Transatlantic connections: How a Ukrainian pianist and a St. John's violinist bonded over music
Pianist Alla Melnychuk will perform with violinist Maria Cherwick for war relief
When Ukrainian pianist Alla Melnychuk performs with violinist Maria Cherwick on Sunday, it will be her first full concert performance in Canada.
The duo met through a Facebook group connecting Ukrainian newcomers with residents of Newfoundland and Labrador. Now they're preparing an evening of classical music for piano and violin from Ukrainian composers.
Cherwick is a staple in the St. John's music community, playing and recording with multiple local bands and the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. While her friendship with Melnychuk is quite new, to hear them slip easily into laughter, you'd think they'd been friends for years, rather than mere weeks.
"We have the same feeling in music so it's easy to play together," says Melnychuk. "Before our rehearsal we always have a chat, probably for an hour."
While her first contact with Cherwick was through the Facebook group, Melnychuk says, they met in person at an event that featured the local Ukrainian-Canadian band the Kubasonics, of which Cherwick is a member.
"I went to Maria and said, 'I probably had a chat with you on Facebook.' And after that, we decided to meet for coffee."
"We're not just friends because we both have a Ukrainian connection," says Cherwick, "We talk about music and my cat and everything."
A Ukrainian connection
"Elements of Ukrainian culture and community were really important in our lives growing up," says Cherwick, who grew up in Edmonton. Her cultural connection to Ukraine comes from her great-grandparents, who emigrated from Ukraine in the early 1900s and settled in Saskatchewan.
"With the Soviet Union, there wasn't really a lot of people travelling back and forth for most of the 20th century, and so Ukrainian-Canadian culture kind of evolved in its own way."
The music she plays with her father and brother in the Kubasonics is rooted in her family's Ukrainian heritage.
It's not like a temporary place. It really feels like home.- Alla Melnychuk
Melnychuk's family home is Chernihiv, and her more recent home is Kharkiv, where she has studied and worked for most of the past decade. Before her move to Canada, she and her then fiancé were living temporarily in Poland and planning to return home to Ukraine in March.
"We were supposed to go home, get married," she said. "But the war began, so we couldn't go home, and his contract [in Poland] was ended."
They flew to Canada in May with the first planeload of Ukrainian refugees and settled in St. John's.
A new home in Newfoundland
If you ask Melnychuk to play you a traditional Newfoundland song, she can give you The St. John's Waltz and The Harbour Grace Excursion because she learned them for a performance in Harbour Grace earlier this year.
But even before the plane landed in St. John's, Melnychuk had chosen to move to Newfoundland and Labrador. She remembers seeing a photo and thinking, "The nature is so, so beautiful, oh my gosh, where is it?" She was also drawn to the province's reputation for safety and had heard that "it's a little bit different than other [parts of] Canada, like people-friendly. And it's true, people are very friendly."
Melnychuk has continue the online teaching practice she had before coming to Canada, providing lessons to students in several European countries, including Germany, Italy and Luxembourg. She also teaches part time at Halliday Music Studio in St. John's. In August, she and her fiancé got married.
She says they already feel settled in St. John's.
"It's not like a temporary place. It really feels like home."
A Ukrainian repertoire
Cherwick and Melnychuk are preparing a night of classical music for piano and violin that includes compositions by several contemporary Ukrainian composers, including Vitaly Filipenko, Myroslav Skoryk and Tatjana Kozlova, a colleague of Melnychuk's based in Kharkiv.
"It's incredible that, because of music, Alla and I can become friends and play this concert," says Cherwick.
The duo will also play work by Vladimir Ptushkin, who died earlier this year.
To meet someone for the first time and be able to play like that is really special.- Maria Cherwick
"It will be my honour to play his pieces in his memory," says Melnychuk, who studied with Ptushkin at the Kharkiv National University of Arts.
St. John's-based mezzo-soprano Shelley Neville will join the duo as a featured guest. Melnychuk, who performed with Neville earlier this year, is teaching her to sing in the Ukrainian language.
The concert takes place at Bannerman Brewing Co. on Sunday. Proceeds from the ticket sales will be sent to Ukraine, where volunteers will purchase and distribute winter clothing to people in need.
A friendship rooted in music
"I love the opportunity to meet different people and play all different kinds of styles," said Cherwick, whose musical interests range from classical to bluegrass to Newfoundland traditional. "If I can say yes to something, I always say yes, just because I enjoy it all."
She jumped at the opportunity to meet a new musician and play new music, and the chemistry they share when they play is a bonus.
"When we rehearse … we just feel it from each other," said Cherwick, who appreciates the simpatico relationship with Melnychuk.
"To meet someone for the first time and be able to play like that is really special."
Melnychuk concurs: "It's like it was destiny."
Even without Ukraine as a common ground, Cherwick sees music as the tie that binds her and Melnychuk.
"I think it's incredible that because of music, Alla and I can become friends and play this concert. We talk for hours, but even if we couldn't speak the same language, we could still play these pieces."
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