ROAD OF GLASS: press release

When we planned the new program, it was as an intellectual provocation from the very beginning, an alternative to all what is happening on the modern Ukrainian stage. But we could not foresee such a powerful and exceptional effect – the effect of explosion, fascination, tears, awe...

The idea of writing a press release came to our mind while we went on a concert tour of many Ukrainian cities.

The world is rapidly moving forward and it`s hard to surprise anybody any more, except with a new model of the iPhone, iPad and themes about the inevitable «doomsday»... Anyway. The last Nobel laureate in literature (Tomas Tranströmer in 2011) is a poet. Therefore, a poetic language that carries purification, freedom, and high feelings is highly sought after and needed nowadays.

The poems of Oksana Zabuzhko, a prominent modern Ukrainian poet, are this powerful force which is needed by all generations of Ukrainians and not only. It is Oksana Zabuzhko who brings Ukraine to the world’s attention, by decrypting and passing on the codes of our ancestors, their voices. Zabuzhko is a breakthrough in the Literary World. After many years of Ukraine being ruled with the iron hand of the Soviet Union, her voice is a powerful source of hope in a modern literary language. As with James Joyce for Irish people, Emily Dickinson for Americans, Shakespeare for English, this is what Oksana Zabuzhko means for us, Ukrainians.

The Telnyuk Sisters (Honoured Artists of Ukraine and winners of the Vasyl Stus Prize) are the same mighty voice in a modern musical culture. The sisters, along with Oksana Zabuzhko, are two artistic forces that have united in an exclusive poetic-musical project named «Road of Glass».

The «Road of Glass» (music by Lesya Telnyuk) is the music of hope, transmitted by a new and unique Ukrainian school of singing, with shades of dramatic effect, lyricism, intimacy and recitation of poetry to musical accompaniment. It is a theatrical action expounded by a modern language of music and poetry.

There are no comparable projects, either in Ukraine or in the world. In this case it is possible to see this project as exclusive and unique. The accompaniment, consisting only of three violoncellos, makes of a refined background, where intonations and texts, converted into a magic whisper, strengthen the effect of refinement.
The «Road of Glass» is music for giving birth to a new healthy Ukrainian generation. The intellectual and heroic codes of our ancestors are hidden in it: strength, love, health, faith, indestructibility.

The «Road of Glass» - is not ethnic, it's not folk and not rock!
It is the blood purification.
It`s the TRANSFUSIONS: Sisters!

Nazar Stryhun, «The Telnyuk Sisters» project director

 

Feedback and comments:

«I am an old and devoted admirer of The Telnyuk Sisters creation, right from their presentation of «U.B.N» in Lviv Maria Zankovetska (Skarbek) theatre. They have wonderful, difficult, multilevel music and lyrics, unique performance. The girls’ voices - strong and tender - make this duet an original, unique musical and poetic phenomenon.
Not only I, but the whole our family respects Halia and Lesia very much, their wonderful, creative, musical and patriotic families. Victor Andriyovich and I sincerely thank The Telnyuk Sisters for their support of the exhibition «True rescues from death», devoted to the victims of political repression, tortured in Bykivnya.
I know that Telnyuk Sisters and Oksana Zabuzhko have a special bond and long-standing friendship. Consequently, their common project interested me greatly. However, all that was heard and seen at the evening of Ukrainian romance went beyond all my expectations. Oksana`s beautiful lyrics , enhanced by the music of Lesia Тelnyuk, multiplied by two wonderful voices reached the heart and mind of everybody in the hall, leaving an unforgettable impression and a wish to listen to it once more, to re-read, to realize, to tell friends, to experience it again…
My dream is for a modern Ukrainian rock-opera, a libretto written by Oksana Zabuzhko and music created by The Telnyuk Sisters.»
Kateryna Yushchenko (Chairman of Benevolent Fund 3000)

«An entirely new synthesis of word and music, a new spin on modern music development, not just Ukrainian, but European and Global. The Telnyuk Sisters have managed to create their own musical theatre that astonishes the public. At the same time, this is a very sophisticated work. The sisters have succeeded in presenting authentic poetic melodies of the ancient Greek muses that were indissolubly united with voice and sound as if in a melting pot»
Oksana Zabuzhko (Authoress, poet, Ph.D.)

