13 August, 7:00 PMKhlibnia

Lecture-Concert "Ukrainian Quartet from the "Liberated Music" series

Ukrainian music of the 1920s and 1930s was a period of bold artistic exploration, when composers sought a new musical language without fear of experimentation while remaining an integral part of the broader European artistic movement. Many of these composers were erased from cultural memory for decades, and their works were rarely performed on concert stages.

The programme features chamber works by Borys Yanovskyi, Pavlo Senytsia, and Antin Rudnytskyi—composers whose lives and creative legacies reflect, in different ways, the dramatic history of twentieth-century Ukrainian culture. From Yanovskyi's Quartet Fragment to Senytsia's String Quartet No. 3 and Rudnytskyi's String Quartet, Op. 8, these works reveal intellectual freedom, subtle emotional depth, and a determination to speak in the contemporary musical language of their time.

Pavlo Senytsia belonged to a generation in which expressionist anxiety, mechanistic urbanism, and carefully curated versions of ethnic identity dominated the mainstream of classical music. In contrast, Senytsia created a unique musical world that combines youthful vulnerability, chthonic despair, and haunting emotional depth. Composer and lecturer Oleksii Shmurak will explore these distinctive qualities in his lecture "The Lovecraftian Despair of Pavlo Senytsia," examining how the composer transforms these moods into the language of classical music.
This lecture-concert offers a rare opportunity to experience Ukrainian modernism as it was meant to be heard—vibrant, daring, and remarkably relevant today.

Programme
Borys Yanovskyi Quartet Fragment
Pavlo Senytsia String Quartet No. 3 in G minor (1931)
Antin Rudnytskyi String Quartet, Op. 8 (1929)
Performers
Petrichor Ensemble:
Akim Zvarych, violin
Kateryna Bereznykova, violin
Mykhailo Pavlov, violin
Ivan Vasyliuk, violin
Oleksii Shmurak, lecturer

Petrichor Ensemble is a young Kyiv-based ensemble founded in 2023. The group is dedicated to Ukrainian chamber music, bringing forgotten composers back into the spotlight, commissioning works by contemporary composers, and shaping a fresh perspective on the Ukrainian musical repertoire.

Oleksii Shmurak is a composer, musician, visual artist, and lecturer. His work spans experimental, contemporary classical, and indie-pop music, as well as multimedia performances and installations.

*The concert is presented as part of the long-term research and cultural project "Liberated Music of Ukraine," which restores to the concert stage the music of Ukrainian composers whose names and works were erased from historical memory, uncovering little-known chapters of Ukraine's musical heritage and reaffirming their rightful place in the history of Ukrainian music.*

*The event is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

FREE ADMISSION
Admission is free with a valid entrance ticket to the Saint Sophia of Kyiv National Reserve (UAH 500 standard / UAH 250 concession).
Combat veterans are admitted free of charge and do not require an entrance ticket.