What did Kyiv sound like 100 years ago? What was Ukrainian musical life like in the 1920s — a period of bold artistic experimentation and cultural renewal, but also of growing ideological pressure?

On 15 October 2026, Vienna will host “The Sound of Kyiv 100 Years Ago: Rediscovering Borys Liatoshynsky and Ukrainian Musical Modernism”, an event dedicated to Borys Liatoshynsky (1895–1968), one of the most influential Ukrainian composers of the twentieth century, and to the broader phenomenon of Ukrainian musical modernism.

Bringing together the presentation of a newly published scholarly anthology, musicological research and live performance, the event offers new perspectives on Liatoshynsky’s legacy while highlighting Ukrainian modernism as an integral part of the wider European cultural landscape.

At the heart of the programme is the lecture “The Modernist Project of Ukrainian Art Music in the 1920s: The Case of Borys Liatoshynsky” by Ukrainian musicologist Dr Iryna Tukova, Associate Professor of Music Theory at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv and co-founder of the Liatoshynsky Foundation.

Taking Liatoshynsky as a case study, the lecture will explore the cultural, institutional and artistic conditions that enabled Ukrainian musical modernism to emerge in the 1920s. It will examine the role of Ukrainization in shaping a new artistic environment, the reception of European modernist trends, and the growing tensions between artistic freedom and the ideological pressure of the Soviet regime.

Iryna Tukova is one of the leading international experts on Liatoshynsky’s life and work. Her research focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century Ukrainian art music and the intersection of music and the natural sciences. In 2024–25, she was a Petro Jacyk Non-Residential Scholar at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, and previously a Visiting Scholar at Indiana University Bloomington. In 2024, she received the Ukrainian State Lysenko Prize for outstanding achievements in musicology.

Music will be an integral part of the evening.

The Opus Quartet — Matvii Vin-Kim Thach (violin), Boryana Zheleva (violin), Gabriel Cheng Han Tsai (viola) and Jasmin Pollatschek (violoncello) — will perform movements 1 and 5 of Liatoshynsky’s String Quartet No. 4. Pianist Anastasiia Skovliuk will perform preludes from the cycle Reflections.

For us, supporting projects that make Ukraine’s cultural and intellectual heritage more visible in Austria and place it within its broader European historical and cultural context is particularly important.

We are therefore delighted that the event is supported by the OeAD Cooperation Office Lviv and Ukraine Office Austria. By supporting initiatives like this, we aim to strengthen Austrian-Ukrainian cultural dialogue and introduce Austrian audiences to the richness and diversity of Ukraine’s musical heritage.

The event is organised by the University Library of mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute. Information partners are the Department of Musicology and Performance Studies and the Austrian Society for Music.

Following the programme, guests are warmly invited to a reception.