'Music after the Revolution of Dignity' with Oksana Nesterenko

How have Ukrainian composers responded to Maidan, Donbas, and full-scale invasion? Explore powerful art music born from war and resistance.

The Revolution of Dignity, the war in Donbas, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have certainly transformed Ukraine’s cultural landscape. This lecture focuses on art music composed in response to these events, as well as its reception by foreign audiences. We will examine music by the most prominent composers working in Ukraine in the 21 st century, including Valentyn Sylvestrov’s choral cycle Maidan-2014, electroacoustic piece Requiem (2022) by Alla Zahaykevych, experimental operas Chornobyldorf (2020-2024) and Gaia-24 (2024-25) by Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko, Victoria Poleva’s Bucha.Lacrymosa (2022), and Zoltan Almashi’s Maria’s City (2022).

Lecturer

Oksana Nesterenko

Oksana Nesterenko is a musicologist specializing in twentieth- and twenty-first-century music and postcolonial studies. She holds a PhD in Music History and Theory from Stony Brook University, hosts a contemporary music podcast Extended Techniques, and serves on the executive board of Ukraine Decolonial Studies Network and the advisory board of Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival in New York. Oksana has written and translated essays about Ukrainian music for Musicology Now, the Claquers, Muzychna Ukrayina, and other outlets.