Herald June 1_15 07.qxd - Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

THE HERALDJuly 1/15, 2007St. Elia Cultural CentreSt. Elia now has a beautiful newCultural Centre. The Centreboasts a large, modern kitchen,complete with 3 commercialstoves, a commercial dishwasher, and alarge island with plenty of workspaceand storage space. To round off thekitchen is the large walk in cooler andwalk in freezer.In addition to the wonderful newkitchen, we now have a classroom forour Sunday School, a meeting room,Metropolitan John blessing Cultural Centre.On January 18th, 2007, at the St. John’s CulturalCentre, Edmonton, Alberta, Alice Lesia Chumer(nee Humeny) was honoured for her 30years of conducting the St. John’s CathedralChoir. Lesia’s early years were in Boyle, Alberta,where her parents, both former school teachers, relocatedfrom Manitoba in 1934. Her parents lovedmusic and imparted that love of music to their children.It was a common occurrence for the entirefamily to sing Ukrainian and English folksongs athome.During the family’s early years in Boyle, therewere no regular Ukrainian Orthodox services andthe family attended the Anglican church. However,when arrangements were made for a Ukrainian visitingpriest; the services were held at the Anglicanchurch, and the priest (Lesia remembers him to beRev. M. Fyk) stayed at her parent’s home.Lesia’s family moved to Edmonton in 1948 andbecame members of St. John’s Ukrainian OrthodoxParish where her father and older sister, Diane, sangin the Cathedral choir under the direction of YurijBilashevich.At the young age of fourteen, Lesia was encouragedto join the St. John’s choir by the conductor atthat time, Professor Alexander Yewfymchuk—therebyjoining her father in the choir (there was no youthor CYMK choir at that time). She continued singingFrom our parishesan office for the church, an office forVery Reverend Father Georg Podtepa,a space the Cantor’s Association is using,a space for a library, 2 additionalLadies washrooms, 2 additional Men’swashrooms, plenty of storage space,plus additional space than can be usedfor additional seating or as a servingarea if required.This project’s total cost was 1.473 milliondollars. This would not have beenpossible without the hardworking LadiesAssociation, Club Trident,and many individual donorsas well as grants from the AlbertaLottery commission.The idea of expansionstarted in 2002. In Decemberof 2002, the generalmembership of the parishapproved in principle theexpansion on the understandingthat a feasibilitystudy would be done.Architects O’Neill, O’Neill,and Procinsky were consultedand the drafting processbegan. This process took thebetter part of a year and ahalf. In February 2005, KrawfordConstruction Inc. waschosen as the contractor toAlice (Lesia) Chumer Honouredas Choir ConductorDirecting the choir.build our new cultural centre.Construction began in May 2005.The construction was completed December9th, 2005.The Grand Opening of the new facilitytook place on June 18, 2006. Thefestivities began at 9:30 am with thegreeting of Metropolitan John first bythe parish youth, followed by Churchpresident Terry Holubetz and Very ReverendFather Georg Podtepa. DivineLiturgy followed at 10:00 am.Following the Liturgy, MetropolitanJohn blessed the new Cultural Centre.From there the roughly 210 parishionersand guests made their wayin the choir throughout her high school years, anduniversity years, where she convocated with a B. Ed.Degree (Music major, Biology minor) and startedher teaching career at Paul Kane High School in St.Albert. Lesia and Nestor Chumer were married at St.John’s and raised two children, daughter SandraDymianiw (John) and David Chumer who currentlyare part of our Cathedral family.During her years at University, Alice did not limither choir experiences to St. John’s alone, but was alsoa member of the University Mixed Chorus, accompaniedthe voice students of Prof. Domety Berezenetz,and was one of the youngest singers in the EdmontonProfessional Opera Chorus. She also sangthe solo compositions of the B. Mus. students at university,as well as solos, duets and trios in the Ukrainiancommunity. Being a member of Merezhi Women’sEnsemble for many years was a most enjoyableexperience for Lesia, as is her participation in Dniprochoir (she was one of the first members of the DniproChoir when it became a mixed choir). Lesia stillsings with Dnipro and is one of its soloists; she alsosings with the Perlyny Trio together with Olesia Talpashand Gloria Zaharia.Lesia has taken professional voice training formany years, and attended numerous conductorworkshops to enhance her singing and conductingskills. Her talents extend also into the Ukrainiancommunity where she is employed at the UkrainianResources and Development Centre at Grant Mac-Ewan College in Edmonton.When Roman Soltykewych became the conductorof the St. John’s Cathedral Choir, he quickly recognizedLesia’s many talents as a mezzo-soprano and asoloist, and groomed her to become his assistantconductor, and eventually his successor. In Novemberof 1976, when Roman Soltykewych passed awayafter suffering a major heart attack, Lesia took overas conductor of the Cathedral Choir. She began reorganizingthe collection of music, and with the help ofAlex Hayduk had devised a system of cataloguing thevast amount of sacred and liturgical music. She alsointroduced new music to provide something newand challenging to the choir members. She continuesto look for new music whether by visiting otherAlice (Lesia) Chumer.15downstairs to a beautiful meal by SimplyTraditional Catering; which hadbeen prepared in our new kitchen.Once the meal was complete therewas a formal program that includedmessages from Metropolitan John,President Terry Holubetz, Very ReverendFather Georg Podtepa, our GuestSpeaker Myrna Kostash, CouncilorJanice Melnychuk and selections performedby the St. Elia Choir.We are proud of our new centreand welcome all visitors to come andtake a look at this wonderful new facility.Come and join us as new members.churches while on holiday trips, or by sitting at hercomputer and searching the internet.Our Orthodox Church has accumulated a vastamount of sacred and liturgical music over the lastthousand years, from the early Greek, the Bulgarian,and early Kyievan chants to modern composers suchas Lesia Dychko. Much of this music is the mostbeautiful in the world and we are truly fortunate tohave people like Lesia Chumer who recognize thisand are using their talents to foster, promote and preservethis rich heritage of Ukrainian choral music.Eugene Topolnisky, Choir President, congratulatedLesia and expressed best wishes for continued successin her endeavours, and prayed that God would granther good health, strength, much hope, and manymany years as conductor of the Cathedral Choir. Lesiawas presented with a cloth tote bag with a treble clefapplique from the choir. George Zaharia, ChurchBoard President, offered Lesia congratulations andthanked her on behalf of the Board and the Parish. Hepresented her with a covered crystal candy dish etchedwith an ornate Orthodox cross and inscription honouringher 30 years as conductor, and an electronicharmonic tuner/metronome. Donna Kowalishin,Program Chair, presented Lesia with a beautiful bouquetof flowers on behalf of everyone present.—by Eugene Topolnisky