Kyiv Contemporary Music Days (KCMD), an educational and concert platform for new music, launches SignsGames, a project designed to help families of displaced Ukrainians with children overcome the psychological effects of the Russian full-scale invasion with the help of music. Created in cooperation with professional music collectives from Ukraine and Germany and Ukrainian contemporary classical composers, the project focuses on the therapeutic aspects of collective music-making and group interactions, aiming to promote new music among the younger generation.
The project consisted of eight free workshops for kids and teenagers in Kyiv (1–2 June 2024) and Berlin (30 June, 6–7 July 2024). At the workshops, children will learn what new music is and get to know professional musicians in a relaxed friendly setting: in Kyiv, they will meet the members of the National Ensemble of Soloists Kyiv Camerata and in Berlin, the musicians of the Ensemble KNM Berlin. The main part of the workshops, however, will be practical and playful: children will get to play music together with adult musicians.
KCMD commissioned Ukrainian composers Renata Sokachyk and Yana Shliabanska to create musical pieces to be performed at workshops exclusively for the SignsGames project. The works are designed to be performed by professional musicians together with children and teenagers with no experience of playing musical instruments. Combining music-playing with games, the pieces will deliberately include elements of randomness and surprise, so children can learn new instruments without worrying about playing something wrong.
The project’s title refers to the series Signs, Games and Messages by influential 20th-century composer György Kurtág. Signs, Games and Messages are works for various instrumental ensembles, in which the composer evokes light-hearted playfulness and invites the listener to explore the instruments for which the works are written. Similarly, in their works, Renata Sokachyk and Yana Shliabanska create a space for children and teenagers to play musical games, explore musical instruments, and live the experience of music-making within a real ensemble on an equal footing with professional musicians.
The workshops were developed in consultation with professional psychologist and music therapist Maryna Sliot. A safe space will be created for children, teenagers, and their families where they can relax, meet new people, have fun, and learn something new.