105
DOI: 10.4312/mz.57.2.105-126
UDK 78(477)"1992/2012":612.391(477)"1932/1933"
The Subject of Holodomor in the Ukrainian 
Artistic Space: Historical Projections of the Art 
of Contemporary Composers
Olha Vasylenko, Liliia Mudretska
Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music
ABSTRACT
The Great Famine (Holodomor) is man-made famine that convulsed the Soviet republic of 
Ukraine in the 1930s. Since 2006, the Holodomor has been recognized as a genocide of the 
Ukrainian people carried out by the Soviet government. The article aims to highlight specific 
historical, cultural and social conditions that contributed to the dynamics of the Holodomor 
theme in music. It focuses especially on the musical compositions of this historical tragedy 
performed at the Kyiv Music Fest Competition. We can observe the linguistic and musical 
semantics of the opus of tragic imagery, along with the ethnic motifs of the Ukrainian cul-
tural space, including musical rhetorical figures of the Baroque period, Christian symbolism 
of suffering and salvation, infernal stylistics.
Keywords: Ukrainian composers, tragic imagery, music dramaturgy, commemorative festivals
IZVLEČEK
Velika lakota (holodomor) je eno izmed temnih poglavij ukrajinske zgodovine 30. let 20. stoletja. 
Številne države so holodomor uradno priznale kot genocid sovjetske vlade nad ukrajinskim 
narodom. Cilj članka je opredeliti določene zgodovinske, kulturne in družbene pogoje, ki 
so prispevali k dinamiki teme holodomorja v glasbi. Poseben poudarek velja skladbam na to 
temo, ki so bile prvič izvedene na posebnem skladateljskem natečaju Kijevskega glasbenega 
festivala. Opazna je jezikovna in glasbena semantika opusa tragičnih podob, skupaj z naro-
dnimi motivi iz ukrajinskega kulturnega prostora, ki vključuje glasbene retorične figure iz 
baroka, krščansko simboliko trpljenja in odrešenja ter motivika pekla.
Ključne besede: ukrajinski skladatelji, tragične podobe, glasbena dramaturgija, spominski 
festivali
muzikološki zbornik • musicological annual lvii/ii
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Introduction
The Holodomor or Great Famine is a genocide of the Ukrainian people. The 
term “Holodomor” emphasizes the specially created conditions and deliber-
ate aspects of the starvation, such as isolation and the impossibility of receiv-
ing external aid from other countries, as well as the confiscation of all food. 
The murder of millions of Ukrainians by man-made famine was the result of 
deliberately destructive socio-economic policies of totalitarian power over the 
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1931–1933.
In the extensive scientific research, the subject of Holodomor has been 
dealt with in detail only in terms of historical and social studies. In histori-
cal perspective, we point to the so-called canonical discourse of Holodomor 
by Stanislav Kulchytsky.1 It is based on the basic concepts of communist ter-
ror, formed by scholars James Mace and Robert Conquest. In the terms of 
social analysis, Raphael Lemkin’s theory of the genocide’s impact on the in-
tegrity of traditional culture as a nation’s mental foundation is of considerable 
importance. He argued that the Soviet totalitarian system aimed at willingly 
starving the Ukrainian people by eradicating the traditional foundations of the 
oppressed culture and imposing a national culture of oppressors.2 It should be 
noted that these ideas dominate in the compositions’ conceptions of the com-
posers on the subject of Holodomor.
The concept of carrying out genocide against a nation by deliberately 
creating unfavourable living conditions (famine) was formulated by the General 
Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. The Article of the Convention on 
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide from 9 December 
1948, provides the basis for the introduction of the term Holodomor into 
scientific and social sphere. In the thirties of the twentieth century, British 
journalist Gareth Jones, who visited Soviet Ukraine three times during the 
“Great Famine,” first used it in the Western press.3 Raphael Lemkin, the 
author of the above-mentioned Convention, first used this term in legal 
documents in 1953, to define it as a crime of a totalitarian state. The murder of 
millions of Ukrainians by a man-made famine was the result of a deliberately 
destructive socio-economic policy of totalitarian power over the Ukrainian 
Soviet Socialist Republic in 1931–1933.
In Soviet times, the true cause of artificial hunger was deliberately hidden 
from society and distorted in historical scientific research. As an artistic subject, 
the topic of Holodomor was heavily censored, surviving in literary and musical 
1 Stanislav Kulchytsky, “Holodomor of 1932–33: How and Why?” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian 
Studies 2, no. 1 (2015): 93–116.
2 Serbyn Roman, “Lemkin on the Ukrainian Genocide,” Journal of International Criminal Justice 7 
(2009): 123–130.
3 Gareth Jones, “The Great Famine-Genocide in Soviet Ukraine (Holodomor),” The Financial 
Times, April 13, 1933, accessed November 30, 2021, http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/
jones4.htm.
O. Vasylenko, L. Mudretska: The Subject of Holodomor in the Ukrainian Artistic Space
107
folk traditions.4 It became a subject of discussion in the Soviet-Ukrainian 
immigrant circles and works of dissident writers. In the Independence era, 
the topic was actualized and revealed in the public consciousness, inspiring 
Ukrainian writers, painters, movie and theatre directors, and composers to 
explore and creatively interpret the theme of Holodomor.
The literary works of Vasyl Barka, Oles Honchar, Yevhen Gutsalo, Anatoly 
Dimarov, Vasily Zakharchenko, Ivan Onishchenko, Todos Osmachka, Mykola 
Ponedilok, Mykhaylo Potupeyko, Ulas Samchuk, Ivan Stadniuk, Mikhail Stel-
makh, Vasil Trubai, and Vasil Chaplenko referred to the important topic of the 
“Great Famine” of 1932–1933. In the twentieth century, painting the Holo-
domor theme has been presented in the work of such distinguished Ukrainian 
masters as painter and sculptor Valery Franchuk, graphic artist George Sha-
naev, monumental painter and graphic designer Ohrym Kravchenko, graphic 
artist Mykola Hnatchenko, artist and theatre decorator Victor Tsymbal, paint-
er Nina Marchenko, lyre-, kobza- and bandura-player Ivan Novobranets, folk 
painter Ivan Marchuk, and many others.
