I have been composing music  since I was a child. Through this nearly life-long journey, my creative processes have undergone many changes. Growing up in Western Ukraine, on the periphery of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, Viennese classicism dominated my musical consciousness. New York, however, was the place where I have made my most important musical discoveries and have matured as a composer. My earliest influences, during my undergraduate years in NYC, were the late electronic composer Noah Creshevsky, and an avant-garde, genre bending (before such a term was even in use) singer Lenore von Stein. They introduced me to the realities of American compositional life, and taught me that music could be more than a sonata or a string quartet. 

In my graduate student days in NYC I viewed my compositional practice exclusively from the perspective of the (mostly European) avant-garde. Messiaen, Boulez, Ligeti, Takemitsu, Berio, Scelsi, Sciarrino, Crumb, Cage, Ferneyhough, and Saariaho became my musical gods. I have since come to widen my musical horizons and soften my stance on what kind of music I want to write.

I have written music both complex and simple, avant-garde and accessible, music for adults and children, professionals and amateurs.  At this moment of my career I feel that I am open to many different ways of composing and presenting my music. My long-running dream is to collaborate with theater and dance and write an opera. 

Ever since Covid struck I felt that my opportunities, with added teaching and parenting responsibilities, have significantly diminished. Covid created an artistic isolation, the effects of which I still feel. Wars in Ukraine and Israel, where I have family and friends, caused deep mental blocks from which I am just slowly emerging. 

I do not espouse any fancy compositional theories or belong to any particular school of thought. While it might be hard to define oneself in the age of postmodernism, I can venture to say that my affinities lie somewhere between the traditional and the avant-garde.

My music is not about social upheavals. It’s not the music of protest or rebellion, but, rather, music of private emotions and complex inner worlds.

Please see my videos on YouTube and check my recordings on SoundCloud and AppleMusic. Send your questions or requests via the Contact window, below.