Yuriy Laniuk

YURIY LANIUK (b. 1957, Lviv), composer and cellist. In 1975-80 he studied cello with Yevhen Spitzer and composition with Dezyderi Zador at the Lviv Conservatory. He continued his postgraduate studies in Kyiv with Vadym Chervov (1980-82). An important composing experience was his meetings with Polish composer Andrzej Nikodemowicz, who lived in Lviv until 1980.

In 1979, Yuriy Laniuk wins First Prize as a cellist at the Lysenko Competition in Kyiv. He is also the winner of the L.Revutsky Prize in Composition (1989), the B. Latoshinsky Prize (2001), and Ukraine’s most important state award in culture, the T. Shevchenko Prize (2005). His works have been performed at concerts and festivals in Canada, the USA, Germany, Belgium, Austria and Russia. In Poland, Łaniuk’s works have been presented at the Warsaw Music Meetings and Krakow Composers’ Music Days, among others. In the aforementioned countries, the composer has also performed as a cellist, including at Glenn Gould Studio and St. Laurence Hall in Toronto. In February 1999, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Grzegorz Nowak, premiered his Palimpsests (1991-98). Yuriy Laniuk is a professor of cello and composition at the Lviv Academy of Music. He is also co-organizer of the Contrasts International Festival of Contemporary Music, which has been held in Lviv since 1995. The Warsaw-based music publishing house CD Accord has released a monographic CD of his works. Among the composer’s major works, in addition to the aforementioned Palimpsests for chorus and symphonic orchestra, are Song of the Equinox (1991) for baritone, soprano and chamber ensemble, Complaint of Thorns (1991) for soprano and chamber orchestra, The Hunter of Grakhus (1993) for baritone and chamber orchestra, Musique pour Recherche (1996) for chamber ensemble, Annunciation for chorus and string orchestra (2003), and Songs to Words by Paul Celan for mezzo-soprano and string orchestra (2004).