14 August, 7:00 PMKhlibnia
Concert "Testimony: Piano Poems by Valerii Polovyi" from the "Liberated Music" series
This concert introduces audiences to the work of Valerii Polovyi (1927–1986)—a Ukrainian composer, student of Borys Liatoshynskyi, music editor, and educator, whose creative legacy, like that of many twentieth-century Ukrainian artists, was excluded from the Ukrainian cultural space for many years. Having survived arrest, exile, and years of forced labour in a copper mine, where he was forced to write his scores on cement bags, he preserved the most important thing—the inner freedom of an artist and the need to continue creating music.
Polovyi’s piano poems are works of profound lyricism, refined intellectual culture, and bold artistic exploration. They reflect not only the dramatic experience of an era but also the composer’s personal voice—a voice that history could not silence.
This concert is a testimony that true music can overcome time, censorship, and silence in order to be heard again.
“Testimony” is a new event in a series of concerts dedicated to the revival of Valerii Polovyi’s creative heritage and is also part of the long-term research and cultural project “Liberated Music of Ukraine,” initiated by cultural scholar and Head of the NGO Responsible Future Cultural Initiatives Centre Viktoriia Zubenko.
The project brings back to the concert stage the music of Ukrainian composers whose names and works were erased from historical memory, revealing little-known chapters of Ukrainian musical culture and restoring their rightful place in the history of Ukrainian music.“He went through war, an orphanage, labour camps, and mines, but he returned to music. I believe he defeated fate.”— Viktoriia Polova
ProgrammeValerii PolovyiPoem No. 2Poem No. 3Poem No. 4Poem No. 5EtudeKolomyikaConcerto for Cimbalom and Piano
PerformersOleh Bezborodko, pianoAnna Tsok, cimbalom
FREE ADMISSIONAdmission 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.