VICTORIA VITA POLEVA composer
biography
“In the late 1990s, Victoria Polevá abandoned her successful career as an avant-garde composer of polyphonic music, challenging and ultimately transforming her aesthetic ideals—and in the process, her spirituality—in pursuit of the “absoluteness of renunciation, the pureness of experiment.” Interweaving sacred and secular texts and musical traditions of many eras, Polevá has since set herself apart as one of Ukraine's and Eastern Europe’s most original composers, one whose works are frequently performed by leading ensembles and soloists around the globe. In 2005, violinist Gidon Kremer included Polevá’s “Warm Wind” in his concert cycle Sempre Primavera. Speaking “completely unarmed, impoverished, down to zero” in her first English-language interview, Victoria Polevá addresses her daring evolution as a composer, the origins of her passion, her collaborations with Kremer, and sorrow as a creative act. “
Music & Literature, Taylor Davis-Van Atta
Born on September 11, 1962 in Kiev, Ukraine, Polevá is the daughter of composer Valery Polevoy. She graduated from Kiev Conservatory, where she studied composition with Prof. Ivan Karabyts in 1989. She continued there for her Post-graduate studies under Prof. Levko Kolodub. From 1990-1998, she was a lecturer in the faculty of composition, and from 2000-2005, taught at the Music Information Technologies Department of the Kiev Conservatory. Since 2005 she has been a freelance composer. In 2006 Victoria Polevá was composer-in-residence at the Menhir Chamber Music Festival (Swiss, Graubunden). In 2010, Polevá joined composers Giya Kancheli, Valentin Silvestrov, Victor Kissine, Georgs Pelecis on Gidon Kremer's international project, «The Art of Instrumentation», dedicated to the music Johann Sebastian Bach and Glenn Gould. As a result of this collaboration, Kremer invited Polevá as composer-in-residence at the XXX Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival (Austria) the following year (2011).
The next couple of years would see two additional major performances; Butoh dancer Tadashi Endo’s premiered Polevá’s ballet "Gagaku" at the 2012 edition of the Book Arsenal New Music Festival in Kiev, a performance highly praised in the local press and in 2013, the Kronos Quartet premiered “Walking on Waters". Polevá was also selected as composer-in-residence at the Festival of Contemporary Music Darwin Vargas (Valparaiso, Chile).
In 2016 was the premiere of "Smile of Seraphim", written for Erik Bosgraaf (recoder). Also in 2016 was the premiere of "Muwashah" for the ethnic voice and the chamber orchestra, based on ancient Arabic-Andalusian songs, performed by the Lebanese contralto, Fadia el-Hage. Ms. Poleva served as a member of the jury of the International Composers Competition "Sacrarium" (Italy) from 2014 – 2015, president – 2016.
Polevá’s compositions include symphonic, choral, and chamber music. Her early works embraced an avant-garde aesthetic and explored polystylistic juxtapositions. Representative compositions include the ballet "Gagaku", "Transform" for symphony orchestra, "Epiphany" for chamber ensemble. From the late 1990s her music was increasingly identified with "sacred minimalism". An important aspect of Polevá's creative work has been her intensive studies and settings of texts from the divine service in music.
Important Performances:
Victoria Polevá's works have been performed at the Beethovenfest Bonn (Germany), the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival (Austria), the Yuri Bashmet Festival in Minsk, the Gergiev Easter Festival (Russia), Chamber Music Connects the World (Kronberg, Germany), the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Köln Philharmonie (Germany), the Theatre de Chatelet in Paris (France), the Rudolfinum-Dvorak Hall in Prague (Czech Republic), the Auditorio Nacional de España in Madrid (Spain), the George Weston Recital Hall in Toronto (Canada), the Yerba Buena Theater in San Francisco (United States), the Oriental Art Center in Shanghai (China), the Seoul Art Center (South Korea), the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, and at festivals of new music in Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, United Arab Emirates, Peru and Chile.
Soloists: Gidon Kremer (violin), Andrei Pushkarev (vibraphone), Aleksei Ogrintchouk (oboe), Elsbeth Moser (accordion), Giedre Dirvanauskaite (cello), Erik Bosgraaf (recoder), Roman Yusipey (bayan), Natalka Polovinka (voice), Miroslava Kotorovich (violin), Markus Hochuli (lute), Zoltan Almashi (Cello), Nazgul Shukaeva (ethnic voice), Fadia el-Hage (contralto)
Ensembles: Kronos Quartet, Chamber orchestra "Kremerata Baltica", "Ricochet", "Archi", "Violoncellissimo" (Ukraine), MCME (Russia), "Atros-trio", "Avalon-trio", "Zurich Ensemble for New Music" (Switzerland), "Accroche note" (France)
Conductors: Volodymyr Sirenko, Roman Kofman, Arild Remmereit, Valery Matyukhin, Bohodar Kotorovych, Viktor Ploskina, Volodymyr Runchak, Petro Tovstukha, Natalia Ponomarchuk, Simon Camartin, Luis José Recart, Dmitry Yablonsky
Choral Conductors: Iryna Sablina, Halyna Horbatenko, Mykola Hobdych, Volodymyr Syvohip, Dmytro Radyk, Oksana Nykytiuk, Olena Radko, Bohdan Plish, Boris Alvarado.
Victoria Poleva is a Laureate of the Municipal Prize "Kiev" in honour of Artemy Vedel (2013), winner of «Spherical Music» international competition (USA, 2008), a Laureate of the Prize of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine instituted in honor of Borys Lyatoshynsky (2005), a Winner of the All-Ukrainian Competition "Psalms of the Third Millennium" (2001, 1st prize), and a Laureate of the Prize of the Ministry of Culture and Arts of Ukraine instituted in honour of Levko Revutsky (1995).
