By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Two natives of Ukraine who now call Northwest Ohio home are tapping into their love of the arts to raise funds and awareness for their war-torn homeland with fundraisers this weekend.
The arts have their place even in a time of war. “Music always unites people and inspires them,” said pianist Olga Topuzova-Meade.
Anastasiia Kryzhanivska, director of the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages program at BGSU, is working with The Ballroom Company in Maumee for a pair of fundraisers on Saturday, May 21.
The main event will be a dance fundraiser at The Ballroom Company’s venue at 2557 Parkway Plaza, Maumee, from 6-9 p.m. The ballroom dance party will be preceded by lessons and will include a silent auction, t-shirt sale, and bake sale.
That will be preceded from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. by a Dancewear “Garage” Sale, also at The Ballroom Company. Both events will benefit Toledo Helps Ukraine.
On Sunday, May 22, at 7 p.m., Olga Topuzova-Meade, the piano accompanist for Bowling Green High School, and other BG musicians will present a benefit concert at Waterville United Methodist Church, 7115 Waterville Monclova Road.
Performers will be: Lucy Kimbell, soprano, Alexandra Meade, soprano, Ellen Scholl, mezzo-soprano, Christopher Scholl, tenor, Olga Topuzova-Meade, piano, Elaine Colprit, cello, Bill Mathis, trombone, and the Bowling Green Chamber Singers.
The program will include a variety of vocal and instrumental numbers including a traditional Ukrainian piece, Nese Halya Vody (Hayla Carries Water).
Topuzova-Meade said her father is working on the arrangement of the song, which will be sung by her daughter, a graduating BGHS senior.
Topuzova-Meade said her father is still in Odessa. He is a retired musical theater conductor. He’s decided to stay in the city, she said.
Recently when he was out shopping a missile struck nearby. It is stressful, she said, not knowing what will happen moment to moment.
Kryzhanivska’s father is also in Ukraine. Before the war he was a ballroom dance teacher, now, just a few months shy of 60, he is a soldier.
He was in the military when he was young, and was brought back in when the war started. “Does he even remember how to hold a gun?” his daughter wondered.
He has been deployed, but for security reasons, cannot say where. His daughter knows he’s safe because he responds to her posts on social media.
Kryzhanivska grew up with her mother.
Her mother is a pharmacist, and “now she’s a refugee,” Kryzhanivska says.
She fled Ukraine early in the conflict and is staying in Switzerland. Yet even there, she reflexively ducks down whenever she hears a plane overhead. And she still misses home.
Her neighbor stayed behind and reports on conditions in their hometown Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine.
The town was without water for several weeks when the delivery system was damaged. The only place that could repair it was under the control of the Russians.
Some people were having to rely on rain water, which they boiled.
The neighbor was able to use the water that Kryzhanivska’s mother had saved up just as the war started.
Her mother filled every pot, bucket, bowl and other vessels in the house as a hedge against water shortages. The neighbor has also used some to water the potted plants so beloved by Kryzhanivska’s mother.
Kryzhanivska said her mother laments not seeing her plants in bloom.
The water is now back on, she said. That’s the greatest gift her mother’s neighbor said. That something we take for granted is considered a gift, Kryzhanivska said, “is very sad.”
Conditions are hard. “It’s been very, very stressful,” she said, “The rockets, air raid after air raid. It’s just wild. It’s taken a toll. People are stressed. Sleep deprived.”
One family friend has constant headaches and her son’s jaw quivers uncontrollably.
Fleeing is both expensive, especially for those with families, and dangerous.
Ukrainians have deep ties to the earth. Many have country homes, now damaged or destroyed, with grape orchards and gardens. Despite the dangers, they have been traveling there to get their plots ready for the growing season.
Those gardens can provide some security, and some sustenance.
Kryzhanivska has been involved in efforts to support Ukraine since the beginning of the war. Early on she organized an effort to get schoolchildren to send messages of hope to Ukrainian children.
She’s also worked with the charity Toledo Helps Ukraine.
She spoke with Gil Aromas, the owner of The Ballroom Company, about holding a fundraiser, and he was on board right away. The company, she noted, often supports charitable causes.
Kryzhanivska has been dancing since before she could walk, she said. At the time, her mother was a dance teacher and would bring daughter to classes in her stroller because she didn’t have child care. Her daughter would mimic the hand gestures of the dancers.
Kryzhanivska did teach dance briefly to the young people served by the non-profit she operated in Ukraine. Now she find herself thinking of those times as she solicits donations for Saturday’s events.
The sale on Saturday will offer dancers a chance to pass along the outfits and shoes they no longer need. Kryzhanivska herself said she recently bought new shoes, and is looking to sell her older pair.
While the focus is on ballroom dancing, ballet wear will also be available.
Sellers will be asked to contribute at least 10 percent of their sales to Toledo Helps Ukraine.
Topuzova-Meade said she had been talking with Christopher Scholl about doing a fundraising concert, and when the war began they decided to do the benefit for Ukraine.
The pianist will busy at the concert, both collaborating with the other performers as well as performing “Wichita Vortex Sutra” by Philip Glass, a piece inspired by Allen Ginsberg’s anti-war poem, and a prelude by Sergey Rachmaninoff.
The other performers will present music from the 17th century through the 20th century.
They include two versions of “Ave Maria,” one by Anton Bruckner and one by Antonin Dvorak, sung by Ellen Scholl. Christopher Scholl will sing Albert Hay Malotte’s setting of the Lord’s Prayer as well as Handel’s “Sound the Alarm.”
He along with Lucy Kimbell and the Bowling Green Chamber Singers will join together to sing “Make Our Garden Grow” by Leonard Bernstein.
The concert will end fittingly with the Ukrainian National Anthem.
