number 84 may 2018 626 bathurst st. toronto, on …applauded for her fine performance of fritz...

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NUMBER 84 May 2018 626 BATHURST ST. TORONTO, ON ISSN-0703-9999 together Photo by Wayne Gilbert GPS Photography New date and place In the last issue of the Bulletin (No- vember 2017) we informed readers that St. Michael’s College for the Perform- ing Arts – where the Ensemble has held its Annual Concerts for a number of years – is no longer available. Aſter a search of other arts schools we an- nounced that this year’s Annual Con- cert would be held at the Cardinal Car- ter Academy for the Arts. Since then, however, we discov- ered the theatre has many shortcom- ings which make it unsuitable for our purposes. One of the most important factors was the lack of sufficient au- dio equipment and professional audio technicians. erefore, the Board has determined that the Annual Concert will instead be held at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre on Saturday, June 23 at 7pm. e concert will feature the choir, or- chestra and soloists presenting a varied programme of songs and music of the world. Order your tickets early! a concert celebrating the wonderful diversity of the music of the world Saturday, June 23, 7pm Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre 427 Bloor west of Spadina Our 2018 Annual Concert will present folk songs and music as well as classical orchestrations on folk themes from many of the world’s cultures. Lively and diverse as always, you’ll hear Ukrainian, Russian, Slovak, French Canadian, Yiddish music and more, featuring outstanding vocal and instrumental soloists. e exceptional acoustics and intimate environs of Trinity-St. Paul’s complete the experience. Order your tickets early! New date and place

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Page 1: NUMBER 84 May 2018 626 BATHURST ST. TORONTO, ON …applauded for her fine performance of Fritz Kreisler’s Prelude and Allegro and Scherzo by Stepan Naghdyan. Common Thread opened

NUMBER 84 May 2018 626 BATHURST ST. TORONTO, ON ISSN-0703-9999

together

Photo by Wayne Gilbert GPS Photography

New date and place

In the last issue of the Bulletin (No-vember 2017) we informed readers that St. Michael’s College for the Perform-ing Arts – where the Ensemble has held its Annual Concerts for a number of years – is no longer available. After a search of other arts schools we an-nounced that this year’s Annual Con-cert would be held at the Cardinal Car-ter Academy for the Arts.

Since then, however, we discov-ered the theatre has many shortcom-ings which make it unsuitable for our purposes. One of the most important factors was the lack of sufficient au-dio equipment and professional audio technicians.

Therefore, the Board has determined that the Annual Concert will instead be held at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre on Saturday, June 23 at 7pm.

The concert will feature the choir, or-chestra and soloists presenting a varied programme of songs and music of the world.

Order your tickets early!

a concert celebrating the wonderful diversity of the music of the world

Saturday, June 23, 7pmTrinity-St. Paul’s Centre427 Bloor west of Spadina

Our 2018 Annual Concert will present folk songs and music as well as classical orchestrations on folk themes from many of the world’s cultures. Lively and diverse as always, you’ll hear Ukrainian, Russian, Slovak, French Canadian, Yiddish music and more, featuring outstanding vocal and instrumental soloists. The exceptional acoustics and intimate environs of Trinity-St. Paul’s complete the experience. Order your tickets early!

New date and place

Page 2: NUMBER 84 May 2018 626 BATHURST ST. TORONTO, ON …applauded for her fine performance of Fritz Kreisler’s Prelude and Allegro and Scherzo by Stepan Naghdyan. Common Thread opened

The Shevchenko Choir returned with The Prayer from the the film Quest for Camelot; You Raise Me Up recently made popular by Josh Groban and nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award. The choir sang Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind, and Do You Hear the People Sing? from the musical Les Misérables, a revolutionary call for peo-ple to overcome adversity.

As a tribute to Paul Robeson they per-formed Ol’ Man River from the musical Showboat by Jerome Kern and Oscar Ham-merstein with soloist Herman Rombouts. Herman performed this song, as he always does, with great gusto and feeling, winning loud applause from the audience.

