ABOUT

The Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival showcases Ukraine’s complex and unique contributions to contemporary music through performance and discussion with scholars, musicians, and composers. The festival engages the intersection of new music, contemporary events, and the culture of Ukraine.

“[T]he festival’s very existence has always been a rejection of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia’s assertion that there is no real Ukrainian culture.” — The New York Times

Started in 2020 by musicologist Leah Batstone, the first Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival was the public-facing component of her research into changes in musical programming in Ukraine following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity. A month-long trip to Kyiv was generously funded by the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Composer Ludmila Yurina helped to program the first festival and led its composer roundtable discussion with Leonid Hrabovsky and Anna Korsun.

Since 2020, the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival has taken place each spring.

PEOPLE

The annual festival is proudly co-organized by the UKRAINIAN INSTITUTE in Kyiv.

Board of Directors

Leah Batstone, Gleb Kanasevich, and James Naumann

Programming Advisory Board

Virko Baley, Mykhailo Chedryk, Leonid Hrabovsky, Liubov Morozova, Oksana Nesterenko, and Alla Zahaykevych