concert: Vasyl Barvinsky & Antonín Dvořák

The closing concert of Sounds of Ukraine is devoted to chamber music and the works of Vasyl Barvinsky and Antonín Dvořák. The programme brings the festival’s central idea to a conclusion by creating a dialogue between Ukrainian and European musical traditions.

Antonín Dvořák is one of the most important Czech composers, whose music embodies a strong national voice within the European classical tradition. A master of chamber music, he combined formal clarity with deep emotional expression, drawing inspiration from folk music as a natural source of musical language.

Vasyl Barvinsky is among the most prominent composers of Galicia and a key figure in Ukrainian music of the early 20th century. He studied in Prague and was shaped by the Prague compositional school. Due to political repression, Barvinsky’s music, like that of many Ukrainian composers, disappeared from concert life for decades, and a significant part of his works was destroyed. Today, his music is gradually returning to concert stages.

The programme features two piano trios: Barvinsky’s Trio in A minor and Dvořák’s Trio in F minor, op. 65. Both works present chamber music as an intimate and profound dialogue between instruments, where national identity and European form merge into a unified artistic expression.

Vasyl Barvinsky (1888–1963)

Trio in A minor

I. Andante sentimentale – Allegro energico

II. Andante

III. Allegro giocoso (alla Kolomyika)

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)

Piano Trio No. 3 in F minor, op. 65

I. Allegro ma non troppo

II. Allegretto grazioso

III. Poco adagio

IV. Finale: Allegro con brio

Maria Fedyna is a young Ukrainian pianist specialising in chamber music and collaborative performance. She is a laureate of international competitions and a scholarship holder of the Wagner Society in Bayreuth. She performs actively in various ensemble formats, focusing on European and Ukrainian chamber repertoire, including works by Theodore Akimenko.

Kateryna Shalaiska is a violinist from Lviv who consistently includes works by Ukrainian composers in her concert programmes. She is a laureate of international and national competitions and performs both as a soloist and in chamber ensembles. Since 2021, she has been a member of the chamber orchestra “Virtuosi of Lviv.”

Modest Mentsinskyi is a Ukrainian cellist and conductor from Lviv, active as a soloist and chamber musician across Ukraine. He is a laureate of international competitions and a recipient of the Presidential Scholarship of Ukraine for young artists. Alongside his concert activity, he is also engaged in teaching and artistic research.

Kateryna Shalayska, Modest Mentsinskyi, and Mariia Fedyna are musicians from Lviv united by many years of shared work, studies, and friendship. They perform together regularly, shaping their programmes as coherent ensemble statements and spending much of their artistic life on stage. This trio naturally represents the contemporary Lviv performance scene, where chamber music forms the foundation of artistic thinking.

Vasyl Barvinsky & Antonín Dvořák

Aposteln-Aula an St. Aposteln

Program

Musicians