About the Musical Catalogue

Ukrainian music is still an unknown entity on the world stage. At a stretch, the first names to come to non-Ukrainian’s mind might be Dakha Brakha, Okean Elzy, Valentyn Sylvestrov, or Liudmyla Monastyrska. As such, the aim of this index is to present contemporary Ukrainian classical music, jazz, improvisational music, indie, rock, rap, and world music to international circles and to audiences working in the music industry. This is done in the hope of promoting Ukrainian music abroad, giving it some sense of recognisability, meanwhile giving Ukrainian musicians more opportunity for collaboration and raising their professional standards. The index is designed to develop a professional dialogue between Ukrainian and international representatives of the music industry, and to become an impetus for the two sides to create links and collaborate with each other without the explicit intervention of the Ukrainian Institute.

The catalogue contains information about current musicians, including a list of their performing experience, links of their work, and contact details. This information has been provided for international partners to use should they be interested in working with these musicians. These particular musicians have been listed on the index after the Ukrainian Institute announced a competition for musicians to enter and receive a chance to be featured. For greater transparency and fairness, the Ukrainian Institute chose an international jury of directors of leading international festivals and showcases, managers of key music venues, prominent performers, music critics, and journalists. The criteria for Ukrainian musicians to make the list were: a level professional engagement in music, their level of musical training, sufficient performing experience, how qualified they are to perform abroad (whether they speak foreign languages, and have a presence outside of Ukraine) and Ukrainian citizenship.

For a comprehensive presentation of the Ukrainian music scene you are also given information on leading Ukrainian festivals and musical experts who can be consulted and whom you can offer cooperation. We have also included musicians with whom the Ukrainian Institute has already had the pleasure of working with over the past few years in the section, ‘Artists in Collaboration with the UI’.

This index is aimed at a target audience of the representatives of the international music business (people in music festivals, showcases, people teaching music in higher education institutes; venue managers and promoters; journalists; music critics; and so on), Ukrainian diplomatic missions abroad (Ukrainian embassies and consulates abroad, honorary consulates abroad) and members of the Ukrainian diaspora.

We hope that this music index will help promote Ukrainian music and increase its visibility and recognition in the international arena. Furthermore, we also hope that the quality of cultural content that travels abroad may increase significantly and that long-term collaboration with international partners may be established.

Mariana Bondarenko

Music sector programme manager