The journey for Vasyl Popadiuk from Ukraine to Toronto has been one of musical adventure, starting at Kiev’s Lysenko school for gifted children at the tender age of 7, and continuing at Ukraine’s national Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music from age 18. Vasyl Popadiuk’s father, himself a renowned composer and pan flute player, dreamt of his son following in his footsteps as a flutist but at the age of four Vasyl Jr chose to play the piano. By age six he had discovered and fallen in love with the violin – an outcome predicted by a stranger before his birth – that love has remained steadfast through the years.
On Sunday afternoon my father Roman; with my mother Irene, sister Ruslana, granddaughters Petra, Yaroslawa, Anka, Olena and Viktoria, and myself by his side; peacefully departed on his final journey after a courageous battle with cancer.
My father’s family were refugees fleeing the horrors of Soviet and Nazi terror during the Second World War. Our grandparents and my father arrived on Canada’s shores with dreams of peace and hopes for a better future.
He instilled in his children and grandchildren a deep appreciation and love for our great country Canada and an active engagement in our democracy and its resultant freedom. Alongside his love for Canada, dad, “tato,†also taught us to respect the history, struggles and sacrifices of our ancestral roots in Ukraine.
Members of the Ukrainian community are working to have returned to Canada a popular church deacon who was deported after overstaying his visitor’s visa.
Famous Ukrainian violinist Vasyl Popadiuk and his band the Papa Dukes will be on PBS WNED TV (Buffalo-Toronto) tonight at 9:30pm from their Montreal Jazz Festival Performance. WNED will rebroadcast the special on June 6th at 5:00 PM.
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