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НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ • Вересень-Жовтень 2026 5 and recording engineers to make an album of the carols. Miraculously, a recording space in Berkeley, California, where I taught for years, was available. The acclaimed recording engineer Martha de Francisco of McGill Uni - versity, whom I had met while directing the Montreal Symphony Chorus years ago, could fit in the dates be - fore traveling to a conference in Spain. Key singers in En - semble Cherubim were also available, including oktavist Glenn Miller, who flew in directly after singing Mahler at Carnegie Hall, and tenor Brian Thorsett, who would already be in California for the Berkeley Early Music Fes - tival. The choir began to assemble. As another miracle, the project received the gener - ous support of sponsors who enabled the project to move forward: from a music-loving couple in Vienna, Austria, to individual donors in California, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, the Shevchenko Scientific Socie - ty in New York, and the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America. I envisioned the album primarily as a companion to the book. I consulted with our sound engineer about the kind of sound we wanted. I wanted to convey a spe - cial mood with the album — to share both the care of preparation and the spontaneity of carolers gathering to knock on doors and bring good cheer. I wanted it to honor each carol as a masterpiece but not surround it in the opulent reverberation of a formal concert hall or cathedral — just the feeling of a warm family home. Our core group included only 16 singer-koliadnyky, with a few more joining for numbers with more complex harmonies. Our unique album presents carols that most interna- tional singers and conductors have never heard. It also presents traditional carols that Ukrainians know but perhaps in a different way. For example, Leontovych’s “Shchedryk” is usually sung fast and with clipped articula - tion, but the original manuscript in Leontovych’s handwriting that I was able to see as a scan from the Kyiv Vernadsky Library instructs “Ne khutko” and “tenuto” — not fast and sustained. Thus our Ensemble Cherubim “Shchedryk” reflects a feeling of calm abundance. The album ends with Svyatoslav Lunyov’s “Silent Night,” a reimagining of the famous carol by the Austrian composer Franz Gruber. Lunyov arranges it in a minor key and with plaintive descending lines surrounding the melody. It is rather heartbreaking but nev - ertheless expresses hope with its major chords at the very end. Premiered in Kyiv during the Maidan protests, this carol feels appropriate. It ends our album on a note of profound prayerful - ness and optimism for this moment in Ukraine. Last December, as another part of this jour - ney, Ensemble Cherubim and I performed large-scale concerts of these very carols for the prestigious Cal Performances series in Berke - ley, California, and then at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Los Angeles. We sang to diverse audiences of over a thousand. In Berkeley, our concert was accompanied by the award-win - ning Piedmont East Bay Children’s Chorus led by Eric Tuan, actors L. Peter Callender and Pat - rick Russel, violinists Karen Bentley Pollick and Cookie Segelstein, and world-renowned soloist Frederica von Stade. Both concerts received immediate standing ovations. We will be performing our program of car - ols again on the East Coast this coming winter: January 7 at St. Cecilia Church in Boston and January 9 at the Cathedral of St. John the Di - vine in New York, the largest cathedral in North America. Both concerts will raise funds for the Photos: Jim Block Ensemble Cherubim recording session in Berkeley, California, June 2024.
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