The second season of the podcast After the Pause is dedicated to Ukrainian musician-soldiers whose creative and professional paths were dramatically changed by the full-scale war. Composer Bohdan Sinchenko had been building his career until 2022, combining teaching and composing music. From studying at a music college and the Kharkiv Conservatory to serving in an assault unit and being wounded at the front—his story is about loss and the gradual return to music under new circumstances.
In this interview, the musician speaks about his childhood in Luhansk region, the path from accordion to composition, the experience of military service, rehabilitation after a spinal fracture, and the rethinking of creativity during the war.
The author and initiator of the podcast, Dzvenyslava Safian, spoke with the composer. We publish the text version of this conversation.
You are originally from the city of Starobilsk in Luhansk region. It has been occupied by the Russians since March 2022. When was the last time you visited your hometown?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Actually, in a certain sense, I was lucky, since I left home a week before the full-scale invasion. In the very first days of February, I happened to be at home because I needed to obtain an international passport.
How did your musical journey begin? As I understand it, it started rather late, at around the age of 13.
Bohdan Sinchenko: There is a music school in Starobilsk, and it still exists now—I hope it will continue to exist. In fact, I am very grateful to my music school teachers because they treated teaching with great love. And I am especially grateful to my solfeggio teacher because she prepared me very thoroughly for entering music college and was even initially surprised when she learned that I had entered the first year as a folk music student. Because I was doing very well in solfeggio—both in music theory and music literature. She thought that I would immediately enter as a theory student. But my first instrument was the accordion.
Did you choose it yourself?
Bohdan Sinchenko: More or less by myself. It was an accident in a certain sense. At home, I found a toy accordion with one and a half octaves, and I really enjoyed picking out little tunes on it. Eventually, I simply “wore my parents out”: they said that they would buy me a proper instrument and that I should go to music school if I liked it so much.
There were no musicians in your family? Did people enjoy singing? Was there a culture of singing?
Bohdan Sinchenko: There were no professional musicians. My grandmother used to sing in our family. I have a vivid memory from early childhood of her singing lullabies to me. Also, folk songs could be heard at home—in summer, especially in the evenings, people often sang, and in several voices at that. This was 20–30 years ago, but back then it sounded very beautiful.
Were these Ukrainian folk songs?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Yes, of course. My grandmother spoke Ukrainian. In our part of Luhansk region it is somewhat mixed with surzhyk in places. Even now, when I use some words from there in my speech, people in Kharkiv are surprised. These words have their own colouring — for example, myntusy means treats. Or oberbenytysia means to fall very badly.
What was the environment like at the Siverskodonetsk College? You entered as a folk music student, but later took up composition—how did that happen?
Bohdan Sinchenko: The years at college were the happiest in my life. I still remember them, because the atmosphere was—and still is now, since I teach there—very creative and, at the same time, homely in a good sense. This is always inspiring.
We had a very beautiful building, comfortable and cosy. I enjoyed studying. I liked the folk department as well, especially playing in the orchestra during my first year. But I had started writing music already in music school. And already in my first year, I devoted a lot of time to it, which, in the opinion of my principal instrument teacher, was even too much—more than to the accordion.
I wanted to deepen my knowledge of harmony, musical forms, and counterpoint. I became very fascinated with counterpoint. And my transfer to the music theory department began precisely when I came to our solfeggio and music theory teacher—Iryna Viatokha—and brought her my fugues, asking her to look at them. She said that they were written quite well and asked whether I would like to transfer to music theory. That is how it all began.
How did your compositional education develop further? After college, did you enter the Kharkiv Conservatory?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Yes, the Kharkiv Conservatory. From my second year, when I was already studying in the music theory department, besides counterpoint I became interested in Romantic music. This is probably normal at the age of seventeen or eighteen. These were Schubert, Brahms, and Chopin—three composers whose piano, vocal, and chamber music I studied thoroughly. And I was very proud when, before entering the conservatory, I wrote a sonata drawing upon this experience.
It is interesting how much opportunity there was at that time to study 20th-century music. Did the teachers support this?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Everything depended on technical resources, because this was in 2002–2006. At that time, there was still no global access to YouTube. It was already during my studies at the conservatory that I really “got access” to a wide variety of music. But I also tried to study everything available in the college library. Unfortunately, there were not many recordings of contemporary music, but I remember hearing Yevhen Stankovych’s Chamber Symphonies for the first time in my third year—it made a strong impression on me. Also, during the Ukrainian music course, we studied Bibik and Silvestrov.
