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Ivan Nebesnyy

b. 1971 · Ukraine

Ivan Nebesnyy, composer

Ivan Nebesnyy (b. 1971, Ternopil) studied composition under Myroslav Skoryk at the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy, completing postgraduate study in 1998, and in 1997 attended the Fifth International Academy for New Composition on a Kulturkontakt Austria scholarship, training in composition and electronic music. He founded and directs the contemporary-music ensemble CLUSTER and served as executive director of Kyiv Music Fest from 2006 to 2011. Part of a new generation of Ukrainian composers seeking to compensate for the isolation of their predecessors by absorbing European post-avant-garde techniques, he writes for symphony orchestra and chamber forces as well as theatre, film and multimedia, and his music has been performed in more than twenty countries. His honours include the composers’ competition at the International Youth Music Forum (1996), the Levko Revutsky Prize (2002), the Mykhailo Verykivsky Prize (2011) and the “Kyiv Pectoral” theatre award (2011).

SymphonicChamberTheatreFilm score

Awards

  • Winner, Composers’ Competition, International Youth Music Forum (1996)
  • Levko Revutsky National Prize (2002)
  • Mykhailo Verykivsky National Prize (2011)
  • Theatrical Prize “Kyiv Pectoral” (2011)

Performed at UCMF

Seven Messages from Wild Nature

UCMF 2020 · Composers' Roundtable · Mar 1 · Chamber

chamber ensemble, conducted by Whitney George

Performed by Jennifer Gliere (Soprano), Lindsey Eckenroth (Flute), Erin Lensing (Oboe), Gleb Kanasevich (Clarinet), Leah Asher (Violin), Adrienne Munden-Dixon (Violin), Carrie Frey (Viola), Helen Newby (Cello), Margarita Rovenskaya (Piano), Whitney George (Conductor)

Seven Messages from Wild Nature by Ivan Nebesnyy for chamber ensemble is a composer’s reaction to the natural disasters that took place at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries. It is a typical neoclassical work based on the principle of variation, but with modern micro-intonations, where the initial micro-intonation is transformed from movement to movement and combines with the elements of «musique concrète». This piece was written for the Ukrainian new music ensemble «Cluster», which presented it at the festivals «Contrasts» (Lviv, Ukraine) and «Days of Krakow Composers’ Music» (Krakow, Poland).

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Air Music 1

UCMF 2022 · Forest Song · Mar 18 · 2001–2004 · Chamber

Performed by Ekmeles (Voices), Kelley Barnett (Flute), Laura Cocks (Flute), Isabel Lepanto Gleicher (Flute), Alice Teyssier (Flute), Sean Statser (Percussion), James Baker (Conductor)

Air Music 1 for quartet of flutes, vocalists and percussion is part of a series of compositions about nature. The work was commissioned by the flute ensemble The Flute Doppler-quartet under the direction of Andriy Karpyak, a professor of the Lviv Lysenko Music Academy. The work consists of several parts, which develop according to the principle of variations. The impression of the sounds of nature is achieved by means of extended techniques and enhanced human voices, which are used in this composition as musical instruments in the manner of musique concrète. The work was premiered at the annual festival of contemporary music “Contrasts” in Lviv, and subsequently performed by the Doppler-quartet many times, including at Kyiv Music Fest. The piece was also used as a soundtrack to several Ukrainian documentaries and cartoons.

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