Both choirs filled the stage to perform the Afro-American Spiritual Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, made known throughout the world by Paul Robeson.

The concert ended with the Yiddish folk song Ale Brider (All Brothers) which calls for all humanity to live in peace and har-mony together.

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A choral concert“With Hope”

A better collaboration could not be found than a performance by the Shevchenko Choir and Common Thread Community Chorus. Both choirs are not only dedicated to preserving a heritage, but to presenting songs of other cultures, songs of peace, hu-man rights and social justice. The concert was held in Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre on January 28.

Conducted by Alexander Veprinskiy and accompanied by Svitlana Khruslova, the Shevchenko Choir sang Hrai Kobzaryu (Play, Minstrel), words by Taras Shevchen-ko; the contemporary Ukrainian song Mamyna Vyshnia (Mother’s Cherry Tree); the very popular Russian folk song Ka-linka with soloist Hassan Anami; and the Ukrainian folk song Rozpriahaite, Khloptsi koni (Unharness the Horses, Lads).

Common Thread, conducted by Isabel

Bernaus and accompanied by Suzanne Ma-ziarz on piano, as well as guitar and drums, began their set with Wonfa Nyem, a Ghana-ian folk song celebrating community. They sang two songs about inclusiveness and a call for action for gay and human rights. True Colours, a song of one’s authentic self, closed the first half of the concert.

The Shevchenko Ensemble has for some time included young talent in its concerts and this concert was no exception.

Pianist Daniel Alter, only 10 years old, won the hearts of the audience with his performance of Franz Schubert’s Im-promptu Nº 2. Daniel and his 12-year-old brother Jonathan, who appeared later in the program performing Chopin’s Fan-taisie-Impromptu, both have won gold and silver medals at music festivals, and each have been awarded the “Judges Distinction

Award” which led to performances at Car-negie Hall. It is unusual that two siblings would both be so talented, competent and confident performing such challenging se-lections. Needless to say, they received an overwhelming response from the audience.

Appearing on our stage for the second time was 15-year-old violinist Anna Maria Moubayed, a two-time silver prize winner of Armenia’s Renascence international con-test-festival. She was loudly and warmly applauded for her fine performance of Fritz Kreisler’s Prelude and Allegro and Scherzo by Stepan Naghdyan.

Common Thread opened the second half with a South African anti-apartheid song Senzenina (What Have We Done?). They performed Quiet, an anthem of resistance written by Milck; and the song from which they take their name, Common Thread.

Opposite: Shevchenko ChoirClockwise from right: Anna Maria Moubayed; Daniel Alter; Jonathan Alter; Common Thread ChoirPhotos by Wayne Gilbert, GPS Photography

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Dear Alexander Veprinskiy,

I am writing to thank the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra for delighting my mother and countless other elderly music-loving people at the Delmanor Prince Edward residence on December 11.

My mother is still talking about how wonderful the concert was, and continues to comment about how good it was to see the hall packed with people who were so obviously in need of some fine live music. I wasn’t at the concert, but my mother saved the programme for me to look at and it’s here on my desk as I write this letter. What an astute selection of diverse music!

Thank-you for enriching the lives of our older people. I hope you get lots of good feed-back about this aspect of your organization’s work.

With my gratitude and best wishes for your continued success,

Jack BuellOperations, advertising

The Wholenote Magazine

“Such a lovely evening with the mandolin orchestra. What a wonderful selection of familiar repertoire that was chosen. So many were tapping to the beat. They certainly enjoyed it.

