Conductor – Orest Soltykevych
President – Darcy Gulka

Ukrainian Male Chorus of Edmonton

For over 26 years the Ukrainian Male Chorus of Edmonton (UMCE) has pursued the objective of developing, promoting, and fostering a greater appreciation of the traditions of Ukrainian choral singing. The UMCE performed at Expo ’86 in Vancouver and represented Canada at the 1996 International Choral Festival in Missoula, Montana. In 2000, they performed at Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival (Dauphin, MB). The chorus toured Poland and Western Ukraine in 2002, and later that year put on a gala concert at Edmonton’s Winspear Centre, with guest artists John Stetch and the Zuk Piano Duo.

Achieving renown beyond the Ukrainian community, the men’s choir has sung national anthems at Edmonton Oilers hockey games and at the CFL’s 1988 all-star game, and performed in sixteen annual Men Making Music concerts at the Winspear. In April 2006 they sang at Edmonton City Hall for the official 20th anniversary commemoration of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

The UMCE’s repertoire includes a substantial body of commissioned works, among them compositions by Yuri Shevchenko and Willi Zwozdesky. In 2003, the latter’s “Malanka Suite” was premiered to wide acclaim. This work was released on CD (conductor Greg Maluzynsky), complementing the choir’s two previous recordings, That Old Sheepskin Coat (1992) and The Ukrainian Male Chorus of Edmonton LIVE! (2002). In 2005, the UMCE and the Belle Canto female vocal ensemble of Edmonton presented concerts titled Slav and Soul to audiences in both Edmonton and Calgary.

In another highly successful creative collaboration, this one under the baton of Svitlana Lysogor, the UMCE joined the Suzirya Ukrainian Dance Theatre of Calgary in the Virsky-inspired folk opera Kateryna. Produced by Serguei Makarov and billed as “A sweeping tale of love and war,” Kateryna premiered in Calgary and Edmonton in June 2007, and thereafter toured to Winnipeg, Victoria and Nanaimo, Montreal and Ottawa, and four Australian cities. The full orchestral and choral soundtrack to Kateryna (composer Yevhen Dosenko) was released as the choir’s fourth CD.

In April 2009, the UMCE lent its powerful male voices to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Carmina Burana and the Polovtsian Dances, critically acclaimed as one of the highlights of the ESO season. In January 2011, the chorus will again perform with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra during an evening of classical music from Ukraine.

Orest Soltykevych, the UMCE’s founding and present conductor, formerly sang with the Richard Eaton Singers and is currently a member of the Da Camera Singers and Kapella Kyrie. Orest founded the program “Sounds Ukrainian” at CJSR Radio, and today he hosts the “Saturday Breakfast” on Alberta’s CKUA Radio Network. He is also assistant conductor of St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Orthodox Parish Choir in Edmonton.

The UMCE’s accompanist, Roman Soltykevych, is a graduate of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta and has completed Grade 8 at the Royal Conservatory of Music.