In cinematography of the twentieth century, the theme of Holodomor has 
been presented in many talented works. Among them are the documentaries 
33rd, Eyewitness Testimony (1989, directed by Mykola Loktionov-Stezenko), 
Under the Sign of Trouble (1990, directed by Konstantin Krainyi), The Big Break 
(1993, directed by Sergei Lysenko), and Time of Darkness (2003, directed by 
Serhiy Dudka), a feature film Hunger 33 (1991, directed by Oles Yanchuk), a 
movie-requiem Pieta (1993, directed by Mykola Mashchenko), and a drama 
The Guide (2014, directed by Oles Sanin). In modern moviemaking, the topic 
of man-made hunger in Ukraine stays relevant, gaining worldwide resonance. 
The 2019 feature film Mr. Jones by the Polish director Agnieszka Holland tells 
the story of Gareth Jones, a Welsh journalist who travels to the Soviet Union 
in 1933 and uncovers the terrifying truth about the Holodomor. According to 
UK-based critic Wendy Ide, the arrival of the film was a high-profile event in 
world cinema, and the biographical thriller has been selected to compete for 
the Golden Bear prize at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.5
Among the theatrical dramas dedicated to the topic is the production by the 
Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company of the play The Grain Store by the Ukrain-
ian writer Natalia Vorozhbit. Many Holodomor-themed musical compositions 
have had successful world premieres. They were written by many outstanding 
modern Ukrainian composers, including Virko Baley, Valentyn Bibik, Levko 
Kolodub, Gennady Lyashenko, Lesya Dychko, Gennady Sashko, Yuri Lanyuk, 
4 Tetiana Kononchuk, Zatemnennya ukrayins’koho sontsya, abo Trahediya holodomoru 1932–1933 
rokiv u fol ’klori Ukrayiny (Kyiv: Tvim inter, 1998).
5 Wendy Ide, “Mr Jones Review – Gripping Stalin-era Thriller with James Norton,” The Guard-
ian, February 10, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/09/mr-jones-james-norton- 
stalin-thriller.
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Oleg Kiva, Yevhen Stankovych, Myroslav Skoryk, Ivan Karabyts, Igor Shcherba-
kov, Oleksandr Yakovchuk, Bohdana Frolyak, Viktor Stepurko, and many oth-
ers. Their compositions on the tragic theme of an artificial famine as a result of 
the crime of a totalitarian state attract the attention of researchers and art critics.
Literature Review
The Holodomor subject in the works of Ukrainian art is an extremely important 
topic for understanding the processes in the World culture of the twentieth 
century. The tragic theme of artificial hunger is widely represented in art but 
has not been systematically studied. Here are just a few important articles 
about different types of art that depict the Holodomor.
Film critic V. Syvachuk examines the socio-cultural aspects of Holodomor 
theme interpretation in documentary and fiction cinematography from different 
angles: as an artistic embodiment of a civic position; as a dynamic process of 
the search for historical truth; and as an artistic reflection of the epic tragedy of 
the Ukrainian people.6 The importance of his research lies in the observation 
of the peculiarities of the artistic method, drama, and cinematographs. D. 
Darewych,7 an art critic, explores the problem of Holodomor in the paintings 
of Kazimir Malevich and other Ukrainian artists. Philologists have thoroughly 
studied various artistic aspects in literary works on the Holodomor theme. An 
exemplary study is, for example, the monograph by N. Tymoshchuk.8
So far, there have been no scientific studies in Ukrainian musicology dedi-
cated to the history of the implementation of Holodomor theme in music. 
There are only numerous works of scholars on individual pieces of music. We 
will note valuable nonfictional materials by L. Oliinyk9 and special scientific 
articles by Ukrainian musicologists between the years 1993–2020. In 1993, 
Halyna Stepanchenko analyses the composers competition of Kyiv Music 
Fest 1992.10 In 2003, Olha Vilchynska analyses the history of creation, fea-
tures of the genre and dramaturgy of Ivan Karabyts’ cantata Prayer of Katery-
na.11 In 2012, Olha Kramarenko analyses A Funeral for the Dead from Hun-
6 Vira Syvachuk, “Vidobrazhennya trahediyi Holodomoru v suchasnomu ukrayins’komu kinema-
tohrafi,” Naukovyi visnyk Kyivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu teatru, kino i telebachennia imeni I. 
K. Karpenka-Karoho 15 (2014): 99–105.
7 Daria Darewych, “Images and Evocations of the Famine-Genocide in Ukrainian Art,” Canadian-
American Slavic Studies 47, no. 3 (2003): 345–373.
8 Nataliia Tymoshchuk, “Antytotalitarnyy pafos ukrayins’koyi prozy XX stolittya: Problema Ho-
lodomoru,” Aktualni problemy slovianskoi filolohii. Seriia: Linhvistyka i literaturoznavstvo 9 (2004): 
417–424.
9 Lesia Oliinyk, Muzyka ukrainskykh kompozytoriv Pamiati Holodomoru, broadcast on December 5, 
2008 on Radio Svoboda.
10 Halyna Stepanchenko, “Trahichni akordy Rekviiemu,” Narodna tvorchist ta etnohrafiia 5–6 (1993): 
243–245.
11 Olha Vilchynska, “Ivan Karabyts. Molytva Kateryny: Istoriia stvorennia, osoblyvosti zhanru ta 
O. Vasylenko, L. Mudretska: The Subject of Holodomor in the Ukrainian Artistic Space
109
ger by Yevhen Stankovych, the concert, “A Dream” by Igor Shcherbakov, and 
Stabat Mater by Yuri Lanyuk.12 In 2013, Hanna Karas analysed Virko Baley’s 
opera Red Earth: Hunger.13 In 2013, Zoya Lavrova examined the tragic im-
agery of the oratorio about Yuri Lanyuk’s Holodomor Skorbna maty (The Sor-
rowful Mother).14 In 2013, Olha Kushniruk analysed Oleksandr Yakovchuk`s 
symphonies in the context of postmodernism of Ukrainian music culture.15 In 
2015, Kateryna Babkina examines the dramaturgy and semantic concept of 
the Spiritual Requiem-Concert “A Dream” by Igor. V. Shcherbakov.16 In 2020–
2021, Olha Vasylenko studied commemorative tradition17 and main compo-
sitions among which are Stabat Mater by Anatoly Haydenko and Gennady 
Sasko’s choral concert of 1993 Duma about 1933 for mixed choirs and soloists 
is addressed through the stylistics of the folk duma genre.18
Our article aims to highlight specific social and historical and cultural con-
ditions that contributed to the dynamics of Holodomor theme in music. Par-
ticular emphasis is placed on illuminating the ways of integrating this theme 
into the artistic space by the forces of the world Ukrainian community.