Member of audience at Christie Gardens

T hank you notes

Concerts in the community

TMO at Delmanor Prince EdwardMembers of the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra (including con-

ductor Veprinskiy all the way from north of the city) battled a snow storm on Monday, December 11, to perform once again at the Delmanor Seniors’ Residence. In addition to Ukrainian and other orchestral pieces by the orchestra, tenor Hassan Anami was loudly applauded for his performance of Una Furtiva Lagrima from the opera L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti and the popular Ne-apolitan folk song O Sole Mio. Bass Herman Rombouts sang the Russian folk song Along Piterskaya Road and Ol’ Man River from Showboat. Domra soloist Ira Erokhina was warmly received for her performance of La Paloma (The Dove). Soprano Adele Kozak was to appear on the program, but unfortunately she got stuck in a snow bank and never made it to the concert to the great disap-pointment of the audience and musicians alike.

The initiator of the concerts at Delmanor, Eda Dowhopoluk who is both a resident there and a member of the orchestra, was thanked for her efforts by mc Larissa Stavroff.

Shevchenko Choir and TMO at Christie GardensOn February 18, the Shevchenko Choir, on the initiative of Ruth

Budd, performed for the first time at the seniors’ residence Chris-tie Gardens. Their program consisted of Ukrainian, French-Cana-dian and popular songs. The concert ended with two powerful so-loists – Hassan Anami singing the Russian folk song Kalinka and Herman Rombouts with Ol’ Man River, both of whom received loud applause.

On May 7 the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra returned to Christie Gardens with a program, complete with vocal and in-strumental soloists, similar to the one so wonderfully received at Delmanor. Both concerts once again displayed the versatility of this unique orchestra in performing the outstanding, and often challenging, arrangements by artistic director and conductor Al-exander Veprinskiy.

by STAN LINKOVICHThis, I know: one of the great experiences in life is the chance to play in an orchestra. There is nothing quite like it. There is a challenge, a sense of community, and the privilege of sharing the ideas and emotions of those who created the music, sometimes very famous composers. These are some of the thoughts that struck me as my wife Nancy and I and my grandson Thomas listened to the music of Thumbelina and Peter and the Wolf performed by the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra.

This concert took place at the Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre on March 25. I am no music critic. On the other hand, this was a concert billed for children. So I decided to consult an eleven-year old expert.

So, Thomas, what did you think of the concert?I liked it. It was different.

What do you mean?I’ve seen orchestras at my brother’s high school. But this was different. I counted eight strings on those instruments. What did you call them?

You mean mandolins?Yes.

What did you like best about the concert?I liked Thumbelina best. I liked the story.

So you liked the idea of a story with music?Yes. And I liked the lady telling the story (Larissa Stavroff). She was really good. And the man in Peter and the Wolf was really good too (Herman Rombouts).

What did you think of Peter and the Wolf?Well, I didn’t like it as much. But I was getting tired, especially by the end.

Do you think that if you heard Peter and the Wolf first you might like it better?Maybe.

What did you think of the audience?I thought the kids were all dressed up. I felt under-dressed.

There you are. The views of a young listener. My impression was that he liked the concert much better than he thought he would.

TMO brings Thumbelina and Peter and the Wolf back to the stage

Peter and the Wolf, Sergei’s Prokof-iev’s wonderful classic for all ages, was first performed by the Toronto Man-dolin Orchestra in 1997 as a theatrical scene with dance. The inspiration to do this well loved classic came from Artistic Director Alexander Veprins-kiy who had considerable experience in Ukrainian theatre before his ar-rival in Canada. Andrei Pendik, then Dance Director of the Shevchenko School of Dance, created the original choreography. Complete with scenery, props and costumes this challenging composition was performed a num-ber of times in various theatres. In the earlier productions, Herman Rom-bouts, bass soloist with the Shevchen-ko Choir, appeared on stage with the dancers as the grandfather-narrator.

Two years after the successful pre-sentation of Peter and the Wolf, the orchestra and dancers collaborated once again with the production of Thumbelina, based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, narrated

by Monica Harhay, and with original choreography by Andrei Pendik. The delightful music to Thumbelina is by contemporary Ukrainian composer Zhanna Kolodub.

