Vira Liubymova and the Formation of Organ Culture in Kyiv in the Mid to Late-20th Century (On the Occasion of the Centenary of Singer’s Birthday)

Author

Nemkovych Olena

a Doctor of Art Studies, a professor, a head of Musicology and Ethnomusicology Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0006-5720

Vira Liubymova and the Formation of Organ Culture in Kyiv
in the Mid to Late-20th Century (On the Occasion of the Centenary of Singer’s Birthday)

Abstract

The article examines the role of the outstanding Ukrainian opera and chamber singer, one of the luminaries of the national opera stage of the second half of the 20th century, Vira Liubymova, in the formation of organ culture in Kyiv during this period. Information about the initial stage of this process is absent from the scholarly literature. The only materials that currently allow for a partial reconstruction of the artistic events of that time are reviews in the contemporary press and documents preserved in archives, particularly in the singer’s family archive — concert programs, posters, handwritten memoirs of the artist and her younger colleagues, as well as photographs. The lack of analysis of these sources in existing research indicates that they remain largely unknown to scholars of Ukrainian musical culture. These materials thus form the main source base of the present article. Drawing on these sources, it was possible to establish the dates, performers (organists, singers, instrumentalists, etc.), and repertoire of the first organ concerts, as well as to trace the reception of these events within the cultural community.

The uncovered data, presented in this study, made it possible to reassess V. Liubymova’s role in laying the foundations for a continuous tradition of organ concerts in Kyiv, in shaping a new component of the capital’s spiritual space, in acquainting the public with new musical works, and in initiating historically significant trends in the development of organ art. Thus, the singer’s performing activity is considered in the context of the formation of the city’s organ tradition, which simultaneously reveals a vast layer of the history of organ culture.

The presented materials supplement the information available in modern research concerning the early stage of the development of this musical sphere in Kyiv in the second half of the 20th century.

Keywords

organ culture, organ concerts, semiosphere of Kyiv, Vira Mykhailivna Liubymova, documents of the era.

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