«The Telnyuk Sisters are doing more for Ukraine than politicians do!»
Volodymyr Ogryzko (Ukrainian NSDC First Deputy Secretary, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine 2007-2009)

«The new program of the Telnyuk Sisters is based on Oksana Zabuzhko words …..Extremely beautiful!»
Mykola Knyazhytskyy (General Director of ТВі channel, journalist)

«The Telnyuk Sisters brought the genre to life with their new programme: romance in their performance maintains the passion of all the newest trends - from a fatal rock-ballad to a chartbuster. And it still sounds advanced. Very sincerely yours.»
Yuri Makarov (Writer, translator, announcer, documentary, journalist)

«Creative work of the Telnyuk Sisters is a pearl of Ukrainian Art!»
Tereziya Yatseniuk (Advisory council Head of fund «Open Ukraine»)

«Brilliant feeling of poetry and understanding of music ! It`s undoubtedly talented!»
Valentine Sylvestrov (Laureate of international competitions, composer)

«We are all in this noisy and lying world, but the «Road of Glass» makes us calm, helps us to look deeper into ourselves, into our souls!»
Fedir Stryhun (People's Artist of Ukraine, laureate of Shevchenko National Prize, main stage-director of Lviv Maria Zankovetska (Skarbek) theatre, lecturer)

«The talent of the Telnyuk Sisters combined with Oksana`s poetry in the new programme, based on Zabuzhko lyrics, look like an architectural refined lace. The sisters proved to be outstanding drama actresses. Bravo!»
Tayisiya Lytvynenko (People's Artist of Ukraine, director, Lviv Maria Zankovetska (Skarbek) theatre actress, director, lecturer)

«The «Road of Glass» is, first of all, a very feminine project for me. Tender and strong, defenseless and surmounting all obstacles. There is a woman in it, we all are, those who are reflected in glass debris of this road. And as pieces of glass - clean and dark- the voices of Lesya and Halya Telnyuk and the poetry of Oksana Zabuzhko are leading us by this road. You can almost physically feel a woman’s palm touching her child head and her husband, a woman’s hand that tossing the hair back and plucking flowers.» 
Larysa Denysenko (Authoress, lawyer)

«To go down this «Road» is uneasy. It is so difficult as if to go through a difficult route, mapped by an alpinist-genius. Only those who overcame this route can enjoy the beautiful panorama standing on the very top of the rock. On the other hand, to perceive this music-poetry (real synthesis of Word and Music, the only one that has a right to be called a Song) is as easy as to breathe (if you are used to breathing the clean, honest air of the real art).»
Roman Kolyada (Composer, pianist, poet, «Promin» radiostation director)

«The sincerity of feelings and extraordinary intellectuality are charming you, and do not set you free even after the end of the performance. All second-rate things become distant while eternal, things which matter, become meaningful. The «Road of Glass» helps us not to lose the feeling of the sky and excellence in the weekday rush.»
Valentyna Telychenko (International lawyer, the representative in the murder case of journalist Georgiy Gongadze)

«Great! Unpredictable! They struck a chord in my heart!»
Andriy Khalpakhchi (Chairman of the UCF, general director of the Kyiv International film festival «Molodist» since 1992)

«Simultaneously with music - a wonderful music - here is an outstanding place for Oksana Zabuzhko, whose poetries became the basis of the programme. Tense, nerve and brittle fragility, clear mind and sensual experience of our world - all are sufficient, all – at the top level. And all of it creates together a truly inevitable flow of emotions and ideas in you that goes deeply into you and up.»
Anton Leyba (Music critic, publisher)

«The «Road of Glass» is exactly that road of truth, pain and love, the road of Halya and Lesya Telnyuk, the one they are coming through. So real, talented, unsurpassed, perfect, matchless they are! We thank them for it!»
Halyna Sulyma (Cinemactress)

«Strong, philosophical and harmonious, Oksana Zabuzhko and the Telnyuk Sisters – modern Ukrainian culture at its vibrant best!» 
Bohdan Nahaylo (Historian, journalist, former UN humanitarian affairs specialist)

«Do not lose your ability to search for something new!» - I`ve recently read in one letter. I would like to readdress these words to the Telnyuk Sisters, because their «Road of Glass» is, in fact, that eternal search for the new - in us, people, art and music.
TheTelnyuk Sisters create a modern myth. It is definitely not a fairy-tale, but a myth. It is timeless. It by nature narrates something important, not trifling. Everybody, sooner or later, will start to think about the timeless and wish to hear about it. Therefore, you should go to their concert and listen to the «Road of Glass!»
Lesya Honchar (Authoress), Ruslan Nayda (Sculptor, painter)