yuri Tarnavskyi, and other creative people. In other words, it was a very stimulating center for Ukrain- ian intelligentsia. Passionately loving classical music, Ihor wanted to create a venue for profes- sional world-class, mostly Ukrainian performers. In Ukrainian, the center is Центр Україн- ської Культури в Гантері . The Center has been serving the communi- ty of Greene County for 32 years. There must have been numerous challenges and hurdles along the way. What motivated you and your husband to keep it going? In the beginning, it was really hard. Our most ardent supporters had doubts that we would last for a long time. I remember that at first we were happy to get twenty-five people for a con- cert. We had problems housing our performers. And of course, there was always a question of money. To run a small non-profit classical music organization is not easy. We solicited members and received a couple of small grants. After a cou- Natalia Sonevytsky holds the Distinguished Service Award from the Greene County Council on the Arts. ple of years we became known on the mountain- top. A reviewer in the Woodstock Times called us “Little Tanglewood.” It was a huge compliment for us. Today we depend on the grant from Greene County Council on the Arts, the generous donation from the Federal N.Y. Credit Union “Samopomich,” and contributions from our loyal, supportive members. There was never a moment of doubt in my husband's and my mind that we would continue doing it as long as we could. We saw how the Center's reputation for world-class concerts grew, and for us, and still today for me— it is a labor of love. Which of the Center’s programs or pro- jects are you most proud of? I am very proud of both the concerts and the courses in Ukrainian folk arts, mostly for chil- dren. The list of luminaries who performed at Grazhda reads like “Who is Who in Classical Mu- sic”: Paul Plishka, Eugene Fodor, Lydia Artymiv, Myroslav Skoryk, Maria Stefiuk, Stefania Dov- han, Oleh Krysa, Aleksander Slobodyanik, Mykola Suk, William Wilderman, the Leontovych String Quartet, and many others. The current artistic director and advisor—brilliant pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky and equally talented cellist Natalia Khoma—make sure that the highest standards remain as the most important criterion for Grazh- da performances. I am also very proud of the un- written law that Ihor instituted—performers must
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