Friday, December 5, 2025, 7:30 PM Mile Zero Dance: 9931- 78 Avenue NW, Edmonton
Viktoria Grynenko and Vladimir Rufino (violin), Fabiola Amorim (viola), Amy Nicholson (cello), Guillaume Tardif (violin), and Lauren O’Kell, dance. Compositions by Anna Pidgorna, Boris Loginov, Zoltan Almashi.
New Music Edmonton presents Through Closed Doors – Ukrainian New Music – a portrait of some of the incredible new work being created by composers of the Ukrainian descent diaspora (Zoltan Almashi is still in Ukraine). In one way or another, their works reflect on, or are influenced by, the current and past history of Ukraine, and of Ukrainian culture. They suggest that art and creativity are a central, crucial voice in ensuring an ongoing, robust identity. Led by violinist Viktoria Grynenko, this all-star ensemble of some of our city’s finest string players will interpret these amazing works for strings, electronics, and dance. Based around reactions to invasion and war, reflections on the Revolution of Dignity, this will be a profoundly moving, absorbing look at what it can mean to create art with intense resolve and belief.
Please join us after the performance for a talkback session, featuring violinist Viktoria Grynenko and other performers, and moderated by NME Artist Director Ian Crutchley.
Content warning: The composition sleep during insomnia includes recordings made during an air raid, including sirens, human voices, and explosions.
The Program
sleep during insomnia (2022) – Boris Loginov 01:15 – 17:52
Caprice for Violin Solo (1987) – Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020) 19:15 – 24:20
Through Closed Doors (2014) – Anna Pidgorna 26:40 – 34:10
Duo for Two Violins No. 1 (2007-2022) – Zoltan Almashi 36:20 – 43:50
Program Notes
Through Closed Doors is a clandestine dialogue between two people trapped on opposite sides of a closed door. The definitive version of the score is inscribed on a restored antique door, which was once hacked with a hatchet, leaving a jagged hole. This disturbingly fascinating wound inspired the dramatic conception of this piece and some of its musical gestures. The phrasing draws loosely on speech and song patterns, while the work’s structure grows around the door, guided by its various panels and defects. The graphic notation, designed specifically for this piece, eliminates accents, dynamics, and bow pressure markings by incorporating them directly into the staff lines. The wavering staves resemble natural wood patterns and invite the performers to approach the score intuitively. The layout of the musical lines on the door guides the physical manifestation of the drama being played out in the music. This work was commissioned by Thin Edge New Music Collective and premiered by Ilana Waniuk and Suhashini Arulanandam in 2014, in Toronto, Canada.
Duo for Two Violins, No. 1 – Composed in 2007 and revisited in 2022, this work was commissioned by Anna Savytska and Jakub Dzialak, a violin duo known for their performances of experimental music. Almashi knew the musicians, however, as virtuoso violinists with great richness of sound, which inspired him to write Duo for Two Violins, No. 1. He aspired to create a piece that allowed the duo to exploit the violin’s conventional range of sound: “I was sure that deep inside, they [Anna Savytska and Jakub Dzialak] wish for a contemporary piece where one can simply play with a beautiful sound, play sincerely and expressively”.
sleep during insomnia – The impulse to create sleep during insomnia originated in the composer’s need to “do something” at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. This piece for string quartet and electronics is inspired by various forms of sleep and insomnia.
According to Loginov, at the start of the all-out war, everyone was “… sleeping and awake at the same time, we [Ukrainians] could sleep very little, or not sleep at all, or sleep but wake up several times, night or day, constantly waiting for bad news, or even worse news”. His creative process began by experimenting with sounds recorded prior to the Russian invasion, such as his wife’s breathing, the rumblings of an old garage door, and stones clashing or falling. The piece unfolds around the funeral song referred to as “eternal sleep” from Sergei Taneyev’s cantata Ioann Damaskin, a spiritual work that is eventually dissolved in the sounds of war in Loginov’s piece. It should be noted that Loginov’s inclusion of a Russian composer’s work is primarily not an attempt at reconciliation. The composer employs ambivalent elements, such as bells, which resound in both Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches, but in different ways such as sounding the alarm for an attack from either side, or calling for “holy war,” to the synchronized col legno of the quartet’s final moments, which resemble an actual clock, but also constitute a very quiet military march. Taneyev’s recorded excerpts are also ambivalent, as Loginov remarks: “Highly spiritual, beautiful music, unexpectedly takes the form of [a] scary force that no longer serves anything good, or even worse, serves (!) as the instrument for evil deeds. Something beautiful and deeply spiritual transforms into something beyond these categories and melts into a new quality. It’s also about how something beautiful can be something terrible at the same time. As when in your house, in the ticking of your clock, through half-sleep, through the breathing of the people you love, you can hear in your head the alarm of church bells, and the march of soldiers, and strange music that has already ceased to be what it was at the beginning”.
