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KIEV, Ukraine, was starved of sacred music for decades under communism.
Now, however, choral masterworks are thriving in the city, partly due to the
work of a professor from Trinity Western University in Langley.
Since 2006, Wes Janzen has visited Kiev for several months every year, serving
as principal guest conductor of the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
Joining Janzen this year was his wife Kim, who taught Bible classes; and their
three teenagers.
The family works with Music Mission Kiev, which focuses its efforts on helping
the impoverished widows of the region – both physically and spiritually.
In late December, Janzen conducted a concert of Christmas carols; and in April,
he conducted Bach’s Mass in B Minor.
Regarding the latter, Wes pronounced himself “thrilled with the result,” adding:
“I was equally thrilled with the audience, because we had such a great
combination of the rich and the poor, the expatriate and the national, the
believer and the unbeliever, all experiencing a great sacred concert. One hundred and twenty of our poor widows
enjoyed the concert.”
“We feel so privileged to be able to visit the shut-in widows,” said Kim.
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“These visits will live with us forever.”
For example, she said: “We will always remember visiting Marianna and her daughter Natasha. Marianna is
88 years old, and is almost deaf; and her daughter is almost totally blind – but they joke that ‘together they are good.’
“Marianna told us about her life, and how she survived the siege of Leningrad. In
the space of just a few weeks, when she was only 19, all her family died of
starvation. She even witnessed the cannibalism of her father’s body by her neighbours . . .
“We learn about these stories in our history books; but it means so much more
when you can put the faces of people into this history.”
Another highlight was an encounter with a widow named Sasha, said Kim.
“We had the most amazing surprise waiting for Mama Sasha . . . All she had on was a little flimsy raincoat, even though it was freezing
outside.
“We took out an amazing fur coat that was sent with us from a Canadian sponsor,
and put it on her. What a shock . . . She kept saying that she could not pay
for it, and we kept saying it was a gift from God.”
For more: musicmissionkiev.org.
– David F. Dawes
August 2010
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