Crossing Borders

The fifth season of the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival celebrates Ukrainian music made and played beyond the geographical borders of Ukraine.

This year’s festival takes place a decade after the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity and the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine and two years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Schedule of Events:

March 28, 2024:

7:00 p.m: Defense - Defiance - Dedication

Since the start of Russia’s current war against Ukraine in 2014, Ukrainian music has taken on new purposes. Each of the works on this program has a function, but their utility goes beyond conventional music for use, such as entertainment or education. In the face of a decade of Russian aggression these works reveal how music can serve new purposes for composers and their audiences.

Roman Grygoriv, Langsam 9M27K
Karmella Tsepkolenko, Cantata “Reading History”
Maxim Kolomiiets, Footprints on the Sun
Zoltan Almashi, Maria’s City
Olga Zaitseva-Herz, Bakhmut Rhapsody [World Premiere]
Leonid Hrabovsky, EQVIN

Featuring Fima Chupakhin, Forrest Eimhold, Marichka Marczyk, Sofia Nowik, NYU Contemporary Music Ensemble, Margarita Rovenskaya, Valeriya Sholokhova, Vira Slywotzky, Alexander Yakub and Olga Zaitseva-Herz.

Buy Tickets

March 29, 2024:

7:00 p.m: Virko Baley At 85

Famed Ukrainian-American composer Virko Baley celebrates his 85th birthday with the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival.

Nocturnal No. 5, “In the Grove” (1980)
Soliloquies & a Dialogue (2023-34) [World Premiere]

–Intermission–

Nocturnal No. 7, "Introitus" (1990; rev. 2013-14)
From Dreamtime (1993-95; rev. 2005)
Treny IV (1996-99)
Postludium: From Uniforms of Snow: No. 10, Interlude 2: Tren (2002-3)

Featuring Yuliya Basis, Andrii Didorenko, Julia Henderson, Timothy Hoft, Gleb Kanasevich, Olga Pasichnyk, Anastasia Petanova, Ginevra Petrucci, Valeriya Sholokhova, Laura Spitzer, and Sean Statser.

Buy Tickets

March 30, 2024:

7:00 p.m: Travel Diaries

Each of the pieces on this program evokes a story of travel: escape, emigration, education and employment abroad, eternal farewell. The works of a young generation of Ukrainian composers are paired with established voices from Ukraine, including the country’s most famous living composer and two of contemporary music’s leading figures.

Fima Chupakhin, One Day They Will Be Dancing
Valentyn Sylvestrov, Silent Songs: Farewell, world
Steve Reich, Different Trains (II. Europe)
Marian Fil, Devaldi Korbes
Stefania Turkevych, Songs
Mykhailo Chedryk, Sonare [World Premiere]
Ksenia Stetsenko, Fluchtlingesdodekaphonie No. 24
Kaia Saariaho, Changing Light

Featuring Yuliya Basis, Alexander Chaplinskiy, Hsuan-Fong Chen, Paul Cho, Fima Chupakhin, Jennifer Gliere, Mike Lormand, Gleb Kanasevich, Tristan Kasten-Krause, Anna Keiserman, Ginevra Petrucci, Sean Statser, Valeriya Sholokhova, Hans Tashjian, and The Rhythm Method.

Buy Tickets

9:00 p.m: UCMF Afterdark

Join UCMF after dark as we celebrate our fifth season

This year we will be introducing a special late-night reception with live music following our final concert on March 30. This event is presented in partnership with Rukh Art Hub at the first Ukrainian gallery in the United States, Mriya Gallery in Tribeca. Performance by electronic-folk duo Hopanka from Montreal.

Hopanka:

The Hopanka Electro-Beets Project is a Montreal-based duo combining electronic sounds with ancient wind instruments from Ukraine such as the trembita, sopilka, cow horn and others. They explore a unique sonic blend of genre-transcending contemporary music that marries Ukrainian sounds and melodies with jazz, vanguard and electronic music.

The project’s founders are Ukrainian multi-instrumentalist and producer Bogdan Gumenyuk and Calgary-born, Montreal-based drummer and producer John Buck.

Doors open at 8:30 PM.

Location: Mriya Gallery, 101 Reade Street, New York, NY 10013.

Tickets are $10 / Free for UCMF ticket holders. Space is limited, reserve now!

Buy Tickets

Dates: March 28 - 30, 2024

Location:

The DiMenna Center for Classical Music,
450 West 37th Street,
New York, NY 10018.

Click here for more information.