All the world’s a stage
By Jeannie O’Sullivan
Times Staff Writer
In Ukraine and other formerly Soviet republics, women, especially Veronika Zhmeniak, know their place.
That’s why she moved.
"I sang before I could talk," said the 28-year-old singer/musician/writer, who moved from her homeland to Northeast Philadelphia 10 years ago. "But in Ukraine, by this age I would be expected to be married and have a family. Here I could focus on what I really want to do."
The dual challenge of navigating a new culture and breaking into show business didn’t faze her. Zhmeniak thrived on the information-overloaded, lightning-paced land called America.
Last week, the performer played her biggest show to date. Zhmeniak had hosted many an open-mike night at WXPN’s World Café Live on Walnut Street, but she was the headlining act on June 14.
Holding court in the venue’s spacious upstairs, with an elegant bar and sky-high views — the World Café was founded as a solution to the smoky, sticky-floored joints typical of most live entertainment — Zhmeniak and her musicians rocked in style.
The song selection — "a little pop-y, a little folk-y, with classical influence" — comprised melodies from Zhmeniak’s self-produced CD, Dreams of Love, and tunes that will appear on her second CD, currently in the works.
The Temple University alum, who earned a graduate degree in music theory, has a day job teaching at the Temple Music Preparatory School’s Center for Gifted Young Musicians. She also gives private singing, piano and music theory lessons, and has performed at the Amazing Grace Resource Center in Mullica Hill, N.J., and in a tsunami benefit concert at Manor College in Jenkintown.
She enjoys a devoted circle of family — her sister, Marianna, is her faithful assistant — and friends, many of whom are potential band members. When time permits, yoga and Pilates serve as relaxing diversions.
"Basic life is the inspiration for my music," she said.
When Zhmeniak was much younger, music inspired her basic life. She started writing songs at age 7, so her mother, an educator, enrolled her in a school that included an afternoon music curriculum.
At 15, she set music aside for a time when her family’s attempts to move to the United States were halted at the Hungarian border because of immigration red tape. Forced to adapt to a new culture there, she concentrated on college (the educational systems in some European countries allow students to bypass high school).
Three years later, Zhmeniak and her younger sister left the country, without problem, and arrived in Bustleton, where they joined their father, an engineer who had moved to the United States years before. Their mother decided to stay in Ukraine.
Zhmeniak spent a year at George Washington High School, graduated and then enrolled at Manor College. Neither institution, each populated by a large contingent of immigrants, presented the language barrier Zhmeniak had anticipated.
"I was surrounded by people who spoke Russian and Ukrainian," she said. "I wondered how I was ever going to learn English."
She did. Speaking it was easy, but writing songs was difficult at first. Poetic language, Zhmeniak said, is difficult to translate from Ukrainian to English.
Fittingly, many of her songs — Will You Love Me?, World Through My Window and I Fall — clearly speak the international language. Each varies slightly in its approach to love.
Autumn Rain, for instance, is about a girl thanking the rain for washing away her broken heart. Other songs explore spirituality.
All I Need Is You, Can I Talk to You? and A Wish were written about a relationship with a higher power. Though several biblical characters are indirectly referenced, the music is not intended to be categorized as gospel.
It’s not intended to be anything, actually, but an expression of her personal and professional evolution.
Said Zhmeniak, who never stays in one place for long, "I hope that my style will never really settle or be the same."
Read about Veronika Zhmeniak, her CD and future performances on her Web site, www.veronikausa.com
Reporter Jeannie O’Sullivan can be reached at 215-354-3038 or osullivanj@phillynews.com
Times Staff Writer
In Ukraine and other formerly Soviet republics, women, especially Veronika Zhmeniak, know their place.
That’s why she moved.
"I sang before I could talk," said the 28-year-old singer/musician/writer, who moved from her homeland to Northeast Philadelphia 10 years ago. "But in Ukraine, by this age I would be expected to be married and have a family. Here I could focus on what I really want to do."
The dual challenge of navigating a new culture and breaking into show business didn’t faze her. Zhmeniak thrived on the information-overloaded, lightning-paced land called America.
Last week, the performer played her biggest show to date. Zhmeniak had hosted many an open-mike night at WXPN’s World Café Live on Walnut Street, but she was the headlining act on June 14.
Holding court in the venue’s spacious upstairs, with an elegant bar and sky-high views — the World Café was founded as a solution to the smoky, sticky-floored joints typical of most live entertainment — Zhmeniak and her musicians rocked in style.
The song selection — "a little pop-y, a little folk-y, with classical influence" — comprised melodies from Zhmeniak’s self-produced CD, Dreams of Love, and tunes that will appear on her second CD, currently in the works.
The Temple University alum, who earned a graduate degree in music theory, has a day job teaching at the Temple Music Preparatory School’s Center for Gifted Young Musicians. She also gives private singing, piano and music theory lessons, and has performed at the Amazing Grace Resource Center in Mullica Hill, N.J., and in a tsunami benefit concert at Manor College in Jenkintown.
She enjoys a devoted circle of family — her sister, Marianna, is her faithful assistant — and friends, many of whom are potential band members. When time permits, yoga and Pilates serve as relaxing diversions.
"Basic life is the inspiration for my music," she said.
When Zhmeniak was much younger, music inspired her basic life. She started writing songs at age 7, so her mother, an educator, enrolled her in a school that included an afternoon music curriculum.
At 15, she set music aside for a time when her family’s attempts to move to the United States were halted at the Hungarian border because of immigration red tape. Forced to adapt to a new culture there, she concentrated on college (the educational systems in some European countries allow students to bypass high school).
Three years later, Zhmeniak and her younger sister left the country, without problem, and arrived in Bustleton, where they joined their father, an engineer who had moved to the United States years before. Their mother decided to stay in Ukraine.
Zhmeniak spent a year at George Washington High School, graduated and then enrolled at Manor College. Neither institution, each populated by a large contingent of immigrants, presented the language barrier Zhmeniak had anticipated.
"I was surrounded by people who spoke Russian and Ukrainian," she said. "I wondered how I was ever going to learn English."
She did. Speaking it was easy, but writing songs was difficult at first. Poetic language, Zhmeniak said, is difficult to translate from Ukrainian to English.
Fittingly, many of her songs — Will You Love Me?, World Through My Window and I Fall — clearly speak the international language. Each varies slightly in its approach to love.
Autumn Rain, for instance, is about a girl thanking the rain for washing away her broken heart. Other songs explore spirituality.
All I Need Is You, Can I Talk to You? and A Wish were written about a relationship with a higher power. Though several biblical characters are indirectly referenced, the music is not intended to be categorized as gospel.
It’s not intended to be anything, actually, but an expression of her personal and professional evolution.
Said Zhmeniak, who never stays in one place for long, "I hope that my style will never really settle or be the same."
Read about Veronika Zhmeniak, her CD and future performances on her Web site, www.veronikausa.com
Reporter Jeannie O’Sullivan can be reached at 215-354-3038 or osullivanj@phillynews.com