Both musical scores, beautifully arranged for the mandolin orchestra by Alexander Veprinskiy, are capable of standing alone as major orchestral works. Therefore, it was proposed to present a concert for “children of all ages” featuring both compositions. This was held at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre on March 25.

Prokofiev’s original narration for Peter and the Wolf was used, but the narration for Thumbelina was almost entirely recreated by Alexander Ve-prinskiy and Larissa Stavroff. Her-man Rombouts once again acted as narrator for Peter and the Wolf, this time assisted by Larissa Stavroff who did an outstanding job narrating and acting out all the little critter voices in Thumbelina.

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Club 626 Seniors celebrate a birthdayClub 626 gathered May 2nd for another John Boyd milestone

On May 2 a very special event was held by Club 626 Seniors – the celebration of John Boyd’s 105th birthday. Although he turned 105 in January, the snow and ice made it too risky to have a gathering by the Club until this time.

In her speech, Club President Florenz Seychuk retraced the highlights of John’s life from his birth in 1913 in Edmonton to Ukrainian immigrant parents, through the years as an activist in the Ukrainian community, a journalist in Canada’s pro-gressive movement, and as a visual artist in his elder years.

As a young man John participated in cultural and organizational activities of the Ukrainian Labour-Farmer Temple As-sociation (later the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians), and served a term as national secretary of the Youth Section of the ulfta.

While travelling Western Canada in that capacity (mostly by freight train during the Great Depression) John met Gladys Kucheran in Lethbridge. They sub-sequently shared 52 happy years of mar-riage and had three children. With Glady at his side, John set out on a life of adven-tures which few people have experienced.

As a journalist he was editor of a number of newspapers, including the newsletter of his army camp during WW II; he worked as manager of the Peoples’ Co-op in

Winnipeg; he later in Toronto he entered municipal politics and was elected to the Toronto Board of Education; he was exec-utive director of the Canadian Slav Com-mittee, coordinating cultural activities of Slavic groups in Toronto, organizing mass concerts at Massey Hall. At the height of the Cold War (and McCarthy era) John organized a tour of Soviet artists, among them violinist Leonid Kogan, to appear in nine Canadian cities.

The great interest shown by Canadian audiences for these artists inspired John to establish an impresario company which brought cellist Mstislav Rostropovich to Canada. As director of the Slav Com-mittee John made many trips abroad: to Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Czechoslvakia, Macedonia and Bulgaria. He was also cho-sen as part of a delegation to attend a Peace Congress in China where they met with Mao Zedong and Chou-en-lai.

As a journalist he was also invited to Cuba where he met Fidel Castro. He also attended the 50th Anniversary of Prav-da in Moscow where he not only sat be-side Nina Krushchev at dinner, but had a 10-minute interview (in Ukrainian) with Nikita Krushchev himself.

In 1967 John took an editorial job in Prague, Czechoslovakia where he was wit-ness to the reform movement attempting to achieve broader democracy, social jus-tice and other progressive measures under socialism. The military quelling of this movement by Soviet troops brought John to the next chapter of his life. He resigned as editor of the Canadian Tribune. He found work as editor of the trades maga-zine, Hospital Administration in Canada and later became PR director for Exten-dicare, launching and editing a quarterly magazine.

As a child, John showed considerable talent as an artist. While in Prague he attended courses in life-drawing which re-awakened this talent. In Canada he continued with classes at the University of Toronto and the Ontario College of Art.

Art was a love and activity he was to continue far into his retirement years. By age 88 he had enough pieces for his first art show. This was followed by two more shows, the last at age 96.

Whether a life is shorter or longer, it is a person’s achievements that are notable. John Boyd has had a full and interesting 105 years and has dedicated those years to making Canada a better place – whether in politics, on the school board, in co-op housing, or in the cultural field – John used his 105 years to the benefit of man-kind, helping to make a better life for all of us.

