Musical Modernism in Ukraine. Between Inheritance and Innovation | Kultura 2026
Date and time:
Wednesday 16 December, 2026
18:30 - 20:00
Location:
ONLINE
This class introduces and examines the musical environment and key figures of the modernist era in Ukraine. Given the political division of the country, we will focus primarily on composers in Kyiv and Kharkiv, including Borys Liatoshynsky, Levko Revutsky, Mykola Roslavets, Mykhailo Verykivsky, Valentyn Kostenko, and Pylyp Kozytskyy, with some discussion of Jozef Koffler, Vasyl Barvinsky, and Stefania Turkevych in Lviv. Through their activities and works, we will explore the Ukrainian modernist tension between the inheritance of folk traditions and the drive towards innovation that is seen throughout the culture of the era.
General £35 Student £25
Lecturer
Dr Leah Batstone, Montclair State University, USA
Leah Batstone is an assistant professor and area head of music history at Montclair State University. Her research focuses on the intersections of music, politics, and philosophy in Central and Eastern Europe. Her first book, Mahler’s Nietzsche: Politics and Philosophy in the Wunderhorn Symphonies, was published by Boydell and Brewer in 2023. Her scholarship has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Music and Letters, 19th Century Music, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, and the Journal of the American Musicological Society. She is currently writing a monograph on Ukrainian musical modernism and a handbook to Stefania Turkevych’s Symphony No. 1 (1937) for Cambridge University Press. She is also the co-editor of the forthcoming collection Music in Ukraine: An Introduction to Nation, Identity, and Sound for Indiana University Press. In 2020, she founded the annual Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival in New York City.