Did any ensembles performing contemporary music come to Siverskodonetsk?
Bohdan Sinchenko: There were many concerts, but mostly classical and Romantic repertoire, as far as I remember.
And what was studying in Kharkiv like? How did you perceive the city and its atmosphere?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Frankly speaking, at first I did not like Kharkiv very much. Somehow it did not feel very cosy, although I was happy that I had entered exactly there. At first, I studied with Volodymyr Zolotukhin, and we had a misunderstanding because of my fascination with sonoristic music and minimalism. I wrote variations for piano using this technique, but the teacher did not accept it (he was not a supporter of such music). After that, I transferred to the class of Valentyna Drobiazghina. To prove, so to speak, my professional suitability, I had to write several works in a more traditional technique.
Did you start working immediately after graduating from the conservatory?
Bohdan Sinchenko: I worked as a laboratory assistant and studied in postgraduate school for one year, but I was very heavily loaded with work—at the same time, I was teaching at the Kharkiv College of Arts, so I had to leave postgraduate studies.
Being a composer is a difficult profession that requires constant self-motivation. Did you ever have doubts?
Bohdan Sinchenko: I had no doubts. From my teenage years, I felt that this was rather a physiological need for me—to write music. Even if there was no opportunity to hear it performed live, I still wrote. My teacher, Ihor Prykhodko, once quoted Dmytro Klebanov, who compared the need to write music with a physiological necessity—an accumulation that has to be “released.”
You had not only inner impulses, but also performers, competitions, commissions?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Yes. In Kharkiv, I am very grateful to the musical ensemble and association Classical Underground—many of my works were first performed thanks to them. I came to competitions later, around 2019–2020. It is both an opportunity to have one’s work performed and a way to earn money.
In particular, you received the Garth Newel Prize shortly before the full-scale invasion. What kind of work was it?
Bohdan Sinchenko: I wrote it specifically for the competition. It was one of the first works after a difficult period of health problems, when for a long time I had no desire to write. In the autumn of 2021, I decided to try again.
Another work was performed last year at the Kyiv Music Premieres festival by the Kyiv Camerata. It had already been written during the full-scale invasion—literally within two days, in the Kharkiv metro at the beginning of March. It was both an attempt to comprehend reality and a way to support myself.
Now, regarding the military part. You decided to enlist and went to serve. How did this happen?
Bohdan Sinchenko: The first time I came to the military enlistment office was in May 2022. I had been registered in Starobilsk, so in principle I was not on the lists of those liable for military service. I wanted to update my information. They immediately issued me a summons, but because of my health condition and because, after my illness, I looked unwell, and because my specialty was listed as “composer,” I was left in the reserve.
For some time, I was still recovering my strength, and from 2023 I began looking for options for service. There was an opportunity to join an artillery unit as a communications specialist, but my health did not allow it. With the Noman Çelebicihan 48th Assault Battalion, things turned out differently: I contacted them in December, within two weeks everything had been settled, and I was already at the permanent deployment point, and the next day I passed the military medical commission and became a recruit.
How did the training proceed?
Bohdan Sinchenko: For the first month, we were at the permanent deployment point, setting up the base (the battalion was only being formed), carrying out various tasks, and even working in the kitchen. Then we went to Great Britain, where we underwent training for a month. We were trained specifically as assault infantry—not only for defence, but primarily for offensive operations.
The first week of training involved weapons handling, elementary skills such as how to hold an assault rifle and shoot from sitting, standing, and prone positions. At the end of the first week, we passed something like an examination, both practical and theoretical, and received permission to use blank ammunition.
The second week was probably the hardest, both physically and even morally, after the elementary comfort we had even during wartime. Our instructors—although I am, of course, grateful to them for this—arranged a little “hell” for us every day. Considering that it was the beginning to middle of February, there was constant rain, snow, high humidity, and wind.
We studied trench warfare and were constantly in mud up to our ears. That is, you are wet and dirty from head to toe, exhausted, and constantly have to fall into the mud, crawl through the mud, and sit waist-deep in water. But, in a certain sense, this, of course, hardens you.
The third week of training involved clearing residential areas: we worked in a specially built training village, learning how to clear buildings and entire residential blocks. And the last, fourth week was devoted to reviewing what we had learned, but already using live ammunition. Since I had never held a weapon at all before, and especially not one loaded with live rounds, naturally I experienced a certain amount of stress because of this.
During training, I discovered military engineering and mine clearance for myself. Sometimes I found mines almost intuitively. I was even offered a transfer to a sapper unit in another battalion, but a combat order changed the plans. At the beginning of March, we were already deployed to Kharkiv region.
