Alexander Shchetynsky

Born in Kharkiv, in 1960, Alexander Shchetinsky is an important Ukrainian composer whose works, which include a variety of instrumental and vocal compositions, have been widely performed, to considerable acclaim, throughout Europe. Proficient in a variety of avant-garde modes of expression, Shchetinsky seeks, and attains, a personal synthesis of stylistic modalities, thereby transcending mere eclecticism. Shchetinsky's compositional procedure is determined by his belief that music can express religious ideas and spiritual insights. For Schetinsky, musical metaphor is the expressive formula which translates the composer's deepest intuitions into an intricately structured, subtle, sophisticated, enigmatic, but nevertheless essentially intelligible, sonic language, in which the common-sense boundaries between sound and silence remain fluid. Exemplifying this effort to express the ineffable is Glossolalie, for chamber orchestra, in which Shchetinsky addresses the paradox of unintelligible meaning. The phenomenon of glossolalia, which psychiatry defines as speech devoid of meaning, also represents, as the New Testament tells us (Acts 2: 4), the mystical practice, known from time immemorial, of using language to express divinely-inspired truths about reality. A remarkable religious work, Glossolalie may also be interpreted as a metaphor for music itself, considering the fact that in music meaning often emerges as a sudden illumination, as the listener ventures beneath the surface of a seemingly incomprehensible musical discourse.

Shchetinsky studied with Valentyn Borisov at the Kharkiv Art Institute, graduating in 1983. His further education included summer courses in Poland, where he attended lectures by the eminent Polish composers <a href="spotify:artist:5Ks8fS8lZJnTFbtvxkDOkM">Witold Lutoslawski</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0qEO82Hj3SvjoNyEfKpRku">Krysztof Penderecki</a>, as well as master classes, in 1992, with <a href="spotify:artist:0ux1mDFGQv3pDI6HC9k2GS">Edison Denisov</a> and Poul Ruders. From 1982 to 1990, Shchetinsky taught composition at a children's music school in Kharkiv. The following year, he returned to the Kharkiv Art Institute as a teacher, offering a course in contemporary composition techniques. In 1995, Shchetinsky presented a lecture cycle on modern and contemporary music at the Ukrainian National Music Academy. From 1995 to 2000, he lectured on Ukrainian music, also presenting his own works at conferences in Austria, Germany, Slovakia, and the Ukraine. In 1999, Shchetinsky taught composition master classes in Ohrid, Macedonia. An organizer of contemporary chamber music festivals in the Ukraine and Russia, Shchetinsky is a laureate of several prestigious composition competitions. In 1990, he received the main prize at the <a href="spotify:artist:2kKVzZnc1FTn56l4K8VinT">Kazimierz Serocki</a> Competition, in Poland, for Glossolalie. The Preacher's Word, for soprano and string quartet, a work inspired by the Old Testament, brought him the First Prize at the International Sacred Music Competition in Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1991. Shchetinsky won the Second Prize at the International <a href="spotify:artist:3A5qNDgaeTFBD5pDxSvlJ0">Henri Dutilleux</a> Competition, in France, in 1996, for The Baptism, Temptation and Prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, for bass, clarinet, trombone, viola, cello, and double bass. Shchetinsky's works, which have been performed by world-class soloists and ensembles, also include Annunciation, a chamber opera inspired by the New Testament.