Fantasia Krushelnytska for Violin and Piano

This work was commissioned by violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv to celebrate and commemorate the life of her namesake, Solomiya Krushelnytska. A Ukranian soprano, Krushelnyts (1872-1952) left home at the age of 21 to study voice in Italy, where she became a very successful opera performer and close friends with Puccini. She is often credited with saving Madama Butterfly from obscurity by taking on the role after a failed premiere with a different cast. Visiting her family one summer, she was suddently trapped as Ukraine was absorbed by the Soviet Union and all borders were closed. Realizing that she would never be able to return to Italy to resume her solo career, she joined the faculty of the Lviv Conservatory, where she raised a generation of very fine singers. She died in poverty, never being able to access her savings or property in Italy, but she contributed to the growth of the Lviv Conservatory where Solomiya Ivakhiv studied. Krushelnyts became a well-known symbol of hope for young women in Ukraine, where much of the population knows her name, and many streets are named after her.