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Myroslav Skoryk

1938–2020 · Ukraine

Myroslav Skoryk, composer

Myroslav Skoryk (1938–2020) was a Hero of Ukraine, People's Artist of Ukraine, and laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize. He studied composition at the Lysenko State Conservatory in Lviv and completed postgraduate work in Moscow, then taught in Lviv and Kyiv from 1963. From 2011 he served as Art Director of the Taras Shevchenko National Opera. He founded or co-initiated several festivals, including “Music of the Ukrainian Abroad,” American and Ukrainian Music Days in Lviv, “The Victims of Holodomor Tribute — Ukrainian Composers,” and “Contrasts,” and chaired the jury for Kyiv Music Fest. From 1984 he headed the Lviv organization of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine, and from 1968 served as secretary of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. He was a bearer of the Order of the Badge of Honor and a Third-Class Order of Merit and a member of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine.

OrchestralConcertoFilm ScoreChamber

Performed at UCMF

Three Extravagant Dances

UCMF 2020 · Fifty Years of Ukrainian Culture · Feb 28 · Piano

piano four hands, performed by Shelest Piano Duo

Performed by Shelest Piano Duo (Piano four hands)

Three Extravagant Dances by Myroslav Skoryk is a piano work for four hands. The titles of the three dances reveal their different characters. The first is an Entrance and Dance… almost Spanish-Moorish. The second is Blues… almost American. The third is a Can-can… as if from an old gramophone record. In a review of the Shelest Piano Duo’s recording of this work, Classical Radio Boston (WCRB) described the work as “a sensual, fun-loving collection with occasional pop-up tunes by famous composers blended into delicious atmospheres and peppered with Ukrainian folk elements.”

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Hutsul Triptych

UCMF 2022 · In the Field · Mar 19 · 1965 · Chamber

Performed by Solomiya Ivakhiv (Violin), Quynh Nguyen (Piano)

Hutsul Triptych is drawn from music for the film Shadows of the Forgotten Ancestors by the Soviet Armenian film director Serhii Parajanov, which was based on the eponymous novel by the Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky (1864–1913). Skoryk, who was only 25 when he received the commission, studied the traditional musical culture of the Carpathian region and contemplated its nature. One can hear the sounds of mountain streams, age-old forests, winds roaming between mountains, drums, and the lament of trembitas (alpine horns). This project was very important for the composer, and therefore he chose the best episodes of the film music to form an independent piece — Hutsul Triptych (1965), originally for orchestra. The work consists of three parts, which give an idea of the novel’s plot — that of a “Carpathian Romeo and Juliet”: “Childhood,” “Ivan and Marichka,” and “Death of Ivan.” The arrangement for violin and piano sets only the first two of these. The work became an impetus for the creation of a number of compositions with elements of folk song in the 1960s, later attributed to the “new folklore wave.” (Programme notes by Oksana Nesterenko)

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Selected works

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