Issue 22, March 2010
Ukraine’s participant at Global Battle of the Bands
Issue 22, March 2010.
On March 26th, 2010, Lviv’s restaurant-club “Left bank” (28, Svobody avn.) will host concert of group “Gapochka” (Kiev). Concert is dedicated to the participation in finals of „The Global Battle Of the Bands” which will taleplace at the end of April in London.
Easter for Everybody!
Issue 22, March 2010.
Catholic and Orthodox Easter Sunday celebrations,
April 4, events across town
This year sees the religious calendars of the Catholic and Orthodox churches coincide on Easter Sunday. This shared date is particularly poignant in multidenominational Lviv, a city which has sat upon the crossroads of the Orthodox and Catholic worlds for centuries and which boasts a staggering array of churches and cathedrals serving the spiritual needs of both communities. With its echoes of the pagan past and associations with springtime fertility rites, Easter is always a major holiday in Lviv, and this year will be a double celebration which will also highlight the strength of sectarian solidarity in this cosmopolitan city.
Miss Lviv 2010
Issue 22, March 2010.
Miss Lviv 2010 finals, Lviv Opera House, 20 April from 19.00
Every year the Lviv glitterati comes together in early spring to crown the latest Miss Lviv and send her on her
way to the grand final in Kyiv, where the leading beauties and bambis of the nation do battle for the top beauty title
in Ukraine.
Gorgeous Georgian Jazz!
Issue 22, March 2010.
Nino Katamadze presents “The Red Line”, March 25 from 19.00,
Lviv Opera and Ballet Theatre (28 Svobody Avenue)
Georgian jazz legend Nino Katamadze is still only in the relatively early stages of her performing career but she has already achieved an astounding array of successes.
Festival of Fluorescence
Issue 22, March 2010.
‘Lviv Lumines’ 2nd Annual Fluorescent Art Festival,
22 March – 4 April, Lviv Art Palace, 17 Kopernika Street
Lviv’s arts scene has always been vibrant and in recent year’s the city’s re-emergence on the East European cultural scene has been mirrored by the growth of the international art festival presence in and around the city.
Lviv chase Europa Cup
Issue 22, March 2010.
Karpaty Lviv vs Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian Premier League,
28 March at 18.00, Ukraina Stadium
Lviv’s talisman side Karpaty go into this crucial clash with fellow Europa Cup qualification chasers Dnipro with the West Ukrainian side lying in 6th place, just outside the European berths. They are level on points with 4th placed Dnipro and will be looking to build on a formidable recent run of form which has seen the Lviv side win three of their last five games, including a vital home win over high-flying Metalist Kharkiv.
Bonjour, Platini!
Issue 22, March 2010.
UEFA delegation visit to Lviv, 6-8 April
UEFA President Michel Platini will visit Ukraine on April 6-8 to inspect the construction sites of the Euro 2012 host city’s airport and stadium. In late 2009 UEFA officials confirmed that Ukraine would have 4 host cities at the 2012 tournament, but this confirmation came following long months of concern as UEFA bosses sweated over Ukraine’s
ability to make good on its far-reaching Euro 2012 infrastructure commitments. While in Ukraine former French midfield legend Platini will also visit Ukraine’s other host cities: Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kyiv.
Honouring Lviv’s Folk Martyr
Issue 22, March 2010.
Gala concert of Ihor Bilozir’s hits at Lviv Opera, March 17 (28, Svobody Ave.)
This March Lviv will honour famous folk singer Ihor Bilozir, whose murder in 2000 following a dispute over the Ukrainian and Russian languages in a Lviv street side cafй sparked a surge in nationalist sentiment which for a period threatened to unbalance the city’s delicate multiethnic equilibrium
Ritualistic Spring Songs and Dances
Issue 22, March 2010.
Velyka Haivka spring ethno festival, April 4-6,
Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Life According to ancient tradition during the Ukrainian Easter Sunday holiday young girls perform the ‘haivky’ rituals in front of churches or in cemeteries. In pagan times haivky rituals were performed in sacred groves close to water. These group dances, songs, games and dramatic scenes were believed to serve a magical function with the aim of enticing Spring and chasing Winter away. These songs
and dances personified a funeral for frost and winter, when people attempted to entice and enchant all the good spirits of the reawakened Nature so that it would bring them good luck and wealth. Haivky addressed various subjects.
Lviv’s Ideal Lady
Issue 22, March 2010.
Lviv Lady talent contest grand final,
21 March, Ludkevich Philharmonic Concert Hall
(7 Chaikovskoho Street)
Beauty pageants remain hugely popular in Ukraine but this coming Lviv event claims to challenge contestants that little bit more, assessing the depth of their talents with a series of intellectual, culinary and choreographic tests.
Army of Brides
Issue 22, March 2010.
Wedding Marathon 2010, 29 March – 1 April, Lviv Sport Palace “Ukraina” (18 Melnyka Street)
Spring is here and the wedding season is once again upon us, meaning that Lviv’s city centre will soon once again be full of blushing brides and their entourages every weekend posing for photos by the city’s most famous monuments.
Chicago Jazz
Issue 22, March 2010.
Tecora Rogers Jazz Quartet in concert, Picasso Jazz Hall,
March 22 from 19.00, (88 Zelena Street)
Picasso has begun 2010 in jazzy mood and this will continue with the March appearance of Tecora Rogers.
Ms. Rogers was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois and has been singing since joining the Angelic Choir at her church at the age of six.
Legendary Leopolitans No. 3: Extraordinary actor Bohdan Stupka
Issue 22, March 2010.