Socio-cultural Context
In the given perspective, it is interesting to consider the socio-cultural context 
of Ukrainian composers’ creativity of the late twentieth century. The emergence 
of a subject which was extremely difficult for the musical embodiment – the 
subject of Holodomor – in the works of Ukrainian composers was initiated 
by the activities of the diaspora representatives. Thus, the formation of the 
renowned academic festival Kyiv Music Fest is linked to the creative drives 
of American Ukrainian activists Virko Baley and the family of Marian and 
dramaturhiia,” Naukovyi visnyk natsionalnoi muzychnoi akademii im. Chaikovskoho 31 (2003): 162–166.
12 Olha Kramarenko, “Tema Holodomoru u vokalno-khorovii tvorchosti suchasnykh ukrainskykh 
kompozytoriv,” Mystetstvoznavchi zapysky 22 (2012): 92–97.
13 Hanna Karas, “Tema Holodomoru 1932–1933 rokiv v Ukraini v konteksti muzyky postmodernu: 
Na prykladi opery Virko Baleia,” Kultura i suchasnist: Naukovyi almanakh 2 (2013): 102–107.
14 Zoya Lavrova, “Dramaturhiya oratoriyi Y. Lanyuka Skorbna maty,” Kyivske muzykoznavstvo: Kul-
turolohiia ta mystetstvoznavstvo 47 (2013): 161–170.
15 Olha Kushniruk, “Symfonichnyi dorobok O. Yakovchuka v postmodernomu konteksti ukrainskoi 
muzychnoi kultury,” Visnyk Natsionalnoi akademii kerivnykh kadriv kultury i mystetstv 4 (2013): 
156–160.
16 Kateryna Babkina, “Duhovnyj koncert-rekviem ‘Son’ I. V. Shcherbakova: Dramaturgiya i seman-
ticheskaya koncepciya,” Naukovyi visnyk natsionalnoi muzychnoi akademii im. Chaikovskoho 116 
(2015): 44–51.
17 Olha Vasylenko, “Diyal’nist’ myttsiv diaspory v aspekti vprovadzhennya temy Holodomoru u 
muzyku suchasnykh ukrayins’kykh kompozytoriv,” Art Museum: Past and Present; Collection of Sci-
entific Articles 6 (2020–2021): 4–13.
18 Olha Vasylenko, “Tema Holodomoru u khorovykh tvorakh ukrainskykh kompozytoriv XX–XXI 
stolit,” in Culturology and Art History: Points of Contact and Prospects for Development; Ca’ Foscari, 
University of Venice, Italy, November 27–28, 2020, Conference Proceedings (Venice: Baltija Publish-
ing, 2020), 204–208, https://doi.org/10.30525/978-9934-26-004-9-122.
muzikološki zbornik • musicological annual lvii/ii
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Ivanna Kots. A New York University graduate, Marian Kots was born and died 
in Lviv, but lived most of his life outside the territory of his native Ukraine. 
As the Head of the Association of Holodomor Researchers, he did everything 
possible to reveal the terrible historical facts of the Great Famine, hidden 
by the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union.19 Marian Kots has funded 
a considerable number of scientific and popular science projects devoted to 
the history of Ukraine. Thousands of memories of Holodomor were collected 
by the activists of the Association of Holodomor Researchers in Ukraine dur-
ing the nineteen years of its existence. The composers competition with works 
on the subject of Holodomor, within the framework of the Kyiv Music Fest 
named after Ivanna and Marian Kots was first held on the initiative of its 
sponsors. According to Marianna Kopytsia-Karabyts,20 at that time the festival 
was a large-scale musical action that actually performed the creative tasks of 
the painfully dying official Union of Composers of Ukraine.
Since 1990, the festival has started a large-scale action presentation of 
the achievements of contemporary Ukrainian music of the late-twentieth 
and early-twenty-first centuries. The first Kyiv Music Fest was initiated with 
the creative and organizational support of the prominent American musician 
Virko Baley. The son of a well-known public figure, publicist, political scientist, 
and writer Peter Baley was born in the town of Radekhiv Lviv region. 
Subsequently, in 1949, Virko emigrated to America. For the first time, Baley 
performed music of prominent Ukrainians as a conductor in the United States. 
Promoting creativity of V. Sylvestrov, L. Grabovsky, M. Skoryk, E. Stankovych, 
I. Karabyts, V. Zagortsev and others is his outstanding contribution to the 
native culture. Oksana Harmel, a scholar, points out:
In V. Baley’s compositions one can find clear examples of works in which he 
turned to the sharply dramatic topics that constitute the traumatic zones of 
Ukrainian history, the traumas of cultural memory – this is the chamber opera 
Hunger (Hunger, 1985, 1995–97, 2011–13) on the libretto of the poet 
Bohdan Boychuk (1927–2017), in which the tragedy of nation is conveyed as 
a deeply lived personal drama.21
In the 1990s, the paths of the families of Kots, Virko Baley and Ivan 
Karabyts intersected in Kyiv, and this fact directly influenced the integration 
of Holodomor theme into the music of prominent Ukrainian composers.
19 Oleksandra Veselova, “Viddanist Ukraini: Trudy i dni Mariana Kotsia,” Problemy istorii Ukrainy: 
Fakty, sudzhennia, poshuky 20 (2011): 325–334.
20 “Materialy, Prohramy, Istoriia,” in Mizhnarodnyi muzychnyi festyval ‘Kyiv Miuzyk Fest’ – epokha v 
istorii, ed. Marianna Kopytsia-Karabyts (Kyiv: Tsentrinform, 2004).
21 Oksana Harmel, “Fenomen diaspory v aspekti pamiati kultury (na prykladi tvorchosti Virka 
Baleia),” Naukovyi visnyk natsionalnoi muzychnoi akademii im. Chaikovskoho 121 (2018): 13.
O. Vasylenko, L. Mudretska: The Subject of Holodomor in the Ukrainian Artistic Space
111
Implementation of the Holodomor Theme into the Music of Ukrainian 
Composers
Music festivals of various composers and masters of the performing arts asso-
ciated with the Holodomor regularly begin in large cities of Ukraine, primar-
ily in Lviv and Kiev with the support of philanthropists from the diaspora. In 
1992, the third Kyiv Music Fest competition for composers was directed by 
its organizers and sponsors to cover the Holodomor theme in music in Kiev. 
