Amadoka Concert at Dartmouth College (Rollins Chapel) on April 5th, 2024

Act I ‘Sofia’ composed by Albert Saprykin
Orest Smovzh (violin) and Albert Saprykin (electronics)
‘Sofia’ opens the curtain on 1930s Kyiv amid Stalinist repressions. Sofia is the wife of writer and literary critic Mykola Zerov, who is sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp and secretly executed in Sandarmokh a year later. Through correspondence, Sofia falls in love with Viktor Petrov, also a writer, evading arrest by supplying information to Soviet authorities. They bring their relationship to fruition only in their 60s, spending their final few years together. In present-day Kyiv, a young man intently studies Sofia’s story through archival documents.
Act II: ‘Uliana’ composed by Boris Loginov
Boris Loginov (grand piano), Orest Smovzh (violin), Chiho Kaneko (soprano), Henry Danaher (organ).
‘Ulianaʼ traces the footsteps of a young woman trying to save her childhood friend’s life in 1940s Buchach (today’s Ternopil region, Ukraine) amid World War II. As teenagers, Phinehas takes Uliana out on a local lake, telling her about the giant Lake Amadoka placed by many ancient maps in that precise location. On their way home, they run into Phinehas’ father, who forbids them from seeing each other, for the consequences may be dire. Only years later does Uliana realize what he meant. She smuggles Phinehas into her family home as Vermacht soldiers are scouring the town for Jewish people, and so places her family at risk. In present-day Kyiv, Professor shares his mother Uliana’s story with Romana.
Act III: ‘Romana’ composed by Maxim Kolomiiets
Maxim Kolomiiets (electronics), Alexandra Ponasik (double bass), Boris Loginov (grand piano), Orest Smovzh (violin), Georgiana McReynolds (clarinet), Chiho Kaneko (soprano), Henry Danaher (organ).
‘Romana’ ties the strings of national and personal histories together. An archivist in modern-day Kyiv, Romana, receives a peculiar visitor with four suitcases full of photos and documents. Bohdan wants to shed the burden of family history, but only draws Romana into it. She meets Bohdan’s father, the Professor, a plastic surgeon specializing in facial reconstruction. Romana takes over their home when Bohdan goes to fight Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas region, and the Professor is away. A letter comes requesting the Professor’s help, containing a photo of a heavily disfigured face. Romana believes it to be Bohdan, injured in the Donbas. He also has amnesia and, despite both of their best efforts, fails to remember anything but the sea and a metallurgical plant. Eventually, they take a walk outside the military cemetery in Kyiv, where Bohdan tells Romana about Viktor Petrov - and, together with his memory, comes the realization he is not Bohdan at all but a once-researcher from Mariupol who ended up among the separatists.