At his “birthday party” Club members, and many guests who just wanted to be there for John, greeted and congratulated him personally, not only for his longevity, but for the amazing contribution he has made to Canadian life.

Which came first?John Boyd or…1 the Russian Revolution? 2 the discovery of insulin? 3 the sinking of the Titanic? 4 the hearing aid? 5 the vacuum cleaner? 6 the crossword puzzle? 7 talkies at the movies? 8 the zipper? 9 Pyrex? 10 the first robot? 11 the traffic signal? 12 the yo-yo? 13 the opening of the Panama Canal? 14 the first transatlantic flight? 15 radio broadcasting?

AnswersFounded in 2011 by community activist Robert Eisenberg, Sistema Toronto’s ob-

jective is to provide musical, social and intellectual opportunities to children in vul-nerable communities with an end to achieve social change. The program is modelled after the Venezuela-based El Sistema movement, founded in 1975 by Dr. José Antonio Abreu. The success of El Sistema has inspired hundreds of similar, independent pro-grams around the world.

Sistema Toronto’s program has grown from serving 57 children annually in one neighbourhood to 250 children across three of Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods. Our program builds stronger communities by transforming lives of at-risk children in Toronto, enabling them to overcome poverty, and to grow and thrive as engaged citizens and future leaders of their communities.

Donation of instruments

The Toronto Mandolin Orchestra over the years has been the recipient of many musical instruments, particularly mandolins. These generous donations made it possible to offer mandolin lessons to children a number of whom are in the orchestra today.

When the orchestra received a gift of a violin and viola, it was our turn to donate them to an organization whose goal was to enhance the lives of children at risk in our society.

Through violinist Wanes Moubayed, who teaches at Sistema, the Guild donated a violin and viola to this wor-thy cause. Below is a “Thank you” from Sistema.

Dear Toronto Mandolin Orchestra,Many thanks for your generous gift of a full size violin with bow and case and a viola. As a charitable organization that depends wholly on the generosity of our donors and supporters, your assistance means so much to us.

It’s an exciting time for Sistema Toronto! We welcomed 50 new students in September and are proud to be serving 250 kids in the GTA. The 2017-18 school year is well underway and we’re thrilled to have your support.

Best wishes,Christie Gray, Executive Director, Sistema Toronto

1. John Boyd by 3 years 2. John Boyd by 8 years 3. Titanic by 1 year4. John Boyd by 10 years 5. Vacuum clean-er by 2 years 6. John Boyd by a few months 7. John Boyd by 14 years8. John Boyd by a few months9. John Boyd by 2 years 10. John Boyd by 8 years 11. John Boyd by 10 years12. John Boyd by 16 years 13. John Boyd by 1 year 14. John Boyd by 14 years15. Radio by 7 years

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Remembering Fred PesarchukFred Pesarchuk, who passed away in January at age

90, is fondly remembered as an outstanding soloist and chorister with the Shevchenko Male Chorus. His voice is captured in perpetuity on the chorus’ first LP album A Ukrainian Concert (1961) conducted by Eu-gene Dolny with piano accompanist Esther Cronen-berg. He is also heard performing the contempoary Ukrainian song Marichka on the chorus’ 50th An-niversary CD. Fred will be remembered for his lead roles in Ukrainian operettas such as Cossack Beyond the Danube (1959) and Kateryna (1960-61) presented by the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians in Toronto. He travelled with his singing colleagues for performances and festivals in Ontario and across the country.

Fred worked at General Motors in Oshawa where he lived and raised a family, com-muting to Toronto for rehearsals and concerts. With the chorus he was able to fulfill his dream as a singer and performer, making a notable contribution to preserving his Ukrainian heritage in Canada.

Remembering Rudi BakkerRudi Bakker (aka Ralph or Roelof) was brought to

the Shevchenko Ensemble by his partner, the Guild’s past president, Edna Rigby. As a Chartered Accoun-tant in his retirement Rudi assumed the position of Treasurer of the Ensemble Board for a number of years, and participated in many other volunteer ac-tivities in support of the Ensemble.