Ivanna and Marian Kots had initiated a musical panorama in memory on the 
sixtieth anniversary of tragedy in Lviv. Then the music of Lviv composers My-
roslav Skoryk, Viktor Kaminsky and Yury Lanyuk was presented.
Thus, with the support of diaspora figures, the festivals focused on the 
introduction of the subject of Holodomor into musical compositions. These 
tragic topics have played a special role in consolidating the nation and 
improving the moral climate of the Ukrainian intellectual elite.
The first competition was held from 3rd to 10th October 1992, and was 
commissioned by the Association of Researchers of Holodomor Genocide in 
1932–1933. That determined the subject of the academic compositions writ-
ten for the competition – the Holodomor. The American composer Virko 
Baley was appointed as the coordinator. An Ukrainian jurey, headed by the 
Odessa composer Oleksandr Krasatov, evaluated the works of the first round. 
In the second round, the jury was international: Theodor Kuchar (Australia), 
Walter Zimmerman (Germany), Olgerd Pisarenko (Poland), Lovell Lieber-
man (USA), Miroslav Skoryk (Ukraine). Twenty compositions were selected 
from the second round, including: Spectrum by John Lennon (USA), Vo-
lodymyr Runchak’s Con mesto sereno, Pro memoria by Gennady Lyashenko, 
Scorched Mallow by Galina Ovcharenko, Threnody by Zbigniew Baginski (Po-
land), and Crying and Prayer by Valentyn Bibik. Zbigniew Baginski won the 
third prize, Valentyn Bibik the second, and the first prize was not awarded 
at all.
The Theme of Holodomor in the Repertoire of the First Concerts of 
Kyiv Music Fest in the 1990s
The historical truth of the twentieth-century famine tragedies already had a 
certain tradition of artistic interpretation, such as in the Requiems or com-
memorative works of the composers of the 1920s Mykola Leontovych, Kiril 
Stetsenko, dedicated to the victims of the First Famine of 1921–22. In the sec-
ond half of the twentieth century, there was Kyiv Music Fest by Ivan Karabyts. 
The tragic events of the Second (Artificial) Famine of the year 1933, even in 
the years of censorship, were covered in the Orchestra Concerto no. 3 “Lam-
entation”. The composition was performed twice – at the first (1990) and the 
second Kyiv Music Fest (1991). The appeal in symphonic music to lamentoso 
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intonations as a sign of the tragic in music is conditioned by the composer’s 
desire to comprehend the folklore genre of lamentation as a common musi-
cal symbol of the dramatic era of Ukrainian history. This approach has estab-
lished a new way of grasping the genre of crying in contemporary symphonic 
composition.
Principles of Interpretation of the Theme of Holodomor in the Works 
of Ivan Karabyts
At the Third Kyiv Music Fest (1992), Ivan Karabyts presented the cantata 
Prayer of Kateryna for a reader, children’s choir, and a large symphony orchestra 
on Kateryna Motrych’s poems. At its premiere, the cantata suffered an unfor-
tunate performance due to the conflict of performers (orchestra director and 
choir director). Therefore it was only performed at the festival concert and was 
not nominated as a competition piece. In three parts of the cantata the im-
ages of death, moral and spiritual catastrophe of Holodomor, in particular the 
tragedy of cannibalism, are revealed with incredible power. The author entrusts 
the choir party to children. It is the image of the child which, for the compos-
er, personifies purity and innocence of the Ukrainian people. A striking force 
in music is the juxtaposition of two worlds: “Ukraine on earth” and “Ukraine 
in heaven.” The first image depicts the tragic realities of a devastated coun-
try. Here the chaos of orchestral aleatoric, amplified by the choral glissando, 
is realized: the slipping of the sounds is like falling into the abyss. The score’s 
powerful autonomous orchestral and vocal layers are unified by an authentic 
folklore modal organization. The double harmonic minor is associated with 
Ukrainian ethnic music, it is the main key in the composer Ivan Karabyts’ sys-
tem of thought. The process of imitation of holding the melody of the child’s 
prayer request makes the development more dynamic. Of great importance 
for music is the symbolism of the theme of the cross, which acquires particu-
lar infernal expressiveness in the low register of various musical instruments. 
There is an impression of moaning, crying, and tension. The culmination of this 
imaginative sphere is a poignant account of the infanticide and madness of a 
peasant woman called Hanna, in whose personal destiny the composer sees 
more profound analogies: “And blind with grief, bruised, gray, half-blissful, She 
stood, propped up the sky with her torture, glowingly looking around, Mother 
Ukraine, crucified on a giant cross.”22
The second musical image that emerges from the lyrics of Kateryna 
Motrych and is reflected in the music is a kind of Paradise, is an image of a 
happy Heaven Ukraine. The souls of the children turned into cranes, flew into 
22 Ivan Karabyts, Molytva Kateryny, autograph score (National Library of Ukraine, Natsionalna bib-
lioteka Ukrainy imeni V. I. Vernadskoho, Muzychnyi fond no. 1, opys 1, odynytsia kolektsii 517, 
1992), 32.
O. Vasylenko, L. Mudretska: The Subject of Holodomor in the Ukrainian Artistic Space
113
the sky, and became the stars of the Milky Way. White shadows from Heaven 
Ukraine sit down to the funeral supper to mourn and sing the unburied, as 
Earth Ukraine has turned into a solid grave. Orchestral music is lit up, pastoral 
singing is concentrated in high register. The final mourning episode in the 
sound of the brass quartet is perceived as singing at a memorial service for the 
starving dead. After the last words of the reader, the music dissolves in the air 
(the composer again resorts to aleatoric music).
Valentyn Bibik’s Diptych Cry and Prayer for Symphony Orchestra
Within the framework of the mentioned competition, the work of the prominent 
Kharkov citizen Valentyn Bibik (1940–2003) was presented, and he received the 
second prize (the first prize was not awarded). An author of eleven symphonies 
and an extraordinary personality of Ukrainian music named his composition 
in memory of Holodomor: Cry and Prayer for the Symphony Orchestra (1992, 
op. 89). The lamentoso intonation of the silent lament consolidates the 
melody-independent instrumental layers and unfolds during the first part of 
the symphonic diptych, being the meaningful embryo of all melody lines of 
woodwinds. The instrumental crying reaches its dynamic climax – the peak of 
emotional tension, the roar, the cry and the tears. The composer counterbalances 
this tragic break with the acoustic signs of the funeral service (bells are heard in 
the orchestra, an allusion to the theme of brass instruments playing a melody 
from the funeral mass of the Orthodox Christians Rest with the Saints). The 
second part of the diptych – “Prayer” – uses genre signs of psalmody, recitation, 
and instrumental imitation of choral singing, which are successfully reproduced 
in the instrumental layer of the composition.
