Selected Pianistic Highlights

Yaroslav Senyshyn was one of two pianists chosen to represent Canada at the International Tschaikovsky Competition, 1974 in Moscow. Special performance at the John F. Kennedy Center Washington, D. C., "Critic's Pick" column in the Washington Post. "Senyshyn has enormous power", "sophisticated finger work", (his Chopin was) “sensitively conceived and delicately played" (The Washington Post).

 

Georgetown University radio broadcast: “Empire Far-Flung, Part V: Canada II". Performance Citation and Interview.

 

Appeared in a Georgetown University radio broadcast in Washington, D. C., on the "most important" Canadian pianists including Glenn Gould, Louis Lortie, Anton Kuerti and Angela Hewitt in "Empire Far-Flung, Part V: Canada II"; Air Date: May 26, 1988; Producer: Eileen D. Curtis; WGMS 570AM~103.5FM 11300 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryfield 20852.

 

Sponsored by the Canadian Embassy in Washington D. C., and Rene Picard, Conseiller Culturel.  Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City; St. Lawrence Centre, Toronto; Massey Hall, Toronto.

 

Simon Fraser University Theatre: two scholarship benefit performances.

 

Invited to give a special recital and recording to celebrate the formal joining of OISE (The Ontario Institute for the Study of Education) with the University of Toronto.

 

Boris Roubakine Hall at the University of Calgary, Bolshoi Hall at the Conservatory of Music in Moscow, Russia and more recently (selected recitals) a performance and paper for the Seventeenth International Research Seminar in Music Education held at Johannesburg, South Africa, July 1998.

 

Six CDs.

 

Recital at Keele University Chapel, Keele University, United Kingdom, November, 2000. Invitation for a recital and  master class, August 2, 2002 at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

 

Recital for Simon Fraser University, a SFU Scholarship Fund recital September 2002.  Gave a memorial lecture-recital on performance anxiety at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in November 2002.

 

Most recently, gave a Liszt performance for the Stephen Lewis/Faculty of Education Reception at the Hyatt Hotel in Vancouver on March 3, 2006.

Selected Review Notices

The following review is from The Enterprise Bulletin:

Critic Says Tour Will Be Successful

Saturday evenings' (March 28) recital by Yaroslav Senyshyn at Toronto's Jane Mallett Theatre marked a debut of sorts. Not that Mr. Senyshyn has not appeared previously on the Toronto concert stage, but this recent recital marked Mr. Senyshyn's return as a finished, mature, artist.

 

From the outset there was no question of the pianist's no nonsense and determined approach to his music. Briefly acknowledging his audience as he shot to the piano, he seated himself and immediately plunged into Beethoven's Sonata Opus 10 No.3. This D major Sonata is an early work that is often favoured by pianists as its four contrasting movements offer a seemingly infinite variety of musical expressive possibilities. Mr. Senyshyn favoured a rapid tempo in this work and as it eventually turned out a rapid tempo in most of the pieces on the program.

 

Harold Schonberg has claimed that modem pianists tend to favor much slower tempi when compared to the performance practices of the masters of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Mr. Senyshyn apparently agrees with him. Coupled with the accelerated tempo was a rhythmical thrust that demonstrated the artists' mastery in the articulation of left-hand parts which allowed him to underscore interesting harmonies and in turn, bring melodies into bold relief. This was especially evident in the Chopin Sonata. Here once again, the pianist followed the school of the old masters in his performance of the  Funeral March. Like Anton Rubinstein and later Rachmaninoff, Mr. Senyshyn tinkered with Chopin's dynamics and adopted a fortissimo immediately after the trio with a steady decrescendo to the Presto. An altogether interesting touch that raises pianistic spectres!

 

The opening Brahms Intermezzi after intermission continued the romantic tone of the program. Two Revutsky [a 20th century Ukrainian composer] Preludes written much in the vein of Scriabin were given impassioned renderings with an especially scintillating performance of the Opus 7. The concert closed with a Chopin group commencing with the G Minor Ballade which was built to a thunderous climax. The last page of this Ballade was especially noteworthy in its power and intensity. The two Chopin Nocturnes were given poised and sensitive performances and the closing B minor Scherzo was dashed off with great panache.

 

Especially impressive were the dynamic contrasts employed by Mr. Senyshyn. The dynamics were as great as any pianist and certainly greater than most. Even in spite of the great volumes of sound, there was never any annoying pounding which is so often the case with many young pianists.

 

Mr. Senyshyn's present tour continues with recital appearances in Quebec, Washington and New York. Judging by the standing ovation and the tumultuous applause accorded the pianist on Saturday night, the tour promises to be an extremely successful one.

 

Dr. Frank Csik,

Freelance music critic,

Toronto

“His [Senyshyn’s] concerts reveal extraordinary qualities of youthfulness and maturity.”

René  Picard

Conseiller Culterel

Canadian Embassy

Washington, D. C.

“Senyshyn is a lion on a throne…Once he places himself on the throne he attacks as a lion would, with class, style and strength.  He is in full control of the keyboard. It is almost in one move that he sits and plays, There is no delay. He knows what he wants to do and he does it….

Just when the audience was brought upright in their seats, he sent it into soundless hush as he gave the keys his special caress….he played with decreased magnitude. He played with grandeur and dignity. He brought the audience to its feet. He brought this writer to a sweat. If this writer could fondle the typewriter the way this student of Antonina Yaroshevich touches the piano, a Pulitzer award would follow."

Don Wilcox of the Enterprise-Bulletin

Upcoming Concerts

I am very pleased to announce an all Liszt joint piano recital with the great and world renowned pianist Alan Kogosowski . As you will see below in this email, he has a huge international career and happens to be a great favourite of the Royal family since the late Princess Diana befriended him and the late Pope John Paul for his masterful playing of Chopin. I feel very honoured that he has chosen me to pair up with him for this particular all Liszt recital.

We will also be playing a two piano recital at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, tentatively scheduled for Sunday, January 27, 2008. This recital will feature the works of Mozart, Schubert and Rachmaninoff. I am also looking forward to playing a joint recital with my wife, Dr. Susan O'Neill-Senyshyn, flautist, at the Chan Centre, tentatively scheduled for Sunday, April 6th, 2008.

The first joint recital will be held on Saturday, January 27th, 2007 at 7:30 PM at the Massey Theatre (735 Eighth Avenue, New Westminster, BC. This hall, built in 1949, was the former home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra before it moved to the Orpheum. The acoustics are excellent. The hall is very closely located to the Skytrain (Expo Line Skytrain To New Westminster Station at Columbia).

Tickets will be sold by Ticketmaster (TicketWeb Canada, a division of Ticketmaster Canada Ltd. ("TicketWeb")  for General Admission:  $25.00 and $20.00 (Seniors and Students) and the area adjacent to the Dean's Office in the Faculty of Education.  I am most grateful that Alana Nordstrand and Devi Pabla will be handling the sale of a limited number of tickets (200). They have been very kind! Alan and I  do not want to impose more on their time than is necessary. Tickets are also available through www.TicketWeb.ca as of November 13th, 2006. They may also be purchased over the phone at 888-222-6608.

Please note that proceeds from the concert will cover costs and fund other concerts (already mentioned) at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and possibly one other Benefit Concert to be announced at a later time and to be held at the Orpheum later in the next year. For more information about our current concert please see below:

Selected Excerpts Of Yaroslav Senyshyn's Playing

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