Caprice for solo violin is an expressive and virtuosic solo piece in neofolklore style. The composer insisted that it should not be performed in a strict classical style but should be explored from the folklore point of view. Audience can hear the sonority of Western Ukrainian folk instruments and a fiery wedding dance.
The Composers
Anna Pidgorna (b. 1985) is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer, vocalist and multi-media artist who combines sound, visual arts, video, theatre and writing in her work. She is strongly influenced by Ukraine’s folk music, incorporating elements of the country’s singing and poetic tradition into her vocal practice and instrumental compositions. Pidgorna and Maria Reva received the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes 2020 Award, and have written several operas together, including Our Trudy, and Plaything. Pidgorna draws much of her inspiration from the natural soundscape, often imitating birds and animals in her work. A student of the visual arts from an early age, she has incorporated visual elements into some of her manuscripts, including Through Closed Doors and Mirror, Mirror. Her works have been commissioned, performed and recorded by soloists, ensembles, presenters and festivals across the world. She holds the Ph.D. from Princeton University, the M.Mus. from the University of Calgary, and the B.A. degree from Mount Allison University.
Zoltan Almashi (b. 1975) is a Ukrainian composer, cellist, teacher, music activist, and organizer of festivals and concerts. He was awarded the Levko Revutsky State Prize (2003), the Boris Lyatoshynsky State Prize (2013), the Artemy Vedel “Kyiv” Prize (2024), the Viktor Kosenko Prize (2024), and was named People’s Artist of Ukraine (2024). He has over 80 works to his credit, mainly for chamber orchestra and characterized by their bright imagery, emotional expressivity, structural clarity, and dramatic impact. Stylistically, these works centre on neo-Romantic trends in contemporary music while employing twentieth-century compositional methods. In addition to composing, Zoltan Almashi has taught at the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine since 2002, while also working as a performer and solo instrumentalist with the National Chamber Soloists “Kyiv Chamber” and the “Rikoshet Contemporary Music Ensemble,” both since 2000.
The Ukrainian composer Boris Loginov (b. 1990) graduated from the National Academy of Music of Ukraine, composition class of Levko Kolodub. As a participant of the scholarship program Gaude Polonia he studied at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (Warsaw, Poland). His works were performed by Orest Smovzh (violin), Antonii Baryshevskyi (piano), Nina Guo (vocal), Carine Levine (flute), Gleb Kanasevich (clarinet), as well as by the contemporary music vocal ensemble Alter Ratio, the Sed Contra Ensemble, and the Synaesthesis Ensemble. Loginov’s recent activities include his participation in the Weltoffenes Berlin program (Germany, 2022– 2023) and a Harris Program Distinguished Professor residency at Dartmouth College (USA, 2024).
Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020) is one of the most popular Ukrainian composers of all time, his Melody for violin and piano became a spiritual anthem of Ukraine and is performed all over the world since the beginning of the war in 2022.
The Performers
Dr. Viktoria Grynenko is a Ukrainian-born, multi-faceted violinist. In addition to violin performance in chamber groups, solo and with Edmonton Symphony, she focuses on research and educational projects that involve rarely performed works for violin. Her efforts have been encouraged by Canadian and international organizations, such as the KUN Foundation and the Strauss Foundation. Building on her PhD thesis (University of Alberta, 2021) that explored relationships between violin and dance, Viktoria continues to be actively involved in multi-disciplinary projects with local and international dancers. Viktoria has released two full-length albums “Violin in Movement” and “Unbroken: Music from Ukraine”. Photo credit Thomas Mathieu.
