ASIA / PACIFIC
May 2, 2022
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Ukrainian opera singer in Japan prays for peace in melody
PRAYERS FOR PEACE. Oksana Stepanyuk, a
Ukrainian soprano opera singer living in a Tokyo sub-
urb, sings whlie playing bandura during a charity con-
cert in Kokubunji, west of Tokyo, on April 14, 2022.
Stepanyuk, who has been singing in Japan for two
decades, dedicated her latest series of concerts to
peace. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
By Yuri Kageyama
The Associated Press
OKYO — The Ukrainian song has
no words.
When Oksana Stepanyuk, an
award-winning soprano with The Japan
Opera Foundation, performs “Melody,”
composed by Myroslav Skoryk, her voice
turns into a wail of mourning, a pensive
but piercing prayer for her homeland.
“It’s like I’m crying through the melody
for people who are already in heaven,” she
said.
Stepanyuk, who has been singing in
Japan for two decades, dedicated her latest
series of concerts to peace.
Admission was free. But the packed
crowd, who gave a standing ovation, was
stuffing bills into the blue and yellow boxes
at the door, collecting donations for water,
food, and medicine for Ukraine.
“Music has no borders. I don’t have to
say any words. Music will save this world,”
Stepanyuk said backstage at Kokubunji
Izumi Hall in Tokyo recently.
Stepanyuk, a graduate of the Pyotr
Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of
Ukraine and officially named “Merited
Artist of Ukraine,” is probably the most
famous Ukrainian in Japan.
“My voice I think is a gift from god. I feel
on the stage that I have to give back to the
audience everything that I have, my
talent, my voice, my soul, my heart, and
through my music they can feel what I am
feeling,” said Stepanyuk.
Japan feels far away from the brutalities
raging in Ukraine. It has accepted about
400 war-displaced Ukrainians since the
Russian invasion in late February.
Before that, Ukrainians residing in
Japan totalled about 1,800 people — only a
T
handful of them artists — and a fraction of
the more than 53,000 Americans who live
there.
At each concert, Stepanyuk brings the
spirit of Ukraine, loud and clear and
several octaves high as a lyric coloratura
soprano, a kind of voice characterized by
extreme agility and flexibility.
The composition by Skoryk that she
performs is such a signature of Ukraine
that it played as the orchestral score when
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered
his video message in March to the U.S.
Congress.
Besides singing a lovely rendition of
Puccini’s aria, “Oh My Beloved Papa,”
Stepanyuk plays a 63-string bandura — a
Ukrainian instrument that resembles a
harp and banjo combined.
When she sang the national anthem of
Ukraine, minister-counsellor Oleksandr
Semeniuk and two other embassy officials
in the front row stood up, their hands to
their hearts.
“We are a peaceful country. We have a
beautiful land.” she said, stressing she has
never felt prouder of being Ukrainian.
Stepanyuk was later joined by Japanese
tenor Masafumi Akikawa in a duet of Nino
Rota’s “Love Theme” for the 1968 film
“Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Franco
Zeffirelli.
“Having fun at this concert will help lead
to peace,” Akikawa said from the stage.
Pacifism lies strong in Japan, a nation
devastated by World War II, including the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Unsurprisingly, Japanese have
shown an outpouring of empathy for
Ukraine.
Akiko Ito, a retired teacher, was choking
on her words after the concert, noting her
heart literally ached from helplessness.
“All I can do is pray. But I felt from the
bottom of my heart that I want all our
thoughts to come together here to relay to
Ukraine,” she said.
Stepanyuk ended up living in Japan
almost by accident, having also been
offered a job in her 20s in Italy. But she
chose to work in Japan, where she became
an instant hit, performing in operas and
concerts before prime ministers. She used
to win awards. Now, she judges competi-
tions. She is also in demand as a teacher.
Her Ukrainian husband, who proposed
22 years ago, just three days after he heard
her sing, is constantly by her side. The gold
wristwatch he gave her then still tells the
correct time, she said with a smile.
Their two children, 13 and 6, attend
Japanese schools and are so far more
interested in karate than in singing. Her
favorite Japanese food is sushi and unagi,
or eel, which she vows gives her all the
stamina an opera singer needs.
Still, she worries about her parents and
her younger sister back in Ukraine. They
talk every day. Her parents remain
fiercely loyal to Ukraine, she said.
She quoted her mother as telling her,
“We are waiting for the victory. And then
please come and we drink champagne.”
Concert attendee Hiroshi Kubota,
decked in a yellow shirt and blue sweater
in support of Ukraine, said he was deeply
moved.
“I clearly felt her message of trying to
address the horrors of what’s happening
with prayer and song,” he said.
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