CEFRES Team

Iryna Tukova – Research & CV

Ukrainian Art Music Under the War: Statements and Reflections

Research Area 1: Displacements, “Dépaysements” and Discrepancies: People, Knowledge and Practices

Contact: tukova@ukr.net

Iryna Tukova, PhD Music, Dr Habil., is an Associate Professor of Music Theory at the National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine), a co-founder of NGO Liatoshynsky Foundation. In 2024–25 she was the Petro Jacyk non-residential scholar at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto (Canada). In 2023–24 Dr Tukova held the position of a non-resident visiting scholar at the Indiana University Bloomington (USA). Her research interests include the history of Ukrainian art music from the 20th and 21st centuries, Borys Liatoshynsky creativity and the intersection of natural science and art music. Dr. Tukova is the author of more than fifty articles, as well as the 2021 monograph, Music and Natural Science: Interaction of Worlds in the Epochs’ Mental Habits (17th–Early 21st Centuries). Her new monograph, The Times of the Looking Glass: Boris Liatoshynsky`s Choice, which she co-authored with Dr Olena Korchova, was published in 2026. In 2024 Dr Tukova held the Ukrainian State Lysenko award for achievement in musicology. She has presented her research at the musicological conferences in Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania, Austria, France, Poland, USA, UK, etc., and lectured on contemporary Ukrainian art music at the Ljubljana Academy of Music (Slovenia), at the Indiana University Bloomington (USA), and at the Capital University Columbus (Ohio, USA).

During a year at CEFRES (2026–27), she will carry the project “Ukrainian Art Music Under the War: Statements and Reflections” with Louisa Martin-Chevalier.

CV

https://orcid.org/
0000-0002-4786-0484

EDUCATION

02/2022 Dr Habil in Art Criticism Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music

Dissertation title: Music and Natural Science: Interaction of Worlds in the Epochs’ Mental Habits (17th―the Early 21st Century)

06/2003 PhD in Art Criticism Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music

Dissertation title: Functioning of the Western European Baroque instrumental genre models in Ukrainian music of the second part of the 20th century

06/1999 Master of Music Art. Donetsk State Music Academy named by S. Prokof’ev. Graduated with Highest Honors

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2008—present: associate professor at the Music Theory Department at the Ukrainian National Academy of Music

2026: professor at the Ukrainische Freie Universität

2003–2008: lecture at the Music Theory Department at the Ukrainian National Academy of Music

FELLOWSHIPS

08/2024–08/2025: non-residential scholar, the Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Ukraine | CEES | Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto (Canda)

08/2023–08/2024: non-residential visiting scholar at Indiana University Bloomington (USA)

AWARD

2024: Ukrainian State Mykola Lysenko Award for Achievement in the Musicology

PUBLICATIONS: two monographs and more than 50 articles in the Ukrainian and international musicological journals. Among them:

  • Tukova, Iryna & Korchova, Olena. (2026) Times of the Looking-Glass: Borys Liatoshynsky’s Choice. Kyiv: Laboratoria, 256 p.
  • Tukova, Iryna. (2021) Music and Natural Science: Interaction of Worlds in the Epochs’ Mental Habits (17th–Early 21st Centuries). Kharkiv: Acta, 456 p.
  • Melnyk, Lidia & Tukova, Iryna. (2025) Herausforderungen der Musikforschung in KrisenzeitenFallbeispiele aus der Ukraine. In: Die Musikforschung. Bd. 78 Nr. 3,268–271. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52412/mf.2025.H3.5082
  • Tukova, Iryna. (2024) Vox Humana of War: Ukrainian Art Music as a Mode of Resistance (2022–24). In: Musicology Today. Vol. 21, p. 3–11. DOI: 10.2478/muso-2024-0002
  • Tukova, Iryna & Homon, Tetiana. (2024) Borys Liatoshynsky’s Opera The Golden Hoop: History, Versions, Primary Sources. In: STUDIA UBB MUSICA, LXIX, Special Issue 3, pp. 9–20. DOI: 10.24193/subbmusica.2024.spiss3.01
  • Tukova, Iryna. (2023) Art Music and War: Ukrainian Case 2022. In: Musicologica Brunensia, Vol. 58, iss. 2, pp. 193–204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5817/MB2023-2-12
  • Rybas, Sergey & Tukova, Iryna & Lentsner, Dina. (2023) Rising Up with “Kalyna”: Examining the invitational rhetoric of “Ой у лузі червона калина” as a social media response to the Russian war in Ukraine. In: GESJ: Musicology and Cultural Science,2(28), pp. 52–69.
  • Tukova, Iryna. (2022) Empirics and theory: is there a ‘female’ music? Or the creative work of modern Ukrainian women-composers. In: Reissing E. and Stefanija L. eds. Composing women. ‘Feminity’ and Views on Cultures, Gender and Music of Southeastern Europe since 1918. Vienna: Hollitzer Verlag, 2022, pp. 117–124. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv3405pw4.11
  • Tukova, Iryna & Redya, Valentina & Kokhanyk, Iryna. (2022) Ukrainian Music Criticism of the 2010s: General Situation, Problems, Directions of Development (Based on the Examples from Contemporary Art Music Scene). In: STUDIA UBB MUSICA, LXVII, 2, pp. 129–143. DOI: 10.24193/subbmusica.2022.2.07
  • Lisniak, Inna & Cherneta Tetiana & Tukova Iryna. (2022) Musical amateur performance in Ukraine of the 1930s as the manifestation of Soviet totalitarian ideology. In: STUDIA UBB MUSICA, LXVII, Special Issue 1, pp. 7–20. DOI: 10.24193/subbmusica.2022.spiss1.01
  • Tukova, Iryna. (2021) Sonoric as a compositional technique: the attempt of critical analysis. In: Scientific herald of Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine, Vol. 132. https://doi.org/10.31318/2522-4190.2021.132.249969
  • Tukova, Iryna. (2018) The Development of Western European Trends in the Kyiv Composition School (2010–2017). In: Lietuvos muzikologija (Lithuanian Musicology), № 19. pp. 52‑61.

