The Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival will explore the role of music in contemporary Ukrainian culture and politics through lively conversation and performance. Hosted by the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, Hunter College, and the Ukrainian Museum, the Festival will provide space to both hear today’s most exciting Ukrainian new music and to contextualize its place within a broader scope of history and society. Each event held during the festival will pair thought-provoking discussions led by distinguished scholars of Ukrainian history and culture with a performance of works by Ukraine’s leading living composers, surveying topics such as revolution and political upheaval, music education in Ukraine, and modern Ukrainian history. For more information and detailed schedule, please visit the UCMFNYC website. All festival events are free and open to the public!
SCHEDULE and LOCATIONS:
Date: Friday, February 28, 2020
Location: Elebash Recital Hall, The Graduate Center | 365 Fifth Avenue | New York, NY 10016
Theme: 50 Years of Ukrainian Culture: Music, Literature and Art
5PM: Roundtable discussion featuring Dr. Mark Andryczyk of Columbia University, who will discuss Ukraine’s literary development since the late Soviet period; Dr. Olena Martynyuk of Columbia University, who will provide an overview of visual arts culture; and Oksana Nesterenko of SUNY Stony Brook, who will compare music climate in Ukraine before and after the Declaration of Independence (1991), with a particular focus on spiritual themes in the music of the most prominent composers of the 1960s generation.
6:30PM: A concert of works by some of Ukraine’s most well-established composers, including Myroslav Skoryk’s Three Extravagant Dances, Ihor Shcherbakov’s Canzone for Two Violins, Virko Baley’s Journey after Loves, Yevhen Stankovych’s Kupala Songs, and Hanna Havrylet’s A Red Sun after Oleksander Oles.
Date: Saturday, February 29, 2020
Location: Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College, CUNY | 695 Park Avenue | New York, NY 10065
Theme: Music and Revolution in Ukraine
4PM: Dr. Inessa Bazayev of Louisiana State University will discuss the music of Nikolai Roslavets and his contributions to the development of a Soviet avant-garde aesthetic. Current Guggenheim Fellow Dr. Peter Schmelz of Arizona State University will discuss one of Ukraine’s most important living composers, Valentyn Sylvestrov. Dr. Leah Batstone of Hunter College, CUNY will explore the changing landscape of music in Ukraine following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.
6PM: A concert of works including Nikolai Roslavet’s Meditation, Valentyn Sylvestrov’s Songs for Vasyl Slipak and Kitsch Music, Ostap Manulyak’s Oracle, Svyatoslav Lunyov’s Dances of New Russians, and Ivan Taranenko’s Global Bells, among many others.
A post-concert reception, featuring the music of Ukrainian jazz pianist Fima Chupakhin, will be held at the Ukrainian Institute of America.
Date: Sunday, March 1, 2020
Location: Ukrainian Museum | 222 East 6th Street | New York, NY 10003
Theme: Composers’ Roundtable
2PM: Roundtable discussion moderated by Ludmila Yurina, who will start the conversation with a short history of approaches to the education of contemporary composers in Ukraine. Composers on the panel include Anna Korsun, Svyatoslav Lunyov and legendary Ukrainian composer, Leonid Hrabovsky.
3PM: Concert featuring Leonid Hrabovsky’s Trio for Violin, Bass, and Piano, Anna Korsun’s Wehmut, Svyatoslav Lunyov’s Zehn Stücke, and Ludmila Yurina’s Silicon Interferences, amongst other works by their students and peers.