Player

Listen or Download:

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Astounding talent - virtuoso violinist Vasyl Popadiuk

If you are anywhere near Toronto this coming weekend, do not miss the chance to see this amazing musician perform live.

I have a couple of his CDs... which get a fair bit of airplay on Nash Holos. They are incredible enough as it is, but no comparison to seeing him on stage. So if you haen't yet, you can only imagine!

The first time I saw him was back in 1993, in Vancouver's Centennial Theatre. At the time he was with the Hopak Ukrainian Folk Dance Company of Ukraine. The troupe disbanded shortly thereafter, presumably due to a good number of members falling in love with Canada and deciding to stay.

However, the show was, in a word, spectacular. One of the acts was this young man sawing away on a violin ... and the way the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, I just knew that wouldn't be last I'd see or hear of him.

He settled in Toronto, where he developed a cabaret act calling himself Papa Duke. I'm told he has since recently relocated to Ottawa.
An earlier post I did on him just ahead of his concert in Hamilton last year featured a few videos of him performing.

Here's another one:

2 comments:

Orest said...

I composited this video together from existing footage and posted it 3 years ago on YouTube.

This was from the disastrous Oleksiuk debacle from a few years back. If I remember correctly this made to the Volyn Group's DVD.

Also have a new concert photography site:
concert.ballatondesign.com

Pawlina said...

Thanks, Orest!

Featured Post

Giving Tuesday - Worthy Ukrainian (and other) causes to support

After the excitement of Black Friday and Cyber Monday subsides, along comes Giving Tuesday. Also known as the Global Day of Giving, or in Uk...