LUBOMYR MELNYK: CONTINUOUS MUSIC
Pianist Lubomyr Melnyk, who captivated the audience at last year’s Colours of Ostrava festival, is stylistically based on the school of American minimalists, but on top of that he added extraordinary virtuosity. He has thus significantly pushed the limits of the piano and the aesthetics and perception of his music, which has a trans-genre reach. The breakneck pace of his playing and the mesmerizing sonic colors are a brutal shock to classical audiences, but decades of hard work are behind his artistic success. Seventy-four-year-old Melnyk’s road to popularity has been surprisingly long, with albums on independent labels since 1979, but he didn’t release Illirion, his first album for Sony, until 2016 at the age of 68.
Pianist Lubomyr Melnyk, who captivated the audience at last year’s Colours of Ostrava festival, is stylistically based on the school of American minimalists, but on top of that he added extraordinary virtuosity. He has thus significantly pushed the limits of the piano and the aesthetics and perception of his music, which has a trans-genre reach. The breakneck pace of his playing and the mesmerizing sonic colors are a brutal shock to classical audiences, but decades of hard work are behind his artistic success. Seventy-four-year-old Melnyk’s road to popularity has been surprisingly long, with albums on independent labels since 1979, but he didn’t release Illirion, his first album for Sony, until 2016 at the age of 68.
Lubomyr Melnyk is a native Ukrainian living in Canada. A unique pioneer, he has created a new language for the piano, which he calls “continuous music”. He began developing his revolutionary method after hearing Terry Riley’s In C in 1968. This way allows for fascinating mental and finger dexterity and the creation of complex figures on the keyboard. The result is sometimes reminiscent of the sound of a full orchestra, sometimes an organic analogy to the structures that groups like Tangerine Dream and Ashra created on synthesizers in the 1970s.
Lubomyr Melnyk is a native Ukrainian living in Canada. A unique pioneer, he has created a new language for the piano, which he calls “continuous music”. He began developing his revolutionary method after hearing Terry Riley’s In C in 1968. This way allows for fascinating mental and finger dexterity and the creation of complex figures on the keyboard. The result is sometimes reminiscent of the sound of a full orchestra, sometimes an organic analogy to the structures that groups like Tangerine Dream and Ashra created on synthesizers in the 1970s.