Smyk works on her composition. 

Courtesy | Emiliya Smyk

 

This month senior Emiliya Smyk will conduct a performance held in honor of the victims of the Holodomor, a controlled famine in Ukraine under the Soviet Union.

The concert will premiere Feb. 15 at 6 p.m.

“I love my concerts to have purpose, I love that music can be imbued with meaning,” Smyk said. “I want to use myself to preserve the culture that has given me so much.”

Smyk descends from Ukrainian immigrants who fled the Soviet Union for America in the 1950s. Her grandparents eventually found their way to Detroit, where they started a church. Smyk said she traces Ukraine’s influence on her life to a time before she can remember.

“It’s all I’ve ever really known,” she said. “I am super proud to be Ukrainian, and I want to carry on the culture that my grandparents risked their lives to preserve.”

Her passion for music budded as she grew in the Ukrainian tradition. Every summer, she would attend a Ukrainian summer camp founded by her grandparents. Every day, she said, she looked forward to one hour: “spiv,” or singing.

“All the kids hated it, of course, they’d be tired or bored. But I loved it so much I took a songbook and memorized it all,” Symk said.

In middle school, she picked up double bass, and at 16 she composed a commemorative recital for the Battle of Kruty, a 1918 battle in which Ukrainians fought for control of the city Kyiv. She listened to the piece on repeat, picking out individual notes and transcribing herself. She recruited all the instrumentalists and found a way to perform it. That was the first time she really saw her passion show through in that way, she said.

“When I get attached to something, I get attached,” Smyk said. “I want to give the best commemoration possible.”

In the fall Smyk first proposed the forthcoming tribute. She said the process was painstaking, but worth her devotion.

“It was tedious. It was a ton of hours, and literally sleepless nights tapping notes into a computer, so I was really hoping it would turn out fine,” she said. “At the first full ensemble rehearsal I was stunned. It was just me and a computer for so long, but now it was in the air. You could feel it. That was very cathartic.”

Smyk has experience conducting at Hillsdale. In 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, she held a concert to honor her heritage. James Holleman, professor of music, has been Smyk’s conducting mentor since she was a sophomore at Hillsdale.

“She is one of the very few students who I’ve let take a piece for choir or chamber choir, choose the music and prepare it from the very first rehearsal to their performance. She did a really nice job,” Holleman said. “This time around, she wanted to give a senior conducting project.”

Smyk wrote the tribute in three acts. The first act, “Lito,” meaning summer, tells a jovial story about the early days of Ukraine under the Bolsheviks, a time of supposed promise. The second act, “Winter,” reveals the dark reality under Soviet oppression. The final act is “Vesna,” meaning spring: a time for remembering those who lost their lives in famine. Smyk has written into the final act various prayers and funeral rights in honor of the victims.

“This genocide represents the whole history of Ukrainian persecution,” she said. “So the tribute is for all of Ukraine told through the lens of Holodomor.”

Smyk’s passion for the project has generated enthusiasm among her ensemble, including senior vocalist Caitlin Fillep, who will sing a solo during the final act in the final act of the upcoming concert.

“We’ve worked together musically for almost four years now, so when she reached out to musicians asking if anyone wanted to do the concert, I was super excited to get involved,” Fillep said.

Senior Stephen Berntson said Smyk’s passion attracts talented musicians to work with her.

“Having a friend as a conductor is a unique and fun experience,” Berntson said. “I really enjoy being a part of something that means so much to her. It’s like taking a professor’s favorite class to teach.”

As Smyk applies to graduate schools for classical voice and opera, she said conducting is a good reminder that she loves music for more than the spotlight.

“There’s a part of conducting that allows you to bring others into the piece,” she said. “I love appreciating people, and I’m able to do that with these ensembles.”