Canadian violinist Guillaume Tardif pursues an active career as a performer and pedagogue. He regularly travels on recital tours and appears as soloist with orchestras in prominent venues in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australasia – most recently at Carnegie-Weill Hall in Paganini’s 24 Caprices. He often performs repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary works and introduces many lesser-known works and original compositions, cadenzas, and arrangements. He is also often heard on radio and TV networks. He has produced several CD recordings, including ‘Swarm: Music for Two Violins’ (Dell’Arco / Amethyst, Canadian Music Centre – Naxos of America), ‘Paganini’s Shadow – H. W. Ernst’ (Olms-Verlag), ‘Tales from the Dinarides’ (Wirth Institute), ‘From the Library of Joseph Szigeti’ (Dell’Arco), and ‘Virtuoso Encores’ (Dell’Arco). He has also been a guest concertmaster for a number of ensembles and performed in company of many distinguished musicians.
Brazilian-Canadian violinist Dr. Vladimir Rufino has brought his love of music to stages in South America and Europe as well as Canada and the United States. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from the University of Alberta (Canada), a Master of Music degree and Artist Certificate from Azusa Pacific University (USA), and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Brazil). Vladimir has performed with orchestras in Brazil, the United States, and Canada as soloist, concertmaster, and assistant concertmaster. Vladimir currently performs regularly with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and as first violin of the Vaughan String Quartet, which released its debut CD in 2018. Vladimir also adjudicates for festivals and competitions in Canada and teaches at the MacEwan University Conservatory of Music and Mount Royal University Conservatory of Music. Photo credit Lana Palmer.
Violist Fabiola Amorim holds a Doctor of Music degree from the University of Alberta, a Master of Music degree from Azusa Pacific University (USA), an Artist Certificate from Azusa Pacific University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Brazil). Since the publication of her 2018 doctoral thesis “Echoes of the Brazilian Nationalism Movement in Four Works for Viola and Piano (1950-82)”, Dr. Amorim’s work has served as a reference for other researchers on Brazilian music for viola. She is a founding member of the Vaughan String Quartet, which has performed in Canada, USA, France and Italy, and made its debut recording in 2018. Dr. Amorim maintains an active schedule as a concert violist and educator. She holds a position of viola instructor at the Winspear Conservatory of Music and Mount Royal University Conservatory of Music. Photo credit Lana Palmer.
Canadian cellist Amy Nicholson is known for her expressive artistry and versatility across classical and contemporary genres. A graduate of the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, she toured throughout Germany and Poland with the German Chamber Academy, NDR Symphony Orchestra, and Molte Chorde String Quartet. Returning to Alberta, Amy completed her Master of Music degree at the University of Alberta, where she served as teaching assistant to Tanya Prochazka. An active performer, she has appeared with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, UltraViolet Ensemble, and numerous chamber and jazz collaborations. Since 2021, Amy has been a core member of The Valkyrie String Quartet, the original ensemble featured in Candlelight Concerts by Fever. She currently teaches cello at MacEwan University Conservatory, Concordia University, and The King’s University.
Lauren O’Kell is a St. Albert-born dance artist, choreographer, and instructor. After spending seven years working in Vancouver, she has returned to Edmonton, where she continues to develop her artistic and teaching practice. Lauren danced as a company member with Ballet Edmonton (formerly Citie Ballet) and later participated in Lesley Telford’s Performance Research Project in Vancouver, working with local choreographers Serge Bennathan, Idan Cohen, and Vanessa Goodman.
Lauren trained through the Royal Academy of Dance with Deborah Morgan, earning her Solo Seal Award and becoming a finalist at the 2011 Genée International Ballet Competition in Cape Town. She continued her professional dance training at Miami City Ballet School, earned her RAD Registered Teacher status, and holds a diploma in Arts and Cultural Management from Grant MacEwan University. Lauren now teaches contemporary and ballet at several dance schools in the Edmonton area, sharing her passion and expertise with the next generation of artists. Photo credit Meaghan Gipps.
Accessibility
Mile Zero Dance Space (9931 – 78 Avenue NW, Edmonton): accessible building with multiple all-gender washrooms, 2 with grab bars. There is a wheelchair accessible front door with wave opener. The #523 bus stops at 99 St and 78 Ave, approx 120 meters from the venue (stop #1542 SB, stop #22729 NB), and the #8 bus stops at Whyte Ave and 99 St, approx 500 meters from the venue (stop #1035 EB, #2824 WB)
Street parking in the area, and guests should allow extra time to find parking during peak times.