CONFERENCES: more than 90 papers at the Ukrainian and international musicological conferences. Among them:

  • Tukova, Iryna. Ideological Compromise as a Strategy of Artistic Survival in the 1920s Soviet Ukraine: The Case of the Mykola Leontovych Music Society. In: 1991: Fall Of Communism and Its Impact On Music And The Arts (28–30 May 2026, UK Parobrod Belgrade, Serbia).
  • Tukova, Iryna. Music of the War: Ukrainian Resistance Case. In: War and Artistic Responses: Theories, Practices, Meanings (International Workshop, New Europe College Institute for Advanced Studies, Bucharest, Romania, 20–21 of May, 2026).
  • Tukova, Iryna. The Opera The Golden Hoop by Borys Liatoshynsky: From Archive to Production. In: Seventh Annual Virtual 2026 Indiana University Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Studies Conference (Indiana University Bloomington, March 26–28, 2026, online).
  • Tukova, Iryna & Batstone, Leah. Politics and policy in the work of the Kyiv-based composer Borys Liatoshynsky during the period of 1920s Ukrainization. In: AMS&SMT 2025 Joint Annual Meetings (Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, 6–9 November 2025).
  • Tukova, Iryna. Composer Agency in Soviet Ukraine: Borys Liatoshynsky’s Efforts to Have His Fourth Symphony Heard. In: Music on the Move in Communist Europe (Department of Music, RMA Music of Eastern Europe and Eurasia Study Group, University of Bristol, UK, 28—29 May, 2025)
  • Lentsner, Dina & Tukova, Iryna. Branding National Identity through Ukrainian Art Music of the Wartime. In: Postcolonial Situation in the Arts After the Collapse of the Soviet Union: Experience, Impact, Reassessment: International Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference (Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, Riga, April 9 – 12, 2025).
  • Tukova, Iryna. Ukrainian Musicology Under the War: Everyday Life and Current Challenges. In: Seminar of British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (Online, 15.01.2025).
  • Tukova, Iryna. Resistance Through Art Music: The Ukrainian Case. In: Ukrainian Cultural Diplomacy and Musical Creation (CEFRES Prague, 27–29 November 2024).
  • Tukova, Iryna (keynote). Music Composition as a Political Statement: Art Music, War, and Resistance in Ukraine 2022–23. In: Music on the Periphery of Aesthetics: Between Politics, Business and Wellbeing (University of Warsaw, Poland, 6–7 June 2024).
  • Tukova, Iryna & Homon, Tetiana. Solving the Puzzle of Liatoshynsky’s Golden Hoop. In: Les avant-gardes musicales ukrainiennes: de 1910 à nos jours (Sorbonne Université, Paris, France, April 24–25, 2024).
  • Tukova, Iryna. Art Music as a Resistance Tool: The Ukrainian Case of 2022–2023. In: 5th Annual Taras Shevchenko Conference (IU Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, March 21–23, 2024, online).
  • Tukova, Iryna. Ukrainian Art Music at the Time of the War: Composers’ Reflections. In: International Conference Ukraine in Music History (University of Vienna, Austria, May 19–21, 2023).
  • Tukova, Iryna. Musicology in Ukraine Today. Problems of Everyday Life, Reflections on the Past, and New Challenges. In: Building Relationships in a Changing World. European Musicological Seminar (Institut de Recherche en Musicologie Sorbonne Université, Paris, France, May 15, 2023, online).

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

2023—present: a co-founder of NGO Liatoshynsky Foundation