On January 30 and 31, 2020, two concerts with the unique “Gershwin’s Code” program took place at the National Academic Operetta Theater in Kyiv. Conducted by David Charles Abell (USA). Oksana Madarash, People’s Artist of Ukraine, prepared the concert.

Soloists – People’s Artist of Ukraine Sergiy Avdeyev, Honored Artist of Ukraine Olena Arbuzova, Honored Artist of Ukraine Valeriya Tulis, Oleksiy Kirilov, Olga Fedorenko, Tamara Khodakova.

Piano Solo – Florian Feilmair (Austria).

An overture to the musical “Of Thee, I Sing” opened the first section of the concert. Then the orchestra and soloists performed arias and songs from the opera Porgy and Bess: Introduction and Clara’s Lullaby “Summertime”; Porgy’s song “I Got Plenty O ‘Nuttin”; Porgy and Bess duet “Bess, You Is My Woman Now”; Sporting Life song “It Ain’t Necessarily So”; Sirina’s aria “My Man’s Gone Now” and Porgy’s final song “O Lawd, I’m On My Way”. At the conclusion of the first section, the orchestra performed a symphonic poem “An American in Paris”.

In the second section, the soloists performed George Gershwin’s songs: “Embraceable You” (from the musical “Girl Crazy”); “I Got Rhythm” (from the musical “Girl Crazy”); “Love Is Here To Stay” (from the movie “The Goldwyn Follies”).

The whole concert concluded with “Rhapsody In Blue”.

The surprise was two encores: “Walking with a Dog” from the movie “Shall We Dance” and “Love Is Sweeping The Country” from the musical “Of Thee, I Sing”.

The first concert was attended by our musician Andriy Karatay. As Andriy noted, he was impressed by the thorough choice of repertoire, some works were performed for the first time in Ukraine, and the world-class professionalism of the conductor.

Despite the tight schedule of David Charles Abell’s in Ukraine, our musician managed to meet with Maestro twice. The American musician praised Andriy’s work of preserving and restoring the original scores of the works and arrangements of American composers.

We thank Oksana Madarash for her support!

Photo by A. Karatay