We invite you to the concert inaugurating the new artistic season of the NFM Choir at the Orthodox Cathedral of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary will be filled with Ukrainian sacred music. Performed by musicians under the direction of Lionel Sow, we will hear the work of the composer Lesia Dychko, born in Kiev in 1939, appreciated for her choral oeuvre.

Lesia Dychko is a Ukrainian composer, teacher, and animator of musical life, whose work focuses on vocal and vocal-instrumental music. Currently, she is recognized as the leading representative of choral work in Ukraine. It is not without significance that she has been the first Ukrainian composer to start creating church music after the October Revolution. Dychko is the author of oratorios, cantatas, operas and choral songs. Her works are performed at festivals and concerts all over the world, including in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and European countries. The artist has been awarded many times, including the Taras Shevchenko Award, which is the highest decoration in the field of culture.

The Solemn Liturgy was written in 1999 in collaboration with the famous conductor, founder and longtime leader of Kyiv Choir, Mykola Hobdych. The composition was created over twenty years ago and continues to amaze with the fanciful musical language of Dychko. The score of the piece draws from modernism, at the same time referring to various folklore motifs and to ancient traditions of church music. The text was based on Ukrainian Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. The power of the sound, shimmering with the entire spectrum of musical colours, delights the new generation of artists and music lovers alike.