KharkivMusicFest Opens in Kharkiv for the Ninth Time

KharkivMusicFest 2026 opens in Kharkiv, featuring classical and Ukrainian music, experimental performances, children’s orchestra, free events, and a month-long program ending with Kyiv Camerata.

In Kharkiv on the evening of April 24, the KharkivMusicFest 2026 opened in one of the city’s safe spaces.

As reported by a Ukrinform correspondent, the festival was opened by the National Presidential Orchestra (conductor Maksym Husak).

The program featured Benjamin Britten’s “Simple Symphony,” Oleh Bezborodko’s “Carpe Diem,” and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.

“It is an extraordinary honour for me to be here with you today, and I thank you for the invitation. Kharkiv is truly inspiring. A city that shows strength, shows energy, shows dignity in everything you do. You are the inner backbone of our entire state. I am very glad that the festival is taking place and that life is thriving in Kharkiv. When I arrived this morning, I saw traffic jams, people going to work, there are many things going on. You can feel a very strong, active life here, and it is extremely inspiring,” said Tetiana Berezhna, Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy of Ukraine and Minister of Culture, in her welcoming address.

This year’s festival theme is “A Story About the Future.” The focus is on classical and Ukrainian music, and each work selected for the program carries its own reference to the future, says the festival’s program director Yuliia Nikolaievska. In some cases, it is also about reinterpreting music — as with Viktor Kosenko’s “Heroic Overture.”

“The composer wrote it in the context of the October anniversary, but today we hear this work in a completely different way. Heroic motifs and intonations are eternal. Classical music tells us that there are things that do not change,” Nikolaievska noted.

The theme of the future will also be highlighted by the participation of the KharkivMusicFest children’s orchestra and a two-day programme of contemporary electroacoustic music.

“Renowned composer Alla Zahaikevych will come. Well-known Ukrainian electroacoustic composer Ostap Manuliak will also perform together with Volodymyr Voit, who can be described as an ambassador of the bandura in the world. Together they will present experimental performances,” the programme director said.

Foreign performers will be almost absent due to the security situation, confirmed KharkivMusicFest president Serhii Polituichyi.

“People living in peaceful cities in the West have a much more frightening perception of Kharkiv than we do, those who live here. There is uncertainty and an image of life here as constant shelling. Although, in essence, that is partly true. But we have already become used to it, and they have not. Even guests from other Ukrainian cities had a very mixed reaction to our invitation. Some came, but most, for various reasons, will not be at the festival. Still, we are very grateful to those who agreed to come,” Polituichyi told media.

Despite all the challenges, the organizers are already thinking about the next, tenth festival.

“Given that in 2027 the next decade of our festival will begin, we are not limiting ourselves to stage events and large concerts. We are also planning various activities until the end of 2026. For example, flash mobs in cafés or restaurants, events for school students and university students. In the first year of the full-scale war, I was not entirely sure whether we had the moral right to hold a festival when explosions drown out music. But after the first concert, I saw that such musical events are even more important for Kharkiv residents than before the war. Because it is a breath of fresh air, it is a celebration of life despite the war — terrible and brutal. It is an opportunity for social interaction for people who are tired of fear and loneliness. It is like a reminder of better times in our beloved city of Kharkiv,” Polituichyi said.

All KharkivMusicFest events remain free of charge, while audience members can optionally make donations, including in support of the children’s symphony orchestra.

The concert programme will last for almost a month, with nine more concerts scheduled.

April 26: “Elegy for the Composer” – presentation of the Anthology of Chamber and Piano Works by Fedir Yakymenko, marking the 150th anniversary of his birth.

April 28: “BoGoDar” – a concert by Honoured Artist of Ukraine Myroslava Kotorovych (violin, Ukraine).

May 4: “The Artist and War: From Reflection to Creativity” – musical conversations with Yuliia Nikolaievska.

May 7: “Wings” – a concert by the children’s orchestra (conductors Florian Reitner (Austria), Yurii Yakovenko (Ukraine)).

May 11: “Strength and Light” – a concert by the Lviv National Philharmonic named after Myroslav Skoryk (conductor Serhii Khorovets, soloist Artur Ostapchuk, piano, Ukraine).

May 14: “Tango, Scherzo and Nocturne” (performers Kateryna Suprun (viola, Germany–Ukraine) and Maksym Shadko (piano, Ukraine)).

May 18: the electroacoustic performance “Landscapes of Sylvestrov” (performers: Alla Zahaikevych (composer, Ukraine), Heorhii Potopalskyi (electronics, Ukraine), Yelyzaveta Soloviova (bandura, Ukraine), as well as virtual instrumentalists).

May 19: improvisational concert “Microtonal Expressions” (performers: Volodymyr Voit (bandura, Ukraine) and Ostap Manuliak (composer, Ukraine)).

May 21: festival closing concert. The National Ensemble of Soloists “Kyiv Camerata” will perform (conductor Leonard Wacker (Germany), soloists Dmytro Tavanets and Oleksandra Zaitseva (piano, Ukraine)).

More details about the events are available on the festival’s website.

As previously reported, on April 24 in Ivano-Frankivsk, the choral music festival “Cathedral Bells” was opened with the participation of ensembles from Kyiv.

EMPR