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For the second concert season in a row, the INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra has commissioned works written by Ukrainian composers. The orchestra’s management decided that four to five artists would receive a commission each year. This year, commissions were awarded to Svitlana Azarova, Bohdana Frolyak, Ivan Nebesnyi, and Yevhen Orkin.
How is the situation with composer commissions in Ukraine, how does this industry work in Europe, and how does the INSO-Lviv orchestra seek to implement its project? In search of answers to these questions, we collected different views and experiences of some Ukrainian composers. Let’s start with the context.
Is music composing a profession or a hobby?
Ukrainian music has been trending upwards lately (every cloud has a silver lining). It occupies almost half of the repertoire performed at Ukrainian music institutions and is presented on radio and TV channels. This might seem like the finest hour for Ukrainian contemporary composers. However, it is not so simple.
Since the sovietska (a pejorative term, the Soviet – L. B.) system of state commissions collapsed along with the sovok (a pejorative term for the Soviet Union – L. B.), no other system of commissions has formed in Ukraine, including for music compositions. There are sporadic commissions by public or private institutions or individuals, but there is no system of commissions.
Fame instead of money
The “end of the era of composers” has been discussed in music journalism since the late 1990s. The book Who Killed Classical Music?: Maestros, Managers and Corporate Politics (1997) by Norman Lebrecht conveys such ideas. The book’s premise(despite the provocative title of this bestselling book by the English musicologist and critic) is that there were trends in the music industry at the end of the 20th century: from attempts at the total commercialization of art, which often contradicted the purpose of art itself, to composers losing their former status in society (it is said that Igor Stravinsky was perhaps the last composer carried by fans in their arms after a concert as a sign of respect for him).
These forces resulted in a gap between a piece of music and “reality,” meaning that general audiencesalmost completely misunderstood and rejected contemporary music, thereby minimizing the demand for it.
The 1990s was the era of contemporary music festivals in Ukraine. They (the Ukraine’s capital’s Music Premieres of the Season and Kyiv Music Fest, Lviv’s Contrasts and Odesa’s Two Days and Two Nights of New Music) filled a niche that had virtually no place in the regular concert life of philharmonic and theater companies, though the management of the Odessa festival was usually very cautious about including contemporary music in their repertoire, fearing empty halls. Therefore, the mere performance of a work by a contemporary composer in a traditional concert season was a rare event.
A rather uncertain, manipulative playing field has emerged, where a performer was supposedly regarded as more important than a composer. There were numerous cases when, instead of receiving royalties for a piece of music performed, a composer received… his or her “moment of glory.” It is, of course, wonderful that music is being played! But the situation is quite absurd.
Nevertheless, composers have not stopped writing music. Moreover, many of them perform it themselves. The image of the “universal musician”, when several creative hypostases are combined in one person, can be called a symbol of the era. Ukrainian music has many examples of this. Among them there are Volodymyr Zubytskyi (a composer, an accordionist, and a conductor), Volodymyr Runchak (a composer and a conductor), Oleksandr Kozarenko (a composer and a pianist), Oleh Bezborodko (a composer and a pianist), Danylo Pertsov (a composer and a multi-instrumentalist), Zoltan Almashi (a composer and a cellist), Oleksiy Shmurak (a composer, a performer, and a lecturer), and Maksym Kolomiets (a composer and an oboist).
Music for the INSO-Lviv Orchestra
Therefore, the initiative of the INSO-Lviv orchestra is important in exposing audiences to Ukrainian contemporary music and in supporting Ukrainian contemporary composers.
“In addition to premieres, we perform well-known works by Ukrainian composers, combining them with well-known classical works and the audience likes this combination,” says Iolanta Pryshlyak, Chairman of the orchestra’s board and Deputy Director General of the Lviv Philharmonic. “Sometimes a themefor a commissioned work emerges in a conversation with a composer, and sometimes a composer has complete freedom of creation, as it was with Ivan Nebesnyi. We talked about a symphony, but in the process of composing, the author wrote a piano concerto.”