The Theme of Holodomor in the Choral Concerts by Gennady Sasko 
and Larisa Donnik
The history of Holodomor of the 1930s has been reflected in other large-scale 
compositions performed at the Kyiv Music Fest in different years. The theme 
of Holodomor in Gennady Sasko’s choral concert of 1993 (Duma about 1933 
for mixed choirs and soloists) is addressed through the stylistics of the folk 
duma genre. Dumas and historical songs were written and sung in the cities of 
Ukraine by blind lyricists and kobzars. Blind folk singers and epic storyteller 
kobzars are the narrators of Ukrainian epic. They play the kobza – an ancient 
lute, a string plucking instrument. There is a series of documentary evidence of 
the persecution of duma performers about the dead from starvation by a violent 
death in the years 1932 and 1933. All Ukraine knew about the destruction of 
hundreds of kobzars who wrote and sang the horrors of the First Holodomor 
of the 1920s. The kobzars were forcibly taken to the “congress” in Kharkiv and 
shot, and their musical instruments were destroyed.
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The brave singers of the historical tragedies of the Stalinist regime are 
reflected in the contemporary music on the Holodomor. It is worth mentioning 
the musical composition by the Kharkiv citizen Larisa Donnik Little Slobid 
Poems, the second part of which is entitled: “On the Dedication of the Kobzars 
Executed in Kharkiv Oblast in 1929.” The allusive title of Sasko’s choral 
concert thus appeals to a well-known fact of history: the violent extermination 
of folk singers. In Gennady Sasko’s choral concerto the style of the epic genre 
of Ukrainian music was used: choral instrumental background for the epic 
narrative, the music is made with the use of crying vocal improvisations in 
the style of a lamento. Mykola Tkach is the author of a poetic text. Poetic 
text of Gennada Sasko’ choir concert is full of symbols. The image of a black 
hook in the sky, typical of the folk duma, symbolizes the Soviet invasion. It is 
a sign of distress, a sinister symbol of war, famine, and death, and particular 
the destruction of the kobza culture of Ukraine. Gennady Sasko’s choir also 
sounds in the traditions of Ukraine’s funeral singing – memorial services for the 
executed kobzars. The music synthesizes the intonation of a memorial church 
prayer (baritone solo) with the stylistics of a kobzar virtuoso instrumental 
sound and a bourdon in the bass layer of the score (imitating the virtuoso part 
of the choir). The peculiar Duma-Requiem for those killed in the Holodomor 
ends with an allusion to the funeral march from Sonata No. 2 by Frederic 
Chopin, voiced by Mykola Tkach: “Disturb the memory! Revive up memory 
with words with the word!”
Theme of Holodomor in a Spiritual Concert-Requiem “A Dream” by 
Igor Shcherbakov
The subject of Holodomor is decided in the contemporary musical stylistics 
of large-scale instrumental and choral works of the early twenty-first cen-
tury in modern concert programs of Kyiv Music Fest. The spiritual Concert-
Requiem “A Dream” for a tenor, reader, children’s and mixed choirs, a large 
symphony orchestra and an organ by Igor Shcherbakov was written in 2008 
and performed at the 21st International Music Festival Kyiv Music Fest. The 
composer is himself involved in the writing of the libretto. He combines the 
Latin text of the Requiem with the poetry of his contemporary Ukrainian 
poet Yuriy Plaksyuk – a contemporary witness to the terrible days of the Hol-
odomor. Following Britten’s example, the librettist-composer inserts the po-
etic texts into the canonical parts of the Requiem.
A part of Dies irae: “Eternal Pain” combines the text of a Latin sequence 
from the Mass of the Dead with Plaksyuk’s poems. Similarly constructed are 
Lacrimosa: “Hell’s Tears,” the crying Benedictus, and Agnus Dei: “In a Dream 
and in a Waking,” as well as Crucifixus: “The Atonement of Despair.” Vocal 
and choral sections are intertwined with dramatically important instrumental 
O. Vasylenko, L. Mudretska: The Subject of Holodomor in the Ukrainian Artistic Space
115
interludes – “The Ghost of Death” and “Healing.” The fifth, central part uses 
Mykhailo Vorobyov’s poems The Snow of Sorrow. The piercing pain of auto-
biographical confessions of the Ukrainian poets, who in the early childhood 
lived through the tragic events of Holodomor, echoes in every line of poetry. 
It is this bundle of painful emotions that has been embodied in the expressive 
music of the composer through use of the avant-garde techniques (these being 
the elements of quasi-dodecafony, micropolyphony, regulated aleatorics, and 
sonoristics).
In choral episodes of music by Igor Shcherbakov, the motive reminiscences 
and micro quotes of all the outstanding requiems of the world music culture 
can be heard, and in solo voices the style of the kobza free improvisational 
singing and recitative is conveyed. Between each of the composition’s 
numbers there are small inserts with recited poems or a children’s choir. 
Organic motifs are based on the symbolic themes of the cross; the musical 
material is clearly imbued with the rhetorical figure of catabasis, representing 
in European music images of suffering, hellish anguish, death. The musical 
conciliar performance of Igor Shcherbakov’s work convincingly conveys, on 
the one hand, the tradition of Christian singing of the dead. On the other, 
expressionist stylistics painstakingly portrays the dreaded dream of oblivion, 
of death, of the hellish hunger tortures. Elements of vocal lamentation, 
apocalyptic picture of the past in the finale dissolve in chords of a choral 
psalm. The cathartic idea of Igor Shcherbakov’s composition and the use 
of musical rhetorical figures is similar to the dramatic concept of Bach’s 
majestic Masses.
