Kiev Music Fest '92

"The Sun-scorched Mallow" is the title of a cantata by young composer Halyna Ovcharenko (NFU wrote about her in its Issue 12, 1992, which, by the way, was the first publication about her). This work is dedicated to the genocidal famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, and the author submitted it to the second Composers Competition bamed after Marian and Ivanna Kots. The theme of the famine was compulsory for this competition held within the framework of the annual international Ukrainian festival "Kiev Music fest".

That the cantata of an unknown composer passed the first round of the competition tells its own tale, when even such experienced composers a Ivan Karabyts and Yuri Ishchenko, Ovcharenko's teacher, failed. In addition to Ovcharenko's cantata only six works got to the second round to be performed at the festival and judged by the international jury - "Lament and Prayer" by Valentin Bibik, "Pro memoria" by Hennady Lyashenko, "Com Mesto ereno" by Volodymyr Runchak, "Spectra" by John Antony Lennon (USA) and "Threnody" by Zbignev Baginsky (Poland). In all, there were four Ukrainian composers among them - the experienced and refined symphonist Hennady Lyashenko, of Kiev; Valentin Bibik, of Kharkiv, a composer of international renown in Ukrainian music; Volodymyr Runchak, of Kiev, a young musician who has already written and performed a lot of musical pieces; and Halyna Ovcharenko, who is still under thirty. The jury, which included conductor Theodore Kuchar (Australia) and composers Walter Zimmermann (Germany), Myroslav Skoryk (Ukraine) and Lowell Liebermann (USA) awarded Halyna Ovcharenko an honourary prize for the best work by a young composer. Really, the performance of the cantata, with its heartfelt tragical core - the touching prayer, "God, Don't let Us Die!" for a child's voice which crowns the cantata - was quite a success (although it was far from being perfect because of the complexity which it posed for the choir, the reciter and the orchestra).

from "News from Ukraine" 1992.