When hcmf// Artistic Director Graham McKenzie first started planning a focus on Ukrainian new music for the 2022 festival, we had no idea what the world was about to witness and of the atrocities that the Ukrainian people would have to bear, following the full-scale invasion by Russia in March this year.
Although the planned visits to meet artists, composers, programmers and partners in Ukraine were swept away, our commitment to bring Ukrainian voices to hcmf// only became more determined and more urgent. Those early conversations with artists and composers have continued since March, though sometimes from shelters and make-shift spaces instead of offices and studios, with the turmoil wrought by the conflict as the constant backdrop.
And so, it is with strong yet mixed emotions that we present our programme of Ukrainian events at hcmf// 2022, as part of Future Reimagined, the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture jointly supported by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute. Originally conceived in 2019 and fully reimagined following the invasion, the Season runs until March 2023; the diverse programme of live events in the UK and digitally for global audiences includes artist residencies, talks, open forums, film, music, literature and the performing and graphic arts, provides an array of opportunities for artists to connect and collaborate.
The UK/Ukraine Season is providing a platform for Ukrainian voices, arts and culture; their unique power to bridge gaps of ignorance and suspicion, uniting nations and people, are poised to take the lead. And in this moment, the distinctly creative voices of the Ukrainian people, from past and present, will be heard. We hope that you will join us at hcmf// to listen to some of them.
The UK/Ukraine Season of Culture at hcmf// 2022
hcmf// 2022 opens on Friday 18 November with the hard-hitting archaeological opera Chornobyldorf. Composed and directed by Roman Grygoriv + Illia Razumeiko, Chornobyldorf is a powerful postapocalyptic fantasy, depicting the descendants of humanity who have survived a series of disasters and find themselves in a world after the death of capitalism, opera and philosophy. Wandering amongst the ruins of nuclear power plants, abandoned churches, theatres, and galleries, they try to recreate their lost civilisation through archaeological ritual performances. Universal symbols and signs, which are again misinterpreted, gradually dissolve in a white noise of nature.
A contemporary media-opera inspired by the impact of nuclear power on our world, Chornobyldorf combines folk and classical singing with physical theatre, dance, unique musical instruments and cinematic video-novels with an open-ended finale. The seven video episodes are recordings from archaeological expeditions to Chernobyl’s prohibited zone and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – which has come to the world’s attention since it became a focus of Russia’s military aggression and threats since its invasion of Ukraine.
Written and premiered well before the Russian invasion, Grygoriv and Razumeiko’s award-winning work has taken on a heightened level of relevance and resonance. The opera’s shocking projection of a dystopian future feels more visceral than ever, as the threat of a nuclear war and its almost unimaginable aftermath stare us, literally, in the face.
In the words of Roman Grygoriv, Composer and Director:
‘Chornobyldorf was created two years before a large-scale Russian war against Ukraine and it is now that the opera has become radically relevant. In 2020 a nuclear explosion had an abstract meaning to us, whereas today the fear of nuclear threat is well-founded. Each day, the fictional world of Chornobyldorf is getting more real. The context of the piece changed for both its creators and the whole world.’
Also on Friday 18 November, String Air Synthesis will see Volodymyr Voyt and Solomiya Moroz perform an entire programme of UK Premieres, including their own works and arrangements of pieces by John Cage and Julian Kytasty, alongside free and structured improvisations. Coming from very different musical worlds, Volodymyr and Solomiya started playing together through a shared interest in contemporary and electronic music.
Solomiya Moroz is a contemporary composer of Ukrainian-Canadian descent, flautist, electronic musician and interdisciplinary performer; Volodymyr Voyt investigates the music of the avant-garde period bandura, playing in styles such as minimalism, baroque fusion and ethno-renaissance. Using extended techniques and the mixing of synthesised and electronically processed sounds, String Air Synthesis will perform pieces for Kharkiv-style bandura and flute.
On Sunday 20 November, Riot Ensemble returns to Huddersfield with a programme of premieres by three of the most innovative and vibrant composers of their generation: British composer Heloise Tunstall-Behrens, hcmf// Composer in Residence Lisa Streich from Sweden, and two pieces, Spleen and Plexus, by Ukrainian composer Anna Korsun. Riot Ensemble has collaborated with Anna regularly in recent years, exploring and presenting her visionary soundworlds; incorporating vocalisations and instrumental cries, these two new works are compelling examples of Anna’s unique voice.
hcmf// has joined with other festivals from around the world to be part of Festivals for Compassion and will present drop after drop, a piece for string quartet commissioned by Festivals for Compassion from Ukrainian-Dutch composer Maxim Shalygin, to be performed by Riot Ensemble as part of hcmf// shorts on Monday 21 November.
Here’s Maxim writing about his string quartet:
‘Since the first day of the war in Ukraine, a terrible pain has settled inside me. Every time I close my eyes, I want to wake up from this terrible dream… but alas, it is not a dream. drop after drop is a kind of an ingot of that pain and memories of my childhood, when my relatives were telling me about the war years and sung wartime songs. I hear those songs inside me again and I wish they would stop…’
‘At this time, when the people of Ukraine are experiencing their darkest hours, we want to ask you to use music to bind us together in solidarity and compassion … to express your support and solidarity with your Ukrainian colleagues, artists, and all those who are suffering in this senseless war.’
Festivals for Compassion
All proceeds from the performance of Chornobyldorf at hcmf// 2022 will be donated to humanitarian aid charities in Ukraine.
The UK/Ukraine Season of Culture is supported by the British Council www.britishcouncil.org.ua and the Ukrainian Institute www.ui.org.ua
Find out more about the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture: www.ukuaseason.org