Yevhen Stankovych, Funeral Service for the Dead from Famine as 
Dedication to the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Tragedy of Holodomor
Since 1993, a massive opus on the Holodomor sounded every five years as a 
part of the country’s official events to commemorate the anniversary at the 
Shevchenko National Opera and Ballet Theatre. The sixtieth anniversary of the 
Ukrainian people tragedy was marked by the performance of Yevhen Stanko-
vych’s composition Funeral for the Dead from Hunger on Dmytro Pavlychko’s 
poem. A monumental composition of fifteen movements for two different 
choirs (academic and folk), soloists, and a large symphony orchestra was cre-
ated within a month in Vorzel in 1992. Interestingly, the composer learned 
about the Holodomor during his two-month stay in Canada, reading the his-
torical materials and memoirs of witnesses for the first time. He was greatly 
impressed by the theme of this historical tragedy. Thus, Yevhen Stankovych’s 
music became music of the cross-country path of Ukraine of the twentieth 
century and a super-emotional imprint of those terrible memories: “The heavy 
snows of 1933 sank over the expanses of Ukraine, presenting the world corpse 
muzikološki zbornik • musicological annual lvii/ii
116
stench, apocalyptic visions, commensurate only with the paintings of the Last 
Judgment.”23
Another tragic piece, Black Elegy on the topic of the Chernobyl tragedy, 
by Yevhen Stankovych was performed by the Canadian orchestra Canadian 
Sinfonietta and a choir named after Oleksandr Koshytz.
Performers of the 1993 premiere were the National Choir Dumka with 
the artistic director Yevhen Savchuk, G. Verevka National Folk Choir with the 
artistic director Anatoly Avdiyevsky, the Symphony Orchestra of Shevchenko 
National Opera and Ballet Theatre with the conductor Volodymyr Kozhuhar, 
and the soloists Nina Matvienko (folk voice) and Constantine Klein (bass). 
Funeral’s multi-layered genre is due to the principle of combining the canon 
of the ritual funeral church service and the artistic images of Dmytro Pavly-
chko’s poetic text. The conflicting dramaturgy of the Stankovych-symphonist 
brings together, in the space of the work, the relentless progress of the death 
of the Soviet people and praying for the pardon of the souls of the people who 
have been starved with incredible force. The musicologist Elena Zin’kevych 
points out: “The dramaturgical unfolding of a memorial service takes place in 
two simultaneous movements of two ‘plots’: the church funeral service and the 
human memory of the terrible tragedy of Holodomor.”24 Both coexist in dif-
ferent temporal and spatial dimensions: in the enclosed space of the temple 
and in the open space of Ukrainian history. Complex dramaturgy of the work 
skilfully conveys a colossal degree of the tragedy of Funeral music by Yevhen 
Stankovych.
The Fourth Symphony-Requiem “Thirty-Third” by Oleksandr 
Yakovchuk (for the Seventieth Anniversary of Holodomor)
At the beginning of the third millennium, large-scale compositions of ma-
jor oratorical and vocal-symphonic genres of Ukrainian composers encom-
passed the cultural space of many events initiated by the Institute of Na-
tional Memory. The fourth Symphony-Requiem “Thirty-third” by Oleksandr 
Yakovchuk, written in 1990, was performed on the occasion of the seven-
tieth anniversary of Holodomor in 2003 at the Shevchenko National Op-
era and Ballet Theatre. Emotionally insightful poetry of Vasyl Yukhimovich, 
who personally experienced these terrible events at the age of ten, became 
the literary basis of the musical composition. The composition has six parts, 
in which the composer combines the artistic principles of modern sym-
phony with the traditions of the Funeral Mass. The concept of the fourth 
23 Trydtsyat’ tretiy: Holod; Narodna Knyha-Memorial, comp. Lidiya Kovalenko and Volodymyr Ma-
niak (Kyiv: Radyans’kyy pys’mennyk, 1991), 15.
24 Elena Zin’kevych, Simfonicheskie giperboly: O muzyke Evgeniya Stankovicha (Uzhhorod: Lyra, 
2002), 176.
O. Vasylenko, L. Mudretska: The Subject of Holodomor in the Ukrainian Artistic Space
117
Symphony-Requiem – the commemoration of millions of lives lost because 
of artificial famine, repentance for the crimes of power, is complemented by 
the idea of exposing the evils and phantom ideals of totalitarian states. Their 
musical portraits serve as parodies of fascist and Soviet bravura marches, 
which in the collage fabric of Yakovchuk’s Symphony-Requiem are mixed 
with the lamentoso motives of anguish, pity for the dead, and reveal the spe-
cial significance of the funeral rite.
The Musical-text Model Stabat mater in the Memorial Compositions 
of Academic Composers
On the commission by the state, Yuri Lanyuk created a theatrical oratorio 
to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Holodomor called The 
Sorrowful Mother (poetic text by Pavlo Tychyna). Oratorio score includes a 
large symphony orchestra, two choirs (mixed and children’s) and two soloists 
(soprano and baritone). The composition was performed under the guidance 
of conductor Volodymyr Sirenko twice: in 2008 in Kyiv and in 2009 in Lviv. 
Director and producer Vasyl Vovkun worked with the composer to create the 
libretto.
At first, the composition was conceived as a requiem, but in the process of 
comprehending the literary source as a genre model Stabat mater by the 
composer, the composition became a type of the allegorical oratory. The 
contextual concept of the requiem in the oratorio is related to the tragic fate of 
the artists of the “Shooted Renaissance,” to whom the composer Pavlo Tychyna 
also refers; the timbre of the folk lyre, which sounds in the open source of the 
oratorio, became a kind of memorial to the Ukrainian kobzars and lyricists 
shot in the 1930s.25
The genre of the music-text model Stabat mater in the memorial 
compositions of academic composers lifts the indigenous traditions of the 
Ukrainian lamentation and mourning to the level of high philosophical 
generalizations of an idea where the tragic fate of a woman, a mother, reflects 
the fate of the whole Ukraine and is compared with suffering. The horrific 
tragedy of the martyrdom of starving children becomes Christian. A similar 
“Marian” theme is clearly resolved in the composition of Anatoly Haydenko 
(poetic text by Vasyl Zabashtanskyi), who dedicated his requiem for a mixed 
choir a cappella Stabat mater to the seventieth anniversary of the tragedy of 
the 1930s.
