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Our History
ROMAN SOLTYKEWYCH
Founder and Artistic Director, 1953–1976
Roman Soltykewych was born in the Lemko region of Ukraine in 1909. He completed his early music training in Peremyshl’ and went on to study choral conducting with composer-conductor Mykola Kolessa in Lviv, Ukraine. He founded and conducted various church, student, and mixed choirs from the 1930s through the war years. Following World War II, he was active in organizing choirs in Ukrainian refugee settlements in Austria and France.
Soltykewych emigrated to Canada in 1951. In the fall of 1953, he and nine fellow organizers founded the Dnipro Male Chorus to foster, promote, and perpetuate the finest elements of Ukrainian choral music. In February 1954, the newly formed chorus made its debut with two concerts of koliady (Christmas carols) and shchedrivky (New Year’s carols).
Roman Soltykewych was Dnipro’s conductor from the choir’s founding until his untimely death in 1976. Under his leadership, Dnipro became a cohesive, well-disciplined ensemble that rapidly gained recognition in Alberta music circles. Soltykewych made an important and distinctive contribution to the development and retention of the Ukrainian choral tradition in Canada. In 1973, he received the Alberta Achievement Award in recognition of outstanding service to culture and the arts. His deep devotion to Ukrainian choral music was an inspiration to all who worked with him.
MARIA DYTYNIAK
Artistic Director, 1976–2011
Maria Dytyniak was born in Ukraine, where she began her musical training. She continued her education in Austria and in Canada, and in 1958, obtained her teacher certificate at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She has been a member of the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association for close to 60 years. She is the author of Ukrainian Composers: A Bio-bibliographic Guide, a cofounder of the Ukrainian Music Society of Alberta and the founder and artistic director of the now-retired female ensemble Merezhi.
As the conductor and artistic director of Dnipro, Maria Dytyniak led the choir to new heights of musical excellence. Under her direction, the choir performed across Canada and internationally and produced a number of recordings. Her inspirational leadership was in full evidence at Dnipro’s performances of the Ukrainian operas Kupalo and Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube and the oratorio The Neophytes.
In 1975 the City of Edmonton presented Maria Dytyniak with the Certificate of Merit for her contribution to the field of Women in the Arts. In 1989, the Ukrainian Professional and Business Club of Edmonton awarded her an honorary life membership for her cultural endeavours. In 1998, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Alberta Provincial Council honoured Mrs. Dytyniak with a Hetman Award, and in 2004, she received the national Ukrainian Canadian Congress’s prestigious Shevchenko Medal for her outstanding contribution to the arts.
WOLODYMYR KOLESNYK
Guest Conductor and Artistic Collaborator, 1928–1997
Wolodymyr Kolesnyk was born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, in 1928. From 1969 to 1973, he headed a troupe of 900 as the conductor and artistic director of the Kyiv State Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Dnipro’s 19-year collaboration with Maestro Wolodymyr Kolesnyk dates back to 1978, when the choir performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in the Heritage Series of Concerts organized by the late Roman Ostashewsky. Other highlights included Anatol Vakhnianyn’s opera Kupalo (1981), Serge Eremenko’s Conquerors of the Prairie (1982), Semen Hulak-Artemovsky’s Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube (1983), Marian Kouzan’s The Neophytes (1988) and Valery Kikta’s Sacred Dnipro (1993 and 1996).
Dnipro continued to work closely with Maestro Kolesnyk until his death in 1997. The choir’s current artistic director and assistant conductor learned their art under the direction and mentorship of Maestro Kolesnyk.
GLORIA ZAHARIA
Assistant Conductor, 1999-2025
Gloria Zaharia was born and raised in Edmonton, and has been active in the Ukrainian community from her pre-school years to the present. She began piano and voice lessons at an early age and currently studies voice with Eva Bostrand. She attended the University of Alberta and holds a B.A. in English/Psychology, and M.Ed. in Educational Psychology. She was an elementary music specialist with the Edmonton Public School Board for 32 years, and currently works as a substitute teacher, enjoying the variety of experiences gained while working with students from grade one to grade twelve. For three years Gloria also taught the Yamaha pre-school music program.
Gloria is the co-author of the Ukrainian Bilingual Music Program for grades one to six and prepared two “Listening Kits” to accompany the Ukrainian Music Curriculum. She helped inservice this program to bilingual teachers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Gloria was a member of the Merezhi Ukrainian Women’s Ensemble from 1973 to 1997, and still gets the group together for occasional special performances. She also sang in the Perlyny Trio with two other Dnipro members, who were also members of Merezhi. She has sung with the St. John’s Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral Choir since her teen years, and has been the assistant conductor for over twenty years. She is grateful for the many summer conducting courses taught by the late Maestro Wolodymyr Kolesnyk, for giving her the skills and confidence to conduct adult choirs. She had sung with Dnipro Choir in the 1970’s when it first became a mixed choir, and rejoined in 1987. She has had the pleasure of being the assistant conductor of Dnipro Choir from 1999 to 2025.