What do you remember from your first combat missions?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Unfortunately, I cannot talk about this, because we were attached to one of the units of the Main Intelligence Directorate and carried out tasks that cannot be discussed at present.
In essence, I had my first and only combat order, because at the end of the third week a Shahed drone struck our location. It happened at night. On the one hand, I was very lucky that it hit the neighbouring room, literally through the wall. On the other hand, because of this, the entire corridor caught fire, and my fellow soldier and I had to jump out of a window from approximately the height between the fourth and fifth floors. When I landed and came to my senses a few seconds later (I had probably lost consciousness), I realized that something was wrong: there was very severe pain in my lower back.
In fact, that was when I sustained a spinal fracture. After three months of treatment, I returned to the permanent deployment point, underwent the military medical commission, and was told that I would be discharged because, after such an injury, I was unfit for service.
How did the period of rehabilitation and return to a more active physical life proceed?
Bohdan Sinchenko: I literally had to learn to walk again. The day after the surgery, when metal implants had been inserted, the surgeon came and said that it was time to get up.
That day, to be honest, I could not even fully straighten up. I turned onto my stomach, pushed myself up with one hand—and remained standing in a bent position. But the next day I had already begun walking along the corridor. At first, it was very slow, almost like a snail: I could barely move my legs. It felt strange, but at the same time joyful, because I was able to walk.
In general, those three months had a very positive effect on my recovery. When I returned to Mykolaiv, where the permanent deployment point was located at the time, I was already travelling independently and was even carrying some of my belongings with me—although I was still wearing a brace and using assistive devices.
Has the injury affected your ability to play an instrument or work with a computer?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Overall, my arm is almost fine, except that it sometimes reacts to changes in weather. The only real issue is that sitting is now more difficult, and moving around quickly is also harder. But in general, these losses have been minimized thanks to the doctors, for which I am very grateful.
During rehabilitation, did you listen to music? Did it help you in any way?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Very much so. I would often recall music with pleasure. When I was brought home, my first thought was: “I need to write something.” Because during service, I didn’t even feel like touching paper.
Despite the fact that my right hand was not functioning at the time, I first tried writing with my left hand in a notebook. I realized it was pointless, and then I asked for a laptop. And so, as I jokingly said, “with just my left hand,” I wrote a small neo-baroque suite. That was the first piece after the injury.
Were you able to think about music at all in the first weeks? And do people in the military listen to anything other than classical music?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Yes, they listen to absolutely different kinds of music. Often it’s radio—whatever happens to be playing is what they listen to. In the first weeks, I didn’t want to think about music at all—it was stress, an unfamiliar environment, completely different people and rules. You can’t freely plan your time—everything happens according to a schedule: roll calls, meals, work.
How do you now perceive the mentioned suite? Have your stylistic orientations changed after the war?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Stylistic orientations probably haven’t changed. But I’d like to believe that what I started writing not on commission has become somewhat more emotionally profound and mature.
Do you work as a freelance composer?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Yes, but mostly not with classical music. The commissions are mainly related to electronic, rock, or pop music. Just recently I received a commission—to refine a song created using artificial intelligence: to redo the arrangement, work on the voice, and restore the sound. Sometimes there are exceptions. For example, in 2022 I was commissioned to arrange a string quartet—but that is rare.
Do you manage to write anything of your own?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Right now there isn’t much time, because teaching takes a lot of energy: preparation, documentation, organizational work. There is hope that in the summer there will be more time and I can return to my own compositions.
How do you feel about the idea that the experience of war changes music itself?
Bohdan Sinchenko: I agree. It is already evident that a large number of works written during the full-scale invasion will form a separate chapter in the history of Ukrainian music.
Finally, what would you like to say to musicians who are hesitant about the decision to mobilize?
Bohdan Sinchenko: Regarding mobilization—it is always an individual decision. No one can guarantee the consequences, and everyone must decide for themselves. If there is an opportunity to join the Armed Forces—though not necessarily in a combat role—it is probably worth considering. There is a great need for people for paperwork, analytics, and technical tasks.
Even in my own case, after being discharged, I was offered various roles—from artillery to analysis of acoustic data for detecting enemy positions. So, if there is opportunity and willingness, it is worth at least considering this option.
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The project is a winner of the Per Forma grant program developed by Kyiv Contemporary Music Days with the support of the Performing Arts Fund NL and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands, aimed at developing the performing arts sector in Ukraine.
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