Ukraine is under siege following a full-scale military invasion by Russia on 24 February 2022

On 6 November at 15:00 the online lecture Musical Form: stereotypes and overcoming them. The majority of common music through time has also been structured in a common way: this is through vocal, dance and theatrical cliches. During the lecture, the subject of discussion will be how composers past and present have broken down and are breaking down common cliches. The lecture is divided into three 45-minute blocks, and 10-minute breaks are planned between each block.

On 20 November at 15:00 a second event from the Music educational series will take place: a workshop on working with structure in music. During the workshop, Oleksii Šmurak will propose experimental approaches to working with structure to musicians on the basis of their own music.

Workshop schedule:

15:00-15:30 – arrival

15:30-16:00 – introduction to participants

16:10-17:00 – first session

17:10-18:00 – second session

18:10-19:00 – third session

Registration to the workshop is open for musicians, groups and students of musical institutions at the email address [email protected]. For registration, the following information must be supplied in advance:

  • name, age;

  • contact email address or Telegram;

  • your competency and attainments in music;

  • example(s) of musical work (link(s) to tracks or videos);

  • what sort of music you like (link(s) to tracks or videos).

Oleksii Šmurak (born 1986) is a Ukrainian composer, sound artist, lecturer, opinion journalist, and co-host of the music podcast #AŠOŠ. He has worked as a manager, curator and musician-effector in the area of contemporary academic and experimental music and as part of interdisciplinary projects in Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Uzbekistan. Oleksii’s music has also been performed in Georgia, Armenia, the Netherlands, France, and Slovakia. He has collaborated with writers and artists. He takes part in educational practices: master-classes, laboratories, articles, online-lessons. Oleksii’s sound art installations, created alongside the electronic composer Oleh Špudeyko, are in the collections of the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kyiv) and the Odesa Museum of Contemporary Art.

This project is financed by the International Aid Fund for Organisations Working in Culture and Educatuion of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Goethe-Institute, and other partners: www.goethe.de/hilfsfonds