Nadia Demko
BIO
Born in Winnipeg to immigrants, the Ukrainian community has always been a focus in Nadia’s life through organizations such as Plast, Rusalka Dance Ensemble, Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Cathedral Choir, among others. Upon moving to Montreal to pursue science and medical studies, joining the Ukrainian community there was a priority for Nadia. She soon became active through student organizations like the McGill University Students’ Association (MUSA), eventually serving as President, as well as the Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union (SUSK) as Secretary, Executive Vice President, and Alumni Director. Throughout her student years, she organized and participated in many film screenings, protests, awareness campaigns, book launches, concerts, policy meetings, and congresses. She also performed in a joint MUSA and McGill Faculty of Music concert as a soprano soloist and sang recreationally with the ensemble Surmy for multiple years. She was a youth counsellor for both Help Us Help the Children and Plast camps.
Since becoming a physician, Nadia joined Ukrainian National Federation (UNF) Montreal, first as an active donations committee member and now as a board member and the first chair of the cultural committee. Since early 2021, Nadia has organized multiple cultural events, both virtual and in person, with the aim of showcasing professional Ukrainian artists and high-calibre Ukrainian artforms. Notably, she co-organized a concert marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence last year that showcased Ukrainian classical and jazz music. This led to the increased use of Montreal’s UNF hall, including recent fundraising concerts for the war relief effort. Since the start of Russia’s horrific war in Ukraine, Nadia has also been a strong advocate on the cultural front of Russia’s war in Ukraine publishing in Montreal’s La Presse (“Cessons la guerre culturelle contre l’Ukraine”) as well as the classical musical journal La Scena (“Russia’s Cultural War Against Ukraine – A Montreal Story”), which was republished in French for La Parole Ukrainienne de Paris.
