Halyna Kvitva Kondracki

BIO

HALYNA KVITKA KONDRACKI is founding director/conductor of Toronto’s award-winning ‘vtesnivka Choir (1965), as well as the Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir (2001). An @complished musician and talented conductor, whose career spans more than 42 years, l4ondracki has helped ‹:reate a vibrant choral tradition in Canada and abroad.

If.i 1968, Kondracki completed her Bachelor of Music at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music add her Bachelor of Eclucation the year after. As a vocal teacher at Notre Dame High School and it. Demetrius Catholic School, and Head of the Music Department at St. Joseph’s Morrow Park High School in Toronto. and more recently as a clinician at summer camps, Kondracki has
• !orked extensively with children and adolescents, guiding them in realizing their musical potential.

is musical director for Vesnivka Choir, Kondracki has coordinated all music and financial funding f‹•r concert performances and international tours. Under her leadership, Vesnivka has won several First Place honours in the CBC Radio National Choral Competition. This ensemble also won First Prize in the Folk competition at the 1993 International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales, where Vesnivka was awarded the esteemed W.S Gwynn Williams International Trophy for oUtstanding performance and the Eisteddfod Medal. She conducted Vesnivka in a silver medal performance in the ”Folklore a cappella” category at the Choir Olympics 2000 in Linz, Austria.

Kondracki has been a guest conductor of the Utrechts Byzantijns Koor (1990), the Millennium of ‘ Ukrainian Christianity celebrations (1988) held in Royal Albert Hall (London), the Papal Auditorium (Rome) and Carnegie Hall (New York), and The Bandurist Ensemble of Detroit (2000).

In 1988, she was a guest speaker at the Ukrainian Choral Festival in Edmonton and in April 1999, Kondracki organized the first Choral Workshop of Ukrainian Music in Toronto where, as a clinician, she also conducted a workshop in music for women choristers. Kondracki is a charter rriember of the Ukrainian Canadian Choral Federation and in 1989 was the only Canadian c/›nductor invited on a cultural exchange to Ukraine where she led workshops with several local ensembles. She is also a member of the Canadian Choral Conductors Association, the Ontario C’horal Conductors Federation and the American Choral Conductors Association.

Kondracki’s tireless contributions to the Canadian choral scene and Canada’s cultural mosaic h.we earned her many honours. including Canada’s Birthday Achievement Award (1983), a n‹›mination in the Performing Arts category in Toronto Life Magazine’s ‘Women Who Make A difference” for her cultural contributions to the life of the city and noteworthy success in her field oJ endeavour (1995), and the Ontario Choral Federation’s Distinguished Service Award presented ai. the Silver Anniversary Celebrations (1996). She also received an award in December 1998 from the World Congress of Ukrainians for her continuing work in the community’s musical culture, and in January 2001, in commemoration of 100 years of Ukrainian settlement in Toronto, Kondracki was bestowed with an honorary award from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, T4ronto Branch, for her dedicated work in the community promoting Ukrainian choral tradition. Most recently, in May z”004, Kondracki received an award from the Canadian Choral Conductor’s Association in recognition of over 25 years of choral conducting.

A member of the Parish Council of Toronto’s St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, Kondracki is o1Jen ralled upon to organize cultural events and commemorative concerts. Through her dedication and professionalism, Kondracki has made it her objective to promote the highest calibre of Ukrainian ch‹›raI music not only to the Ukrainian community, but also within the choral serene in Canada,