25 Lavrova, “Dramaturhiya oratoriyi,” 163–164.
muzikološki zbornik • musicological annual lvii/ii
118
Ukrainian Lemkivsky Requiem by Oleksandr Kozarenko – A Synthesis 
of the Model Catholic Requiem Model with the Ukrainian Ethnic 
Culture
The subject of the Holodomor is embodied in different confessional genres: 
the Catholic requiem and the Orthodox memorial service of contemporary 
Ukrainian composers. Quite often, the mourning of victims in such musical 
compositions reflects the theme of the destruction of the Ukrainian ethnic 
culture. And the consequences of the crime of totalitarian power are equated 
with the forced resettlement of national minorities. Oleksandr Kozarenko 
dedicated his Ukrainian Requiem to the memory of the victims of the 1933 
Holodomor and the deportation of the Lemkiv Ukrainians. The Ukrainian 
Requiem, with the subtitle Lemkivsky, was written in 2008 and first performed 
during the 14th International Music Festival Contrasts. Later it was also 
performed in Kyiv in the National House of Organ and Chamber Music, 
during the official commemoration of the victims of the Holodomor by the 
Borys Lyatoshynsky Ensemble of Classical Music. The second edition of the 
piece (2010) was performed in May 2011 in Kyiv during the festival Music 
Premieres of the Season and was broadcast and recorded by the National 
Radio Company of Ukraine.
The ethnic space stated in the name of the Lemkivsky Requiem is clearly 
reflected in the performance of the composition. The requiem was written for 
a choir, soloists and two different orchestras at once – a symphony orchestra 
and an orchestra of folk instruments. Both European and folk instruments 
are heard at the same time: violins, violas, dart, and cymbals. The Lemkivsky 
Requiem consists of twelve parts and combines Western European traditions 
with authentic layers of Ukrainian folklore. At the heart of the composition 
stands the burial mass in the cult Latin, the text of which is artfully crafted by 
Lviv poet Nazar Fedorak. His poems paint canonical prayers with Ukrainian 
tragic folk imagery. This allows Ukrainian composer Kozarenko to create a 
kind of equivalent to the Polish Requiem by Krzysztof Penderecki in modern 
music – a composition about the tragic events of the history of European 
peoples in the twentieth century.
The tragic theme of Holodomor, presented in a large number of multifacet-
ed compositions of large and chamber formats, has today found a worthy place 
in the commemorative traditions in Ukraine and worldwide.
Conclusions
To summarize, we can conclude that the theme of Holodomor first appeared 
in the outstanding musical composition of composers in the 1990s in the 
important era of Nezalezhnosti (Independence) of Ukraine. At that time, 
the official ban on the discussion about the Holodomor was abolished and 
O. Vasylenko, L. Mudretska: The Subject of Holodomor in the Ukrainian Artistic Space
119
the attention of the artists was confined to the opening of the tragic pages 
of Ukrainian history. Ivan Karabyts was one of the first artists to embody 
the tragedy of Holodomor in symphonies, cantatas, and oratories. With the 
support of the diaspora artists Virko Baley and Marian Kots, an academic 
festival of contemporary music Kyiv Music Fest was founded, with a themat-
ic competition of composers with compositions on the subject of historical 
tragedies of Ukraine.
In the period 1992–1995, the subject of Holodomor was integrated into 
the academic music of Ukrainian composers. At the same time, the foun-
dations of the eponymous commemorative tradition were laid in the music 
space. The educational activities of diaspora figures served as a catalyst for 
numerous cultural events (festivals, thematic music venues) to commemorate 
the anniversary of the tragedy. This supported the interest of Ukrainian artists 
in the extremely complex and morally traumatic theme of the Holodomor. 
Internal creative intentions in the development of the theme were directed 
by the deep mechanisms of cultural memory, which overcomes the tragic 
spheres of life in this way, and, according to Oksana Harmel, “[...] compre-
hends the traumas of Ukrainian history, the traumas of cultural memory.”26
These tragic topics have played a special role in the consolidation of the 
nation and the formation of a new generation of intellectual elite in our 
country. The striking compositions written by Ukrainian composers on the 
subject of Holodomor depicted and exposed the crimes of communist lead-
ers, which created an artificial famine that led to a large number of victims, 
loss of national culture and tradition, and destruction of natural cycles. The 
criminal acts of the authorities in the 1930s eradicated the foundations of 
Ukrainian material and spiritual culture: traditional ethnic space, economy, 
religion, and customs that govern the natural cycles of the universe. Ways to 
overcome the apocalyptic tragedy in the dramaturgy of musical compositions 
on the subject of Holodomor are usually reduced to catharsis, a state of hu-
mility, and spiritual purification.
Two topoi of all musical compositions – mournful lamentoso intonation 
and expressive energy of Holosinnya (lament) in the artistic concept of sym-
phonies, cantatas, concerts of Ukrainian composers depict the tragic fate of 
children, women, peasants, and executed kobzars crippled by hunger with in-
credible power. The images of evil carriers – party leaders, communist-lovers, 
functionaries, are revealed by parody marching themes, fragments, or expres-
sive means of the masculine military complex in music (aggressive orchestral 
sound forms). The sound landscapes of the dead earth, devastated nature, that 
is, “landscape themed complexes,” have at their core a specific cruciform me-
lodic outline, and they usually sound in an out-of-space frozen music space. 
26 Harmel, “Fenomen diaspory,” 11.
muzikološki zbornik • musicological annual lvii/ii
120
The picture of traditional ideas about the universe and the Ukrainian cosmos 
has been deformed. In the popular consciousness there are two parallel uni-
verses: Earth Ukraine – dead earth, it ceased to exist. All the souls of those who 
were executed by famine were transported to the Heaven Ukraine – a flower-
ing picturesque paradise garden. Similar paintings in program compositions 
are resolved spatially, as a kind of dialogue between low and high registers with 
opposition to tragic and enlightened themes.
The themes of death and hunger, delusions, devilish attacks, suffering and 
salvation, Marian themes and imperatives of protest are embodied in composi-
tions of different genres. Usually, these are requiems, memorial services, choral 
concerts, symphonic poems, and orchestra concerts. The distinctive features 
are scale of form and posterity of expression; the fresco of the interior space 
of the composition, where each image is rendered in a spreading horizontal 
space and inscribed in vertical coordinates “earth” – “heaven”. The peculiarities 
of genre and style transformation of the iconic commemorative compositions 
on the subject of Holodomor are the saturation of European musical canons 
with Ukrainian ethnic stylistics, and the textual component – the poems of 
Ukrainian poets.
