YURII PIKUSH was born in 1998 in Dnipro City, Ukraine. He studied at the Dnipro Music Academy (mandolin, 2013-2017) and the Kyiv National Music Academy of Ukraine (composition bachelor’s degree: class of Oleksandr Kostin, 2017-2022, master’s degree: class of Mykola Kovalinas, 2022-2023). He is currently in his second year of postgraduate musicological studies.

He is the recipient of various awards including the All-Ukrainian Borys Liatoshynsky Composition Competition, diploma of the IV prize and laureate of the Walter Feldman Special Prize (Kharkiv, 2018), resident of the Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi Scholarship (Lviv, 2021), winner of the Second Myroslav Skoryk All-Ukrainian Composition Competition (Lviv, 2023), and Laureate of Levko Revutskyi State Music Prize (2024). He is also a member of the National Composers’ Union of Ukraine.

He has participated in numerous master classes of new music – International Master Classes COURSE – Lviv, 2019, 2020; consulted with such composers as Simon Vosecek, Tamara Friebel, Anna Korsun, Slawomir Wojciechowski, Sergei Meingardt, Etienne Hann and others. During the composer master classes within the “Warsaw Autumn” festival framework, he had consultations with Yannis Kyriakides and Sky Macklay (Poland, 2023).

Yurii’s works have been performed at well-known international festivals of contemporary music: 67th Warsaw Autumn (Poland 2024), 10. Days of Ukrainian Music in Warsaw (Poland 2024), Kyiv Music Premieres of the Season (2024), 19. Neue Tagen Musik Bamberg (Germany, 2023),“Usedomer Musikfestival” (Germany, 2023), “Contrasts” (Ukraine, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024), “Kharkiv Music Fest” (2018, 2023), “New Music in Ukraine” (2018), etc. He participated in the Muse Project by Le Vivier Universitatre (Canada) and Kyiv National Music Academy of Ukraine (2023), Transhumanism Multimedia Project (Kyiv, 2023).

Among the performers are Basel Sinfonietta (Switzerland), National Soloists Ensemble Kyiv Camerata, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Academic Chamber Orchestra “Lviv Virtuosos”, the Kharkiv Music Fest Quartet, Ensemble Nostri Temporis (Ukraine), Recherche Ensemble (Germany), Proton Ensemble Bern (Switzerland), soloists Nataliia Kozhushko-Maksymiv, Anna Ivaniushenko, Artem Poludennyi, Kateryna Boichuk, Roman Fotuima, Daria Shutko, Viktor Rekalo, and others.

Music by Pikush has been performed under the direction of Titus Engel (Switzerland), Vincent Kozlovsky (Poland), Roman Rewakowicz (Poland/Ukraine), Viktor Ploskina, Oleh Marynchenko, Roman Kreslenko (Ukraine).