| Long Bio | Igor Shcherbakov is a well-known Ukrainian composer, musical and public figure, teacher, Professor of the Ukrainian National Academy of Music, President of Kiev Composers Union (1999-2010), President of National Composers Union of Ukraine (since 2010), Director of International festival in Kiev "Music Premiers of the Season", organizer and musical director of the festival International Youth Music Forum (1992-1999), and musical director of the International festival Music Premieres of the Season (1999). He was awarded with Taras Shevchenko National Award of Ukraine for his major creative contribution into the modern Ukrainian musical culture (1999) and a Vedel Kiev Art Award (2004) as well as the Deserved Figure of Arts of Ukraine (1996).
Shcherbakov was born in 1955 in Dnipropetrovs’k. He graduated from Pjotr Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (professor Vitalij Kyrejko's class of composition, 1979). Immediately he affirmed himself as a brilliant creative personality. As a composer, he works in such musical genres as symphonic, theatrical, chamber, instrumental, vocal, choral, and children's music. His compositions are performed not solely in Ukraine, but in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, France, Canada, Italy, Slovakia, the USA, Hungary, Belarus, Russia, Uzbekistan, etc. They are issued in the USA, Ukraine and Switzerland ("SORDINO" Publishing House). Igor Shcherbakov belongs to the generation of modern Ukrainian composers, whose creativity and spiritual orientation have generated the public image of the Ukrainian music of the late 20th - early 21st centuries. He was among the first Ukrainian composers who in the last quarter of the 20th century turned his attention to spiritual matters that were prohibited for a long time in the totalitarian society. Nowadays, the artist continues to work in the realm of spiritual music because Christian ideals, beliefs, images are very important for him. The "Penitential Verse" for violin and strings (1989) is one of the most known works of the composer that excites by the power of philosophical interpretation of the eternal issue, i.e. a Personality and the Universe.
Right away after the first performance of the composition the author received the First Prize of the festival Young Composers of Ukraine. Since that time the composition is often performed by the best soloists and orchestras of Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, and Germany. The composer recollects the work over this composition in a book by G. Kon'kova: "When I wrote The Penitential Verse the interpretation of intellectual and spiritual went through the exploration of the interaction between ancient layers of spiritual music, the accomplishment in psalms, and modern technical ways of their inter-penetration, correspondence, and interference. It should slightly put away the veil of sanctity of musical action for audience. The response should always go from within the eternity. Only then both the creativity and life make sense". Igor Shcherbakov is an author going deep inside the life of a human being. In his works involving spiritual issues one perceives a strong believer. "I believe that any human being is a very gentle creation. And when he or she confronts with the eternity, the awareness of some tragedy arises. It might happen that I have touched the Eternity in some of my works as well. We do not forget about the eternity, and the God does not forget about us ..."
Professor Igor Shcherbakov teaches at the composition department of the National Academy of Music. Igor Shcherbakov believes that “…Choosing ways to arts, each artist is guided by the light of culture of the native country, city and even wider, the entire world, the light which beams is original representatives of the past, both distant and close, as well as the present, while the current that supplies this light might be of the only origin, i.e. the Divine one ... " Such views and vital credo of Igor Shcherbakov characterize him as a contemporary representative of the musical culture of the 21st century, a son of the epoch. His creativity and cultural activity as a composer demonstrate his professionalism and the originality of his talent. His works open remarkable pages of the modern Ukrainian music to the entire world. |
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