Composer Ivan Karabyts stated in his explanation to the composition of 
commemoration of Holodomor victims: “Between the past and the present, 
between those who live today and those who have gone to Eternity, our 
Memory appears – without it, there is no future; there is a continuation of 
everything in it.”27 
Translated by Irene Okner
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O. Vasylenko, L. Mudretska: The Subject of Holodomor in the Ukrainian Artistic Space
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POVZETEK
Tema holodomorja v ukrajinskem umetniškem prostoru: 
zgodovinske projekcije umetnosti sodobnih skladateljev
Velika lakota(holomodor) je eno izmed temnih poglavij ukrajinske zgodovine tridesetih let 20. 
stoletja, ki je bilo v številnih državah uradno priznano kot genocid nad ukrajinskim narodom. 
Sovjetski totalitarni režim v času Josipa Stalina je želel z lakoto narediti konec ukrajinski 
nacionalni neodvisnosti, izkoreniniti zatirano kulturo in uveljaviti lastno.
Resnico o razlogih za hudo lakoto v Ukrajini so v obdobju Sovjetske zveze prikrivali. 
Šele v času ukrajinske samostojnosti je tema znova postala aktualna, del javne zavesti in 
predmet ustvarjalnosti ukrajinskih skladateljev. Po zaslugi (s podporo) ameriških in kanad-
skih filantropov se Kijevski glasbeni festival začne s kompozicijami skladateljskega natečaja, 
ki razkrivajo tematiko te zgodovinske tragedije. To je pri ukrajinskih umetnikih spodbudilo 
zanimanje za izredno zapleteno in moralno travmatično temo holodomorja. Ustanovitelj in 
vodja Kijevskega glasbenega festivala, posvečenega sodobni ukrajinski glasbi, je bil izjemni 
ukrajinski skladatelj Ivan Karabic, ki je v 80. letih med prvimi vključil v svoje ustvarjanje 
tragično temo vsiljene organizirane lakote. Od tedaj je tragika holodomorja celovito obrav-
navana v vrhunskih glasbenih delih ukrajinskih umetnikov. 
Namen članka je dokumentirati družbeno-zgodovinske in kulturne okoliščine, ki so 
prispevale k dinamiki teme holodomorja v glasbi. Poseben poudarek je na načinih, kako 
ukrajinska skupnost po svetu to tragično temo vključuje v svoj umetniški prostor. Fenomen 
travme v zgodovinskem spominu umetnikov v diaspori se izraža v njihovih ustvarjalnih 
idejah in poskusih, da bi širili zgodovinsko resnico o zločinu totalitarne sovjetske oblasti. 
Prav z njihovo podporo se je tema holodomorja uveljavila na festivalih sodobne glasbe, kot 
je Kijevski glasbeni festival. Kontrasti in Lvovski virtuozi, in različnih glasbenih panoramah 
ukrajinskih mest.
Pomembna zbirka kompozicij, posvečenih spominu na žrtve holodomorja, je v članku 
obravnavana v skladu z zgodovinsko verodostojnostjo, saj so se te teme dotaknile številnih 
ukrajinskih umetnikov iz druge polovice 20. stoletja in začetka tretjega tisočletja. Različni žanri 
opusov v spomin žrtev holodomorja razgrinjajo široko paleto del, od kompozicij za komorne 
(solo sonata, kantata) kot tudi za velike zasedbe (simfonija, opera, maša, rekviem). Umetniška 
analiza nekaterih simfoničnih in kantatno-oratorijskih del razkriva poseben slog, ki temelji 
na tradicijah klasičnih vzorcev glasbe svetovnih akademskih skladateljev. Opazna je jezikov-
na in glasbena semantika opusa tragičnih podob, skupaj z narodnimi motivi iz ukrajinskega 
kulturnega prostora. To vključuje glasbene retorične figure iz baroka, krščansko simboliko 
trpljenja in odrešenja ter motiviko pekla. Sklepi tega članka bodo omogočili bolj pogloblje-
no razumevanje pomembnega, a malo raziskanega področja ukrajinske glasbene umetnosti.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
OLHA VASYLENKO (fonoton07@ukr.net) is a musicologist and ethnomusicologist, As-
sistant Professor, and Associate Professor of the Department of Music History at the Faculty 
of Performing Arts and Musicology of the R. Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music. She is 
a member of National All-Ukrainian Musical Union, and a member of European-Ukrainian 
Scientific Union. Her scholarly research is focused on various topics of music history, such 
as earlier and modern Ukrainian music. She is an author of several scientific publications in 
Ukraine, Europe, America.
LILIIA MUDRETSKA (lmudretskaya@ukr.net) is a musicologist, Assistant Professor, Head 
of the Department of Music History, Faculty of Performing Arts and Musicology at the R. 
Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music. She is also a member of National All-Ukrainian 
Musical Union, and member of the Kiev Wagner Society. Her research is focused on various 
topics of music history, particularly on genre and stylistic aspects of European music. She is 
an author of several scientific publications on music and culture of Ukrainian, French and 
German composers, including a study Genre-style Search in the Opera Works by Jules Massenet 
(on the Example of the Operas Manon and Werther), published in 2004.
O AVTORICAH
OLGA VASILENKO (fonoton07@ukr.net) je muzikologinja in etnomuzikologinja, docent-
ka, doktorica znanosti, izredna profesorica na Oddelku za zgodovino glasbe na Fakulteti za 
uprizarjajoče umetnosti in muzikologijo na Mestni glasbeni akademiji R. Glièra v Kijevu. 
Je tudi članica Nacionalnega vseukrajinskega glasbenega društva in članica Evropsko-ukra-
jinskega znanstvenega društva. Raziskovalno se osredotoča na različna področja zgodovine 
glasbe, med drugim na starejšo in sodobno ukrajinsko glasbeno zgodovino. Je tudi avtorica 
številnih znanstvenih publikacij v Ukrajini, Evropi in ZDA.
LILIJA MUDRECKA (lmudretskaya@ukr.net) je muzikologinja, docentka, vodja Oddelka 
za glasbeno zgodovino na Fakulteti za uprizarjajoče umetnosti in muzikologijo na Mestni 
glasbeni akademiji R. Glièra v Kijevu. Je tudi članica Nacionalnega vseukrajinskega glasbenega 
društva in Kijevskega Wagnerjevega društva. Raziskovalno se osredotoča na različne teme iz 
zgodovine glasbe, predvsem na žanrske in slogovne vidike evropske glasbe. Napisala je tudi 
več člankov o glasbi in kulturi ukrajinskih, francoskih in nemških skladateljev, med drugim 
študijo z naslovom Žanrsko-stilistična raziskava opernih del Julesa Masseneta (na primeru oper 
Manon in Werther), ki je izšla leta 2004.