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Ostap Manulyak

b. 1983 · Ukraine

Ostap Manulyak, composer

Ostap Manulyak (b. 1983, Lviv) holds a Ph.D. and is assistant professor in the Composition Department of the Lviv Music Academy, where he studied under Viktor Kaminsky. He completed further composition studies at the Kraków Music Academy in 2006 and studied electroacoustic music there in 2011, and served as a Fulbright fellow and visiting researcher at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) in 2018–19. He co-founded the Art Association NURT, directs the “Vox Electronica” festival of electroacoustic music, and leads the Experimental Educational Studio of Electroacoustic Music at the Lviv Music Academy. His honours include the LODA and Ukrainian Academy of Science Award and the Levko Revutsky Award in composition, and more recently the Mykola Leontovych Award (2020) for choral composition and the Stanislav Liudkevych Award (2021). He was a fellow of the Gaude Polonia Program twice and has taken part in master-classes led by composers including Samuel Andreyev, Carola Bauckholt, Stefano Gervasoni, Sergej Newski, Serhiy Pilyutikov, Bogusław Schäffer and Gerhard Stäbler.

ElectroacousticChoral

Awards

  • LODA and Ukrainian Academy of Science Award (2009)
  • Levko Revutsky Award, composition (2010)
  • Gaude Polonia Program fellow (twice)
  • Mykola Leontovych Award, choral composition (2020)
  • Stanislav Liudkevych Award (2021)

Performed at UCMF

Lithos

UCMF 2021 · Electroacoustic Voices · Mar 7 · 2019 · Electroacoustic

audio-visual work built from gunshot recordings of the 2014 Revolution of Dignity; video by the composer

Lithos is a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “stone.” According to the composer, “As new stones appear when lava melts different materials, so a new democratic society appeared in Ukraine after the Revolution of Dignity, which joined together different people. This composition is based on the transformation of gunshot sounds from recordings made in February 2014 during the Revolution of Dignity in Kyiv when police killed more than 100 demonstrators known as the Heavenly Hundred. The winter of 2013-2014 was extremely important for Ukrainian history. Pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych announced that he would break any agreements about collaboration and association with the European Union and turn to an extremely Russian-oriented course in politics.”

Watch on YouTube ↗

Oracle

UCMF 2020 · Music and Revolution in Ukraine · Feb 29 · 2014 · Chamber

wind quintet — Lindsay Eckenroth, flute; Gleb Kanasevich, clarinet; Erin Lensing, oboe; Tessa Pettit, French horn; Rémy Taghavi, bassoon

Performed by Lindsey Eckenroth (Flute), Gleb Kanasevich (Clarinet), Erin Lensing (Oboe), Tessa Pettit (French horn), Rémy Taghavi (Bassoon)

The divination of Oracle by Ostap Manulyak is ambiguous, threatening and mysterious — the same as the rites that accompany divination. The composition, full of anxiety, faith and (at the same time) uncertainty, was composed during the first year of Russian military aggression in Ukraine (2014). Allusions to auspices ex avibus determined the choice of instruments associated with the “air element” (wind quintet). During 2014 people in the east of Ukraine usually viewed the sky not to see the birds and to divine the will of the Gods, but to spot the russian “Grad” missiles and have time to hide somewhere.

Watch on YouTube ↗

Trees

UCMF 2022 · Forest Song · Mar 18 · 2012 · Chamber

Performed by Lindsey Eckenroth (Flute), Gleb Kanasevich (Clarinet), Sabina Torosjan (Violin), Stella Saliei (Cello), Margarita Rovenskaya (Piano), Sean Statser (Percussion)

The idea of Trees emerged instantly from the visual, or rather cinematic, image of a half-fallen, gigantic tree. The music imitates the movement of a camera which captures the immense roots covered with soil in the darkness of a dense forest, gradually moving diagonally along the magnificent trunk upwards, until it focuses on the branches and the large, vigorous green crown, where the birds are flying. The work was commissioned by Bohdan Sehin for the Ukrainian Biennale of New Music, where in 2012 it was premiered by the French ensemble LeBalcon under the baton of Maxime Pascal.

Watch on YouTube ↗

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