Some of the commissioned works have already been premiered. For example, on Christmas Day 2023, the Lviv Philharmonic performed Ivan Nebesnyi’s orchestral piece Christmas Fantasies. Svitlana Azarova’s composition One Hundred and Thirty-One Angstroms for large symphony orchestra was performed under the baton of Vincent Kozlowski on October 8, 2023, at the Lviv’s Contrasts Festival. The orchestra also played Yevhen Orkin’s High Castle Symphony on May 18, 2024, at Lviv’s Virtuosos Festival.
The premieres of a symphonic work by Bohdana Frolyak and the piano concerto …On the Way to Heaven… by Ivan Nebesnyi, the composer’s second opus within the project, are yet to come.
To better understand the importance of the INSO-Lviv initiative, we asked two composers to share their experiences regarding commissions – Maksym Kolomiets, who currently lives and works in Germany, and Ivan Nebesnyi, a participant in the project founded by the INSO-Lviv orchestra. Interestingly, the musicians’ experiences differ significantly, which makes the problem even more acute.
Maksym Kolomiets:
I have been working in Ukrainian music since 1999, and in 25 years I have never (!) received a commission by any official institution to write a piece of music. In all these years, I have had only five commissions in Ukraine, but they did not come from the state. That is, there is no system at all, at least in my case.
There is no such profession as a composer in Ukraine. There ismusic composing as a hobby, but no occupation from which one can make a living as a composer in Ukraine. If I am asked by a performer or conductor to write a piece for them, I am proud to have a performance -oh, yay! – this is not a commission, it isjust a request. What’s in it for a composer? We have someone writing something, someone performing something, and everyone seems to be fine accepting this situation. However, thisis terrible. There should be a class of people who live fromcomposing music, not work three other jobs at the same time and write music at night. There should be competition between composers, the market, and copyright. Finally, there must be a realization that contemporary music is not painful. Such workscan and should be commissioned.
As for the situation with composer commissions in the West, it’s very different. For example, in Germany each city has its own generally accepted charter. For example, in Cologne there is a greater emphasis on contemporary music, and there are six large institutions with their own private funds and patrons who take care of contemporary music. In Leipzig, the situation is different; contemporary art is supported mainly by the municipality and the state of Saxony. The titular figure here is Bach, and this largely determines the city’s noticeable conservatism (compared to Cologne or Berlin). The only thing that applies equally to the entire German musical environment is the realization that work – any work – should be paid for.
Money can come from a variety of sources. Many organizations or individuals turn to the Ernst von Siemens Foundation. At one time, the German government allocated special funds specifically for Ukrainian authors. In general, there are numerous scholarships, programs, and grants.
Since composer commissions are an everyday practice, there is a well-established tariff scale in the music environment. It depends on the number of musicians involved for which the piece is written, as well as its duration. A solo piece on average costs between 1000 and 3000 euros. A trio will cost at least 2000 euros.
A commission is a legal category, and not a household one.
This means that there is a signed contract. After all, it’s one thing when someone asks you to do something, and you write with the realization that it won’t bring you anything, but it doesn’t cost you anything either. It’s quite another thing when you sign a contract and live off that money. This is a completely different level of responsibility. You realize that your career and, quite simply, your survival depends on it.
Once I had a situation in Germany (I was a student) when I told a client that I could write a piece of work for free because it was interesting for me. The client pretended not to hear what I said. You can’t work for free, it’s absurd! I thought, why is that? It is not because Germans are very mercantile. Also, you can’t do any accounting here without a contract. Even if you write music “just like that,” there still needs to be a contract that spells it out. However, an “empty” contract will look suspicious in Germany. No tax office will believe in such a contract.
We are still infinitely far from this. Of course, we shouldn’t copy someone else’s system, but rather build our own in accordance with our realities, where, I am sure, the state would not hold a monopoly on financing all culture in the country. We also need to understand that Europe has been moving towards the current situation for a very long time. One of the largest and oldest collectives in Germany, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, is 230 (!) years old… My point is that we shouldn’t think that they are cool, and we are nothing, no! If the West followed the same path as we did, it would not be quick either. This is an incomparable situation. We just must realize that this is a very long story, and despite everything, we must keep working on this.
