Musicians stump up for US shark victim
NewsTatyana Koltunyuk,who was savaged by a shark last week off New York’s Rockaway Beach, is a member of a prolific Ukrainian-American family of musicians.
Two of her close relatives – Darya Koltunyuk, who does marketing and outreach for Princeton University Concerts, and Gregg Kallor, a pianist and composer – are trying to raise funds for her spiralling medical costs. Read this, and help if you can by donating here.
Darya Koltunyuk and Gregg Kallor are organizing this fundraiser.
My beloved, exquisite, and heroic mother Tatyana Koltunyuk was the victim of a shark attack while swimming in Rockaway Beach, NY. She has undergone 5 surgeries in the first 8 days since the attack, and will require more. Her medical team has told us that recovery will take several years of intense physical therapy and close medical monitoring, during which time she will have significantly limited mobility. Though the full impact of her injury is not yet known, it has left her with a permanent disability.
It has become clear in the nightmarish days since her trauma that the expenses for her care and post-trauma adjusted living will be considerable, and will likely include ongoing services and consultations, mobility assistance device(s), intensive physical and psychological therapy, making her home environment accessible and comfortable, and transportation to and from appointments. We can’t yet anticipate everything she will need because the extent of her injuries is unknown; she is still in the hospital and will be for at least several more weeks, and possibly more.
This fiercely intelligent and passionate woman emigrated to the United States from Odesa, Ukraine with my father and me when I was 3 years old. A few weeks after we arrived, my father died of a heart attack, leaving my mother to raise me on her own in a new country. The language barrier prevented my mom from continuing her career as a marine engineer, but she worked tirelessly to support our family. She made sure that I could take ballet lessons and piano lessons and have the best possible education; she took me to art museums and concerts and theater performances; we walked in every garden and park in the city that we could find. She worked a grueling life to ensure that I could thrive.
She is 65 years old and was eagerly anticipating her retirement, when she could — for the first time in her life — take a break. She talked about swimming in the ocean every day, walking around the city with a new puppy, and traveling with us. My husband and I will do everything in our power to make her retirement as comfortable and enjoyable as we possibly can, but the road ahead will be extremely challenging for her and for our family.
Limitless in the love and generosity she showers upon others, my mother is an empathetic, thoughtful, and deeply proud woman who would never ask for anything, always putting others before herself. So we are asking for help on her behalf. The funds raised will be held by her family. Thank you for your support.
“a prolific Russian-American family of musicians”
“This fiercely intelligent and passionate woman emigrated to the United States from Odesa, Ukraine with my father and me when I was 3 years old.”
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Note: the surname endings “-iuk” and “-enko” are generally markers of Ukrainian ethnicity (though, yes, by now there are many people with “-enko” surnames who identify as Russian).
If this had been the result of a car crash the press and its readership wouldn’t care at all.
Reporting and sentiment are always so subjectively biased in incidences like this (nature versus mankind).
“This fiercely intelligent and passionate woman emigrated to the United States from Odesa, Ukraine with my father and me when I was 3 years old.”
And yet Mr Lebrecht says she is a “member of a prolific Russian-American family of musicians.”
Well, do we need to ask Ms Netrebko for clarification?
The article now correctly reads Ukrainian-American family of musicians. Does the nationality of this victim of a tragic and devastating shark attack really matter? In any case, it does not entitle you to make a snarky comment that she and her family will likely read. This is a new low, even for you, Gerry. Just shut up.
Larry, about 1 in 6 articles of the past year and a half on this site has had some connection to Russia. The family clearly states she was from Odesa, Ukraine, yet SD originally wrote Russian-American. We know you are an All-American American, Larry, but the distinctions between Russian and Ukrainian are quite tense these days, especially in the media — and, for better for worse, when seeking funds for donation!
I wish her the best in her recovery and it doesn’t matter to me personally where her bloodline comes from, but accuracy is as important in journalism as it is with intonation, no?
Still deplorable to focus on that point instead of the tragedy. Your so-called concern follows your ‘clever’ comment about Netrebko. But you can make amends, Gerry– go to the GoFundMe site and make a contribution, as I did.