Born in Indonesia in 1930, as a young child Rudi was interned in Japanese camps during WW II. Re-turning to Holland after the war Rudi later immi-grated to Canada where he worked in mining and lumber camps before entering the University of To-ronto obtaining a degree in accounting. The Board of Directors and members of the Shevchenko Ensemble extend their heartfelt sympathy to Edna.

In Fond Memory

The National Shevchenko Musical Ensemble

Guild of Canada gratefully acknowledges

contributions in memory of the following:

Connie Fydenchuk2017

Mary Harrison2017

Harry Rosenbaum2017

Rose Gedz2018

Fred Pesarchuk2018

Rudi Bakker2018

Mary Kallis2018

John Kovalcik2018

Rose Manning2018

Internationally-acclaimed bayanist-ac-cordionist, Alexander Sevastian died sud-denly at age 41 in February while on tour in Mexico with Toronto’s Quartetto Gela-to. Sevastian, an award winning musician, established a reputation as one of the fin-est bayan players of his generation.

Born in Minsk, Belarus, Alexander be-gan playing the bayan as a child and af-ter finishing musical school in 1991, he attended the Glinka Musical College in Minsk, followed by the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow where he completed his post-graduate course. Moving to To-

ronto in 2001, he completed an Advanced Certificate in Performance program from the University of Toronto.

Alexander performed in 30 Russian cit-ies, in Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Italy and France as well as in Japan, Mexico, and the usa.

After his début with the Hamilton Phil-harmonic in 2002, Alexander continued to appear with such prestigious orchestras as the Toronto Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, orchestras in Victoria, Nanaimo, Quebec City and others.

An unforgettable event for members

of the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra was Alexander’s appearance with them at Glenn Gould Studio in 2012 where they performed Nikolai Chaikin’s Concerto for Bayan and Orchestra. The musicians of the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra extend their heartfelt condolences to his wife Anna, 14 year old son and 4 year old daughter and to his mother Nadia.

We join the world in mourning the loss of a talented musicianWorld-class bayanist Alexander Sevastian performed with the TMO at Glenn Gould Studio in 2002

In Memoriam

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OntarioRudy Wasylenky

ManitobaMyron ShatulskyHazel SkulskyEugene Szach

National Shevchenko Musical

Ensemble Guild of Canada

Board of Directors • Elected January 14, 2018

Published semi-annually with the

support of the City of Toronto through

the Toronto Arts Council

Issued by the National Shevchenko

Musical Ensemble Guild of Canada, a

federally incorporated charitable cultural

institution, Reg. Nº 11905 1910 RR0001

626 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5S 2R1

416-533-2725 • [email protected]

shevchenkomusic.com

Editorial: Ginger Kautto, Larissa Stavroff

Layout & Design: Byron Kautto

André Denton, PresidentFlorenz Seychuk, Vice-PresidentYelena Garber, Recording SecretaryGinger Kautto, TreasurerAlexander Veprinskiy, Artistic Director

Members-at-LargeKaren FydenchukOlga IvanovaLuba JakounJune Morris

QuebecJanet-Stewart-Smith

SaskatchewanNorman Sawchyn

British ColumbiaNatalia Denton

Upcoming events

Saturday, June 23 • 7pm

Shevchenko Musical EnsembleAnnual ConcertTrinity-St. Paul’s Centre 427 Bloor St. W$35 Adult • $20 studentCall 416-533-2725 [email protected]

Sunday, October 21• 1:00 PM

Banquet to celebrate our “home” - 626 Bathurst StHistorical slideshow and Ukrainian-style mealKings Garden Banquet Hall15 Canmotor AveSee story opposite

Sunday, December 2 • 3pm

Toronto Mandolin Orchestra in ConcertTrinity-St. Paul’s Centre427 Bloor St. WMark your celendar and watch for further details.

