“Liberated Music”: Valerii Polovyi — the return of a forgotten name in Ukrainian music…
POLOVYI AND POLOVA
On April 9, a special concert dedicated to the revival of the music of the now almost forgotten Ukrainian composer Valerii Polovyi will take place at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine.
The event is part of the large-scale project “Liberated Music,” aimed at decolonizing the Ukrainian musical space and restoring names that had long been pushed out of historical memory.
Valerii Polovyi’s name has long disappeared from concert programs, and his works remained silent pages of Ukrainian history. On this evening, the composer’s music will once again be heard from the stage, returning to audiences the name of an artist who, having endured the harsh Stalinist repressions, remained true to his creative calling.
The concert is presented with the support of Dom Master Klass.
The Kyiv Camerata will perform under the baton of American-Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, featuring leading soloists — violinists Bohdana Pivnenko and Kyrylo Bondar, as well as the Shchedryk Children’s Choir (artistic director Marianna Sablina).
The program brings together the work of two generations of Ukrainian artists. It will feature compositions not only by Valerii Polovyi, but also by his daughter — the outstanding contemporary composer Victoria Polova, whose musical imagery continues tradition while opening a new Ukrainian aesthetic.
Valerii Polovyi (1927–1986) was born in Odesa into an artistic family. His father, Petro Mohyla (stage name Petro Polovyi), was a singer with the Hryhorii Veryovka Ukrainian National Choir; his mother, Mariia Mohyla, was an actress and director; his brother, Hennadii Polovyi, became a well-known graphic artist; and his daughter Victoria became a prominent contemporary composer.
Polovyi’s life path was difficult. In 1950, he graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory, where he studied under Borys Liatoshynsky. This mentorship shaped the composer’s openness to new artistic ideas and experimentation. In his music, Polovyi continued the traditions of the Ukrainian compositional school while exploring the synthesis of the arts. In particular, he studied the interaction between color and music, effectively creating “color music,” a subject on which he also wrote a book.
Immediately after graduating from the conservatory, the composer was arrested on fabricated charges of anti-Soviet activity. From 1950 to 1954, he and his brother were exiled to the copper mines of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. Even there, the artist continued to compose, sketching future works with charcoal on rough cement paper. After his rehabilitation, he worked as a teacher in music schools, an editor at music publishing houses, and a consultant for the Union of Composers of Ukraine.
Valerii Polovyi’s oeuvre spans many genres. The concert will feature his String Quartet No. 2 and Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra. Both works have a unique history of creation: their ideas originated during his exile. The violin concerto was completed only in 1985–1986, though its first sketches appeared in the camp. String Quartet No. 2 was written entirely there.
“The Second Quartet was written by my father in a concentration camp around 1953–1954, with a second version appearing in 1973. For writing, he used cement sacks, smoothing them out and composing at night. He worked in a copper mine and tried to reflect this in the music. The theme of the second movement is a memory of love. The first, though partial, performance took place in the camp under the direction of Heorhii Kozakov,” recalls the composer’s daughter.
A separate emotional dimension of the program will be formed by the works of Victoria Polova. Her Missa brevis for children’s choir and chamber orchestra was written in 1986 — the year of her father’s death — and dedicated to his memory. In it, the composer combines the sacred tradition of the Latin Mass with a contemporary musical language. The work is perceived as a musical prayer-requiem, where personal memory and spiritual concentration become a shared experience of grief and inner purification.
Another work by Victoria Polova — “Blessing of Sadness” for two violins and strings — was created during wartime. This performance gains particular symbolism, as it unites the personal and the universal — a reflection on the past and an experience of present reality.
In a difficult time for the country, the question of national memory becomes especially acute. The return of Polovyi’s music testifies to the strength of Ukrainian culture — its ability to survive, to be reborn, and to sound again.
This concert will become an act of justice and a meaningful addition to the narrative of Ukrainian music history.
