The Ukrainian Institute has announced the winners for the Music from Ukraine 2020-2022 catalogue

The catalogue to represent new Ukrainian music worldwide

The Ukrainian Institute will create an English-language catalogue to showcase the Ukrainian music industry abroad. With an open contest, we will include in the catalogue bands and performers representing contemporary academic, jazz, and mainstream music.

The performers of mainstream (Indie, Rock, Hip Hop), jazz (contemporary jazz, free improvisation, world music), and modern academic music will be represented in the catalogue. Both solo projects and musical bands could participate in the contest.

Hard copies of the catalogue will be distributed among the key international players of the music industry, such as festivals, showcases, main concert venues, higher musical education institutions, journalists and critics, Ukrainian diplomatic missions abroad, as well as representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora. In addition to its practical end to work in the professional environment, the catalogue will become an international promotional means for the current Ukrainian culture.

"Such catalogues are a common practice for cultural diplomacy institutions and a useful tool for representing a cultural product. We will start implementing this format with music by selecting the best Ukrainian bands and performers, who are ready to enter the international market to support and represent Ukrainian music trends to the key agents abroad. The catalogue is an attempt to systematise musical representation and gradually integrate into the global industry," says Iryna Prokofieva, Head of Programmes at the Ukrainian Institute.

The Ukrainian Institute is planning to update the catalogue every two years. Musicians, selected for the catalogue, will as well be involved in the specialised programmes, projects, and events abroad.

"This is also a chance to open new names to the foreign audience," explains Mariana Bondarenko, Music Programme Manager at the Ukrainian Institute. — We want to demonstrate the opportunities of international cooperation with Ukrainian performers, their readiness to interact, mobility, and flexibility."

The musicians was selected by an international jury, consisting of directors of the leading international festivals and showcases, outstanding performers and conductors, music critics and journalists from Austria, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland. They had to chose artists, whose music would be interesting for European audience.