Revisiting the history of our “home”

It has been more than 40 years since the Shevchenko Guild officially opened its headquarters at 626 Bathurst Street. The ac-quisition of the building is a story in itself; the activities that it has housed over the de-cades yet another story.

The Shevchenko Musical Ensemble may well be the only amateur performing group in this city that owns its own building, thanks to the foresight of people like Eu-gene Dolny and the Board of Directors at the time.

The home was owned by musician/com-poser Philip Podoliak. Following his death it was being used by his brother Myer who ran a music printing business. On one of his visits to get music printed and hearing the building was for sale, Eugene saw the potential for a centre for the Ensemble. He convinced the Board that ways could be

found to raise the necessary funds to pur-chase 626 Bathurst St.

Once the decision was made to proceed, a portion of the funds was raised by selling debentures to members. The newly incor-porated Guild also obtained a grant from Wintario, a provincial funding body at the time.

Maintenance of the building had been neglected for years so it needed a complete overhaul and renovation. In the male cho-rus one could find every tradesman need-ed to do the job: carpenters, electricians, plumbers, painters, even an architect, as well as men eager and willing to volunteer their time to clean up the debris and keep the project moving.

Under the leadership of Joe Cook and Steve Soldat, almost 5,000 volunteer hours were given by members of the chorus, their

colleagues and friends, and even their young sons, to renovate the building. It took an entire year, but in 1977 the centre was completed and officially opened.

Since that time, in addition to office space, meeting rooms, a music library and costume storage, the building came alive with Euchre nights, children’s Christmas parties, New Year’s Eve and Grey Cup par-ties, monthly meetings of the ‘pyrohy bri-gade’ and much more.

This history will be relived, complete with a slide show, on Sunday, October 21 at the Guild’s Annual Fall Banquet to be held in the Kings Garden Banquet Hall.

Watch the mail for further information in the fall. You may be part of this illustri-ous history!

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Treasure it forever

Toronto Mandolin Orchestra: 60 Years of Diversity tells the story of this one-of-a-kind orchestra, tracing its roots from the Ukrainian community in Toronto, through a period of growth, innovation and transformation, and maturing into a diverse, multicultural, truly Canadian musical collective. Through interviews with current members and by delving into archival sources, we see how a group of dedicated amateurs can thrive and grow over a span of decades by coming together around a simple, yet powerful idea: that we’re better when we share our experiences as nations, as cultures, as people.

DVD

$30Blu-Ray

$35Makes a great gift!

Order yours today!

Being a video and audio editor myself, I was very impressed with the quality of the work that Norm Sawchyn and his team put into this production. He took hundreds of varied short clips and put them together perfectly like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.The video is fast paced with zoom transitions and all the photos are animated, so there is never a dull moment. There are clips of outdoor Toronto and its citizens, rehearsals, concerts, interviews with the tmo members, animated historical photos, narration on orchestra history. So much in 50 minutes… and the video and audio is clear and perfectly balanced. Most of the interviews have a black background which is perfect for highlighting the subject, an example of an effective special effect that Norm used.Also some humour was tossed in here and there to good effect. The graphics were large and clear which is great for aging eyes. I can go on and on with all the good things that I noticed…After viewing the video, I found it so interesting, I viewed it again.Bravo to Norm and his team. The many hours they put into this project gave perfect results.

Heinz Siemens,Videographer Video and Audio EditorKitchener, ON

What others say…

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Please send me: _________ DVD(s)@$30 ________ Blue Ray(s)@$35

Please add $5 shipping and handling to your total

❏ Cheque enclosed Total $ _______________________

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Send order form and payment to: Toronto Mandolin OrchestraPlease allow 4 weeks for delivery 626 Bathurst Street

Toronto, Ontario M5S 2R1

Watch the trailer on Youtube!Search for “TMO 60 years of diversity”