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| Roman Mints’ One other Music Pageant |
Stefania Turkewich (Turkevycz) was the primary Ukrainian girl composer. Born in Lemburg, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine) in 1898, she fled Lviv in 1944 and moved to the UK in 1946 the place she died in 1977. Within the late Forties, Turkewich returned to composing and created a big physique of labor. Infrequently she acted once more as a pianist, specifically in 1957 in a sequence of live shows in Ukrainian communities in Britain, and in 1959 at a live performance of piano music in Bristol. She was a member of the British Society of Ladies-Composers and Musicians (which existed till 1972).
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| Stefania Turkewich in 1920 |
But, amazingly, her music is hardly heard. Like a bunch of different émigré composers, Turkewich discovered a refuge within the UK, however didn’t actually discover a musical house. Some composers like Andrzej Panufnik appeared to combine into British musical life, however others like Berthold Goldschmidt didn’t.
On 18 January 2026, younger Ukrainian musicians Ira Marchuk and Maksym Artemenko will carry out Turkewich’s violin sonata within the UK for the primary time. They’ll carry out from a photocopy of the manuscript, because the work has nonetheless not been revealed. The efficiency takes place at St John’s Waterloo as a part of Roman Mints’ One other Music Pageant which over three days explores the wealthy legacy of composers who’ve lived or proceed to stay in exile.
There will likely be music from historic giants – Chopin, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Enescu, Bartók to uncared for composers, together with Ukrainian composer Theodore Akimenko (1876-1945), who was Stravinsky’s first composition instructor.
The programme options works composed each earlier than and after emigration, highlighting the continuity and evolution of the composer’s creative voice, together with premieres of Alexey Kurbatov’s Quartet, Boris Filanovsky’s Supremus 3, and two UK premieres: Stephania Turkevych’s Sonata for Violin and Piano and Leonid Desyatnikov’s Leaden Echo.
Such creative enterprise doesn’t come low-cost, and the competition has a fund-raiser to assist defray bills. Do contribute at their GoFundMe web page.
One other Music Pageant is at St John’s Waterloo on 18, 21, 23 January 2026, full particulars from the competition web site.
