Please join the Harriman Institute for a lecture by Ukrainian composer Alla Zagaykevych. Moderated by Yuri Shevchuk.
In her lecture, Zagakevych will discuss the emergence of the Ukrainian electroacoustic music in the 20thcentury, how it was influenced by futurism, the collaboration between Ukrainian and European avant-garde artists (Luigi Rusolo and Eugène Deslaw), early Ukrainian cinema, and European electroacoustic music. She will also discuss the development of the first synthesisers by artists of Ukrainian origin (optophonic piano by Baranov-Rossine, 1916, Max Brand synthesiser, 1957), the Khrushchev Thaw and Kyiv Musical Avant-Garde, Ukrainian electroacoustic music “musique concrete,” the emergence of Ukrainian algorithmic composition in the works of Leonid Hrabovskyi. She will conclude by examining electroacoustic music since 1991, modern genres of electroacoustic music, works by Ukrainian composers, and sound artists during the Russian war against Ukraine.
Alla Zagaykevych (b.1966) is a Ukrainian composer of contemporary classical music, performance artist, curator of electroacoustic music projects, and musicologist. She graduated from Kyiv National Music Academy of Ukraine. In 1995-1996 she attended annual course for composition and musical informatics at the Institut IRCAM (Paris). Since 1997 she is a lecturer at the Composition’s Department of the Kyiv National Music Academy of Ukraine where she founded the Electronic Music Studio (supported by International Renaissance Foundation). Zagaykevych’s works include symphonic, instrumental and vocal chamber music, electroacoustic compositions, multi-media installations and performances, operas, music for films. Alla Zagaykevych also holds positions as Artistic Director of International projects Electroacoustics (Kyiv, since 2003), EM-VISIA (Kyiv, since 2005). President of Electroacoustic Music Association of Ukraine (since 2010). She is the curator of Music Program in the Book Arsenal Fair (2017), curator of Envision Sound Program of the British Council and the Dovzhenko Centre (2018 – 2020), mentor of the International master-class of acousmatic and electroacoustic music “Sound around me” in Vienna (supported by the Ukrainian Institute, 2019). She authored musicological articles in scholarly publications such as Ukraїnske Muzykoznavstvo, Muzyka, Krytyka, Organised Sound, and MusikText. She is the winner of the Ukrainian Film Academy Golden Dzyga for the Best Composer (2017) and of the International Prize Women in Art (2023).
Headshot: Dan Purzhash