On stage and on the nation’s screens Bohdan Stupka has displayed the courage of Genghis Khan, the wit of Goethe’s Faust and the leadership of legendary Ukrainian Cossack leader and namesake Bohdan Khmelnitskiy. Today he is simply known as the greatest living Ukrainian actor, and despite already being in the twilight years of an illustrious career, he remains very much a dominating presence throughout Ukrainian theatre and TV, appearing regularly in the historical roles for which he is best known and in the theatrical dramas which first aroused his flair for acting.
Lviv Philharmonic Returns to Grandeur
Issue 22, March 2010.
Volodymyr Syvohip (inset) has been in charge of Lviv’s Philharmonic Society Theatre since 2006 and has recently overseen extensive renovation of the venue as part of his ambitious plans to help one of the great Lviv venues recapture its former glory. He remains best known to many in Lviv cultural circles as the man behind Lviv’s popular annual ‘Contrasts’ contemporary music festival. Volodymyr is celebrated as one of the most active figures on the Lviv cultural scene and currently splits his time between conducting the Lviv-based ‘Gloria’ chamber choir and working to bring his beloved Philharmonic up to a standard deserving of this venerable Lviv venue.
Home win over Metalist keeps Lviv’s 2010 Europa Cup Dream Alive
Issue 22, March 2010.
Fans of Lviv’s talisman side can continue to dream of a 2010-11 Europa Cup campaign following a crucial late February victory over fellow top six Ukrainian league hopefuls Metalist Kharkiv.
Slam city as Lviv hoop heroes dunk past Simferopol
Issue 22, March 2010.
Ukraine was once one of the powerhouses of East European basketball, and there are signs that the domestic league is finally finding its feet after years in the post-Soviet doldrums.
The hunt for Olympic swimming talent
Issue 22, March 2010.
Multiple Olympic champion Yana Klochkova and silver medallist Denis Silantiev held a Lviv swimming master-class in February as part of their nationwide search to promote aquatic sports and uncover the next generation of underwater Olympic champs.
Lviv’s Latin Landmark
Issue 22, March 2010.
Churches and cathedrals dominate the Lviv skyline and serve as the spiritual reservoir of the city’s ancient soul. Lviv’s geopolitical position as a major Eurasian crossroads has served to make the city a place where faiths meet and intermingle, creating a religious mosaic unlike anything found elsewhere in Europe.
A Feast of Chocolate Day Festivities
Issue 22, March 2010.
In their efforts to boost Lviv’s growing tourist appeal, the city’s ever inventive City Council team likes nothing better than to dream up a public holiday or reinstate an
ancient local custom.
Arthouse erotica for Red Army Day
Issue 22, March 2010.
Over the years the Soviet holiday of Red Army Day, which was traditionally celebrated on 23 February, has come to be seen as an unofficial male counterpart to International Women’s Day on 8 March.
Legendary West Ukrainian ethno-dance troupe celebrates 40 years
Issue 22, March 2010.
One of Ukraine’s most celebrated dance troupes, the Lviv-based Yunist troupe, marked forty years of performances with a gala concert at the city’s Palace of Esthetic Education.
Flash mob honours national bard
Issue 22, March 2010.
Early March saw hundreds of young Leopolitans articipate in a flash mob action designed to honour national bard Taras Shevchenko, with each participant given a Ukrainian letter and invited to try and help recreate some of the most famous elections of the writer’s Ukrainian language works
Celebrating the arrival of spring 2010
Issue 22, March 2010.
Marmot Day (sometimes referred to as Groundhog Day because groundhogs are also marmots) has been сelebrated throughout Eastern Europe for over three hundred years and is traditionally seen as one of the indicators that winter is finally giving way to spring
EBA mixing billiards and business
Issue 22, March 2010.
Members of the West Ukrainian branch of the European Business Association gathered on February 19 for the second annual EBA Billiards Classic Cup at a fun event supported by Lvivska Pivovarnya.
Lviv welcomes new French cultural link
Issue 22, March 2010.
February 19 saw diplomats and dignitaries led by French Ambassador to Ukraine Jacques Foureau celebrate at the opening of the new French Alliance centre, which is located within Lviv’s Ivan Franko National University.
Habsburg Past, European Future!
Issue 22, March 2010.
Lviv’s splendid Pototsky Palace provided the venue March 4 for the launch of a new foundation designed to draw attention to the cultural achievements and European heritage of the
Western Ukrainian lands which were formerly part of the Habsburg Empire.
Disillusioned but doggedly democratic
Issue 22, March 2010.
Does Yanukovych’s victory represent the end of the Orange Revolution or its final vindication?
Media coverage of Ukraine’s 2010 presidential elections has understandably focused on the geopolitical implications of Viktor Yanukovych’s headline-grabbing victory. Many analysts have declared that Yanukovych’s win marks the final nail in the coffin for the increasingly discredited Orange Revolution and signals Ukraine’s return to the Kremlin’s exclusive sphere of interest. While the long-term geopolitical ramifications of the presidential
elections are certainly unlikely to favour the country’s European ambitions, it is also possible to argue that Yanukovych’s victory is in fact the final vindication of the Orange Revolution and proof positive that however damaged it may be, Ukrainian democracy remains capable of giving voice to the mood of the electorate. A Yanukovych presidency may be anathema to many Ukrainians, but anyone who considers themselves a sincere democrat must also acknowledge that his victory has been a textbook example of democracy at work, warts and all.
Easter Special - Smoked Pork Loin covered in bread dough and served with warm
Issue 22, March 2010.
Master chef Emanuel Wernbacher is the Corporate Chef of Lev Restauant at Leopolis Hotel. Emanuel has worked in some of the world’s most celebrated kitchens and his many culinary achievements include two Michelin Stars for his work at the Winter Garden Restaurant at Panhans Grand Hotel in Austria. He specialises in Austrian, Continental, European and Fusion cuisines and will be sharing his chef’s secrets with Lviv Today readers each month.