Choir Director John Sutko leads the choir of St. Peter and St. Paul Orthodox Church during the celebration of his 60 years as choir director at the church.
On July 7, 2013,
John Sutko was honored for his 60 years of directing the choir of St. Peter and
St. Paul Orthodox Church in Burr Ridge, Illinois. More than 250 people turned out to celebrate the
milestone and to thank John for his many years of dedication to the church and
preserving the music of the Carpatho-Rusyns.
The celebration was held at the Aviana Banquet Hall in Palos Hills,
Illinois.
The honoree is the
son of the late John and Mary Miskovsky Sutko of Chicago and the grandson of Michael
and Anna Derba Sutko and John and Helen Miskovsky of Nankovo, Ukraine (former
Hungarian county of Marammaros and now part of Chust).
In 1949 at age 14,
John Sutko began singing in the choir when there were two Liturgies at St.
Peter and St. Paul Orthodox Church, then at 5300 South Western Avenue in
Chicago. He was an altar boy for the
first Liturgy then sang in the choir for the second. He also sang in the Lindblom High School A
Capella Choir and his senior year was chosen as its student conductor. He was the soloist for his class’ graduation in1953.
At 17, John went to
Wilson Junior College, majoring in business and minoring in music. Two people encouraged him to focus his
studies on music. His pastor Fr. Nicholas Semkoff asked him to direct the second
Liturgy which was in Church Slavonic on Sundays and encouraged him to
concentrate on church music in addition to his other studies. Professor Lela Hamner, who taught at the
Conservatory of Music and Wilson Junior College, encouraged John to change his
major to music and voice.
When he enrolled in
the conservatory, he also took education courses at Chicago Teachers
College. In addition to his music
courses, John was involved in oratorio, opera workshops, voice recitals as well
being a soloist for churches and other occasions. As a 20-year-old, he took over directing both
Liturgies at the church.
 |
| John and Alice Gabrysiak Sutko |
In 1957, John was
awarded a bachelor of music education degree and on August 1, he married Alice
Theresa Gabrysiak. That year he also
began teaching music at McClure Junior High School in Western Springs,
Illinois, a position he held for 35 years.
Son David Alexander Sutko arrived on the scene in 1958 followed by his
sister Cynthia Ann Sutko in 1961. In
1968, the music teacher became assistant principal at the school and began
working on his second master’s degree in school administration. John was nominated twice for the Illinois
Golden Apple Award in teaching. He
retired from teaching in 1992.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
Liturgical Commission of the Orthodox Church in America created official
English texts for feast day vespers and liturgies. For 10 years, John worked on adapting all the
major and minor feast day vesper stikhera,
Litija and apostikha verses for four
parts and in their proper tones. During
this time period, many high schools and colleges initiated Russian language
courses. Several language arts teachers
asked him to present sacred and secular music at high schools and for special
events.
Into the 1980s and
1990s, requests kept coming for John share his musical knowledge and talents
with others at a wide variety of events both here and abroad. They include the consecration of His Grace Bishop
Boris, the commemoration of the Millennium of Orthodoxy in Russia in 1988 and the
wedding of Prince Arnold and Princess Renate of Germany. During the 1990s, he made three patriarchal
visits to His Holiness Patriarch Demetrious of Greece, His Holiness Patriarch Aleksy
II of Russia and His Holiness Patriarch Pavle of Serbia. In addition, John conducted benefit concerts at
several churches as well as one hosted by the Templar Knights which raised
$20,000 for the new Christ the Saviour Cathedral
in Moscow. The original one had been dynamited
by the Communists.
Between 1996 and
2012, John helped plan and directed building fund concerts and projects the
raised over $100,000 for the construction of a new St. Peter and St. Paul
Church in Burr Ridge. The first Divine
Liturgy was celebrated there on February 14, 1998.
The Bach Society of
St. Louis, Missouri invited John to be the lead soloist and chanter for its
presentation of Rachmaninoff’s
Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Both
the University of Chicago and Northwestern University invited him to take the basso profundo parts during their
presentation of the vigils of Rachmaninoff, Gretchaninov and Kalinnikov.
Though John teaches
the church choir many different arrangements of hymns, he also stresses the
importance of maintaining the traditional hymns as an important part of
Carpatho-Rusyn heritage which need to be kept and sung so that they are not
forgotten. To help preserve the music of
his ancestors, in 1999 he began putting all his music into a computerized
format.
Through the years
he has published books of Eastern European Christmas carols (koljadij), Panikhida (memorial service), children’s choir music and Prostopinije (plain chant) of the
Carpatho-Rusyn people.
On March 13, 2010,
John along with Rev. Fr. William and Charlotte Pribish Conjelko, Tim and Ken
Cuprisin, Arlene Gardiner, Jim Kaminski, Rev. Fr. John Lucas, Ron Pyke, Mary
Sedor, Tom Sedor, Ivan Skala, Lisa Terlecki, Andrea Valasek and Richard
Garbera-Trojanowski came together at the Polish Museum of American in Chicago
to found the Lake Michigan Chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society. John currently serves on the board and
delights attendees at the chapter gatherings by leading them in singing Rusyn
songs.
In 2002, he and
Alice celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The following year
John celebrated 50 years as St. Peter and St. Paul’s choir director. Now in 2013, he has been honored for his 60
years of service to his home parish as well as his dedication to Orthodoxy
throughout the world.
