Yevhen Stankovych

YEVEHEN STANKOVYCH (b. 1942, Transcarpathia), studied composition with Adam Soltys at the Lviv Conservatory in 1962-63, then in 1965-70 at the Kyiv Conservatory of Music, first with Borys Lyatoshynsky and, after his death, with Myroslav Skoryk. In 1977, he was awarded the Taras Shevchenko State Prize for Symphony No. 3 I Affirm Myself. In 1990-92 he was Chairman of the Composers’ Union of Ukraine.

In 1996 he was in Switzerland on a scholarship from the Swiss government, for which he wrote a number of works.He is a professor at the National Academy of Music in Kyiv. His works have been performed in many European countries, the USA and Canada. Stankovych made his presence clearly felt in Ukrainian music in his first years of independent work. He is a composer of dramatic temperament and epic momentum. Even chamber works under his pen take on a decidedly non-chamber character, such as his Chamber Symphony No. 3 for flute and string orchestra (the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers ranked it among the 10 most outstanding works of 1985). In his time, Stankovych succumbed to avant-garde tendencies; he wrote works referring to “playing” with other people’s style (Sinfonietta), quasi-baroque compositions (Sinfonia Larga), or “romantic” (Symphony No. 4 Lirica). He expresses himself with equal success in any genre or form, including music for dramatic theater and film. But the composer is most inclined towards drama with problem-philosophical content. Hence, his work is dominated by monumental symphonic or theatrical forms (including 10 symphonies). Of the latter, the following stand out in particular: the aforementioned Symphony No. 3 (1976) to a poetic text by Pavlo Tychyna for solo voice, chorus and orchestra, Symphony of Pastorals (1979), the folk-opera The Fern Flower (1979), the ballet Olga (1982), the powerful Dictum (1987) in 11 movements for chamber orchestra, and a number of works dedicated to the Chernobyl tragedy – Black Elegy (1991), Poem of Sorrows (1993); the symphonic Panachyda dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Great Famine in 1933.