​18-Year-Old Ukrainian American Musician Helps To Heal His Community

Chicago IL

18 April, 2022

7:43 PM

Description

UKRAINIAN VILLAGE – Chicago musician Volodymyr Lymar, a son of Ukrainian immigrants, wondered if he should go back to fight for his parents' suffering homeland. But he decided he has more to contribute here in Chicago, among Ukrainian immigrants in need of the peace and comfort their native music brings. "I think I can do more with my music than with a rifle," said Lymar, who had been in Ukraine just in December to study native choral music, before the Russian invasion started. Volodymyr, a freshman voice student at DePaul University, last year debuted on WFMT Chicago's Classical radio as a countertenor – a rare male voice that falls in a high range, where usually females or children sing. He can sing other ranges and different styles of classical music, too, in addition to playing piano and harpsichord, composing music, and conducting a choir at St. Volodymyr's Orthodox Cathedral, the oldest Ukrainian Church in Chicago. Volodymyr sang tenor and bass, most common male vocal ranges, until a couple years ago one of his voice teachers, Eric Miranda, helped him to discover his "true voice." Since then, Volodymyr said, he fell in love with countertenor singing and Baroque music. "Men singing in a female range of voice may be surprising for non-classical music fans, but not for Baroque music concert lovers," said Miranda, who performs with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Grant Park Chorus. "That takes some confidence to be into the things that not everybody is into. Countertenors can be rock stars." Volodymyr grew up surrounded by church and choral music, first in New Jersey, and after moving to Chicago ten years ago in St. Volodymyr, where his dad was a priest and mom sang in a choir. "As a child I served at the altar with my dad and started noticing these beautiful tunes my mom was singing. So I eventually moved from the altar to the choir," Volodymyr said. Volodymyr's mother, Liliya Lymar, sang and directed in some of the best choirs in Ukraine and was a part of renewing the Ukrainian church after the Soviet Union fell apart, Volodymyr said. Another church lady, Anna Kreynyena, Moscow Conservatory alumni, introduced little Volodymyr to classical music and singing. He started taking voice lessons and participating in competitions and festivals while in a vocal program at the Chicago High School for the Arts. Baroque, that falls in the 17th and 18th century, became Volodymyr's favorite era also because he is passionate about history. "No, I don't listen to a lot of other styles. Well, maybe the old Soviet and Ukrainian tenors," the teenager said, smiling. "Almost all our church music here at St. Volodymyr comes from Baroque. I've been listening to it all my life. I live and breathe this music." Last December Volodymyr set out on the trail of Ukrainian music all the way to the Kyiv area in Ukraine where some of his relatives still lived. For a month he explored choral music, studying and rehearsing with some of the best directors there. The trip convinced him that he wants to tie his future with Ukrainian music. But for now, every Sunday he directs the choir at St. Volodymyr while also filling in whatever voice is needed. Singing and conducting at the same time is a bit challenging, but not impossible, Volodymyr said. "He stands out a bit for being so thorough. He's into everything. He goes beyond," Miranda said of his student. The Sunday liturgy at St. Volodymyr's Orthodox Cathedral at 2250 W Cortez Street runs longer than usual these days. The silence is meaningful when Volodymyr's father, priest Ivan Lymar, gives updates from the front line, promotes fundraising for Ukrainian causes and offers words of comfort and encouragement. Calming, soothing, high and light tunes come out from the choir section, rise to the stunning blue and golden vaults and spread to every corner of the magnificent, hundred-year-old cathedral. Some churchgoers quietly wipe their tears, others light candles, others kneel in quiet prayer with their heads bowed or tucked in their hands. "The Church has always been very important in the Ukrainian community. But especially now, when people feel they have been attacked, they come to get some stuff off their chest," Volodymyr explained. Since the war started, even more people have come to church, Volodymyr said. In the Chicago Ukrainian Village, there are three Ukrainian churches along Oakley Boulevard within half a mile, two Catholic and one Orthodox. "Nobody knows how much this war will escalate," Volodymyr said. "But this is the moment for the people to know who Ukraine really is. To see our identity. Many learn for the first time that Ukraine is not 'some part of Russia or something.' I feel more sense of pride for my nation," Volodymyr said. Though he worries every day about his uncles, cousins and grandmother who still live in Ukraine, Volodymyr hopes to one day return to free and independent Ukraine and make his music there. "I want to conduct in the biggest churches in Ukraine," he said. Just like his mother did – when the Soviet regime collapsed.