Ivan Nebesnyi:
The offer to write a piece of music conditioned on the payment of a fee, is not a rare phenomenon for Ukrainian state institutions nowadays. I know of many cases of commissioning works for money to Ukrainian composers by various state institutions during the 2023/2024 concert season. At least five contracts for new works have been signed with me personally for the period up to 2026. All five customers are Ukrainian state institutions. These are the National Presidential Orchestra, the Kyiv Opera for Children and Youth, the Odesa Opera, the Kyiv National Operetta Theater, and the Lviv Opera. Each contract provides for the payment of royalties for the creation of music and royalties for performance.
If a work that has already been written is performed, then institutions such as theaters, TV channels, Internet resources, radio, philharmonic halls or other concert halls stipulate in the contract that royalties are paid to composers or their descendants in a certain percentage of the amount of the fee for one performance of the work. If it is a non-commercial or charitable performance, the composer also signs an agreement with the above-mentioned institutions, where he or she waives financial claims. So, in my opinion, the relationship between composers and the state institutions that perform their music is more or less well established now.
Another thing is that a composer, similarly to other professions, must create a portfolio, be well oriented in the music market to know where and to whom to offer his/her services, and have a reputation that would allow him/her to receive orders for new works and achieve a level of fees and royalties for performing music that would be sufficient to make a living.
Regarding the Lviv Philharmonic and the INSO-Lviv Orchestra:The Lviv Philharmonic has long had a tradition of commissioning works by Ukrainian composers. For example, during the existence of the Contrasts Contemporary Music Festival, several works of various genres were commissioned almost yearly to be performed at the festival’s concerts. Funds for the payment of fees were regularly included in the budget and paid during the festival. Over time, some of the Lviv Philharmonic’s ensembles also began commissioning new works.
In most cases, commissions are of two types. The first is when an ensemble commissions a composer to create a new work or a revision of an existing work for a specific composition in a specific style that cannot be changed at the composer’s discretion. Here, the composer must choose either to accept, receive a guarantee of payment of the fee, but fulfill the wishes of the client, even if it contradicts his/her creative principles, or to refuse and look for opportunities to earn money elsewhere.
The second is when an ensemble commissions a new work from a composer without any restrictions on the idea or style toacquire a performance copyright. Of course, this is the best option for the composer, as he or she is completely free to work.
My relationship with the Lviv Philharmonic and the INSO-Lviv Orchestra combines these two options. A year ago, the Director of the orchestra, Iolanta Pryshlyak, asked me to write two pieces for this orchestra within a year.
The first piece relates to the fact that the repertoire of INSO-Lviv includes my work Christmas Symphonies on the themes of Ukrainian carols and shchedrivkas, both regularly performed by the orchestra during the Christmas and New Year period. My composition is 35 minutes long and fills one section of the concert, which means that usually other Christmas-themed pieces are performed with this piece. The experience of INSO-Lviv’s Christmas concerts has shown that, for commercial success, it would be good to create another work based on world carols to combine with the Christmas Symphonies into one concert and present them at the orchestra’s concerts in Ukraine and overseas. This is how the piece called Christmas Fantasies appeared.
My new work …On the Way to Heaven… is an example of the second type of commission. The management of INSO-Lviv asked me to write a piece of my own choosing to be performed by the orchestra during the 2024/2025 season. Their only wish was that the work should be related to the present, preferably to the war in Ukraine. This is how the piece entitled …On the Way to Heaven… for piano and symphony orchestra was born. This is not a piano concerto as a genre, but I think this composition is most suitable for highlighting the ideas that are embedded in this work.
In lieu of a conclusion
The answer to the question posed at the beginning of this article “Composition: profession or hobby?” will probably be different for everyone. Some will say that work on a system of composer commissions has already started. Others will disagree and say that it needs to be started. In either case, there is a need for Ukrainian composers to be able to present their works with dignity and live in their country with dignity. Of course, there should be many more initiatives like the one adopted by the INSO-Lviv orchestra.