Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on October 14, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute for a lecture by Oleh Bezborodko. Moderated by Mark Andryczyk.
Russia’s full-scale invasion has changed the way many Ukrainian musicians encounter their own cultural heritage, bringing once-overlooked voices into focus and giving familiar ones new meanings. Drawing on his experience as a composer, pianist, and teacher, Oleh Bezborodko will share stories of music rediscovered, performed, and newly created during the war. The lecture will explore how Ukrainian music, past and present, becomes a source of resilience, continuity, and renewed identity.
Oleh Bezborodko is a Ukrainian composer and pianist whose music has been performed in more than 25 countries across Europe, Asia, and North America. He studied piano and composition in Ukraine and Switzerland and holds a Ph.D. from the Ukrainian National Academy of Music, where he serves as Head of the Piano Chair. His compositions have been performed by such ensembles as musikFabrik, the Chain Ensemble, and the Kyiv Piano Duo, and by artists including Pavlo Gintov, Roglit Ishay, Timothy Hoft, Dmytro Choni, Dmytro Tkachenko, and Orest Smovzh. As both composer and pianist, he has collaborated with Ukraine’s leading orchestras and with conductors Keri-Lynn Wilson, Kirill Karabits, Andrey Boreyko, Hobart Earle, Volodymyr Sirenko, Natalia Ponomarchuk, and Ivan Ostapovych. Bezborodko’s music has been presented at major international festivals in Germany, Poland, the United States, and Ukraine. His works have been commissioned by the Goethe-Institut, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, Musica Mundi Frankfurt, County Hall Arts (London), the Ukrainian National Academic Concert Band, and the Lviv Organ Hall. From 2019 to 2020, he served as Composer-in-Residence with the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra. Bezborodko is also one of Ukraine’s leading interpreters of contemporary music. He has premiered works by Valentin Silvestrov, Yevhen Stankovych, Victoria Polyova, and Oleksandr Shchetynsky. In 2020, Naxos Records released the world-premiere recording of Silvestrov’s Piano Concertino, featuring Bezborodko with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Lyndon-Gee. His honors include the Levko Revutsky Music Prize, the Mykola Lysenko Composition Award, and the Boris Lyatoshynsky Prize. From 2023 to 2025, he served as Artistic Director of the Kyiv Music Premieres Festival. He currently serves on the boards of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine, Kyiv Music Premieres, and KyivMusicFest. In 2025, his Symphony Unbroken was performed alongside Beethoven’s Eroica at the first symphonic concert in Kharkiv since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Image: Eugene Baraban
