YEVHENIIA BARVINSKA’S FIGURE AS ARTIST – VIEWED AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF MUSIC, CULTURE, AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE FIN-DE-SIECLE GALICIA

Abstract

The article reveals the miscellany of the artistic heritage of Yevheniia Barvinska (1854–1913), a choirmaster, a concerto singer (soprano), a pianist, and the mother of the prominent Ukrainian composer Vasyl Barvinskyi (1847–1926) – a writer, a historian, an educator, an MP of the Habsburg Imperial Council in Vienna, of the Galician Diet, and also a Member of the Habsburg House of Lords. Brought up in the atmosphere of spiritual and artistic development fostered by her family, she then proceeded to study at the Teachers’ Seminary in Lemberg/Lviv, and afterwards took piano lessons in Peremyshl from Franciszek Lorenz and in the class of Karol Mikuli at the Lviv Conservatory of the Galician Society of Music – all of the above having further assisted her in her self-accomplishment as an artist. Yevheniia Barvinska was a civil society activist and one of the engines of the women’s movement of the city of Ternopil; working with the community of the Church of Nativity, she founded the first women’s society, Sestrynstvo («Sisterhood») which focused its activity on the development of the church life and providing assistance to the poor and the needy. Working in conjunction with Amvrosii Krushelnytskyi, she also became the organiser of male choirs in the city of Ternopil, as their choirmaster and solo singer. The choirs under the conductorship of Yevheniia Barvinska in Ternopil featured the famed Solomiia Krushelnytska as well as her sisters Emiliia and Olena. Yevheniia Barvinska was also Solomiia Krushelnytska’s first ever vocal coach and piano teacher. Within her concert tours in Ternopil (1879–1888) and in Lemberg/Lviv (1888–1897), Yevheniia Barvinska was also performing as both a piano player and a solo singer. Yevheniia Barvinska is a co-founder and ultimately the choirmaster of the Lvivskyi Boian Choir Society (1891–1895). Under her musical tutorship, Boian toured in Prague (in 1891) and subsequently in Stanislau/Ivano-Frankivsk, Stryi, and Lemberg/Lviv. In the Barvinskyis Family, the mother was the custodian and the protector of spirituality, of the Ukrainianness, of the warmth of the household hearth, of the peace and quiet of the family home, and of the cordiality of kinship. She was the advisor to her son Vasyl as he was fulfilling his creative potential and an assistant to her husband, Oleksandr Barvinskyi, a prominent Ukrainian educator and political activist. The creative activity of Yevheniia Barvinska in the realm of arts contributed significantly to the development of the Ukrainian music and performer ship in the Ukrainian Homeland. Plenty of her apprentices followed her path and gained prominence and excellency as famous musicians.