As you know, the annual International Festival of Ancient Music in Lviv in 2023 takes place from August 8 to 15. This year it is an anniversary event and will be held under the auspices of the project Ukraine. Muses Do Not Keep Silent” project, launched by the Myroslav Skoryk Lviv National Philharmonic in the wake of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine.

Over the course of 4 concert days, exceptional programs of Ukrainian and European Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and early classicism have already been presented. The Ancient Music Festival featured well-known Ukrainian performers, as well as foreign participants from Poland (harpsichordist Marek Toporowski), Germany (Norbert Rodenkirchen), and France (Benjamin Bagby).

A pilgrim sets out on an unknown journey, just as a listener gets to know a piece of music. However, every road, like the best music, can be explored anew. And so many more unknown masterpieces are hidden from us by the veil of time! The world is getting acquainted with ancient Ukrainian music, and it turns out that it nurtured the best achievements and created new laws on a global scale. That is why the phrase “Pilgrims of the unknown path” became the subtitle of the Festival. Even despite the martial law in Ukraine, artistic life must go on, and in the most difficult conditions remind us of the victorious vitality and value of artistic expression from the distant past to the yet unknown future.

The creative laboratory of Norbert Rodenkirchen

From August 8 to 10, the famous German musician Norbert Rodenkirchen held master classes for Ukrainian flute players and improvisation sessions with Lviv musicians. He also gave a lecture entitled: “New Sounds in Ancient Music / Ancient Sounds in New Music”.

As part of the creative laboratory, together with Norbert Rodenkirchen, the famous Lviv multi-instrumentalist Vsevolod Sadovyi took part in educational lectures and presentations that will familiarize listeners with the issues of modern performance techniques in ancient music and archaic techniques in contemporary music. The focus of his research was on the natural patterns of early musical practices: interest in sound formation, instrumentation, and musical form as a reflection of cultural evolution and the development of consciousness.

The 20th anniversary Festival pays tribute to those artists who are now in retirement but have left behind invaluable treasures of service to humanity. These include Roman Stelmashchuk, the ideological inspirer and founder of the Festival (1965-2015), and Oleksandr Kozarenko, a composer, pianist, and musicologist who left the artistic community this year (1963-2023). On August 10, the Gloria Chamber Choir (artistic director Volodymyr Syvokhyp, conductor Mariana Ferendovych) performed a program that combined a passion for the avant-garde, intimate biblical motifs, and true Ukrainian nature.

On August 11, a music meeting of old friends, ardent apologists for their high craft and explorers of the secret depths of antiquity took place. The program of Svitlana Shabaltina and Marek Toporowski’s performance featured the best examples of music that conceals the memory of the noble times of the European dawn.

The evening of music for three on August 12 revealed to the audience the secrets of the complex paths that human souls travel to find common ground. Selected pieces by recognized European authors evoked a special range of emotions: they were performed by Ulyana Makeeva (oboe), Serhiy Havryliuk (baroque violin), and Anna Ivanyushenko (harpsichord).

On August 13, the Festival closed in Lviv, with the symbolic title “Wanderer”. This journey was allegorical: in the program of the world-famous band Sequentia, which came to Ukraine for the second time, consisting of Benjamin Bagby and Norbert Rodenkirchen, the musicians explored some aspects of the medieval wanderer and his world in cooperation with Ukrainian multi-instrumentalist Vsevolod Sadovyi.

Continuation of the Festival in Kyiv

This festival event was repeated on August 15 in Kyiv. And on August 14, Musical Bridges will take place: the famous Ukrainian harpsichordist Anna Ivaniushenko is convinced: “Baroque music, thanks to its harmony and absolutely unselfish beauty, can heal souls.” What other moods can be expected at this concert, which has built bridges over the works of Ukrainian and European composers? The duo of Baroque masters of the Lviv National Philharmonic will present the sophisticated “Mysterious Obstacles”, the up-to-date “Canonades” and many other discoveries made during their travels in Germany and France.

The partners of the Festival events are Goethe-Institut Ukraine and Zamus: Zentrum für Alte MusikKöln, as well as the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine.