Home > About KCMD
Who we are
Kyiv Contemporary Music Days (KCMD) is an NGO that functions as an educational and concert platform for new music.
Founded in 2015, KCMD has organized more than 160 events in Ukraine, Portugal, Japan, Germany, and Lithuania to date with musicians from over 25 countries. Despite our projects' vast geography and scale, KCMD has essentially remained a grassroots initiative true to the spirit of solidarity, horizontality, and mutual help born out of the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.
What we do
KCMD produces festivals, concerts of chamber, orchestra, and electroacoustic music, live streams, masterclasses for composers and performers, and lectures for professional musicians and a wider audience. Since February 24, 2022, we also try to preserve the Ukrainian music community and make sure Ukrainian voices are heard internationally.
Our mission
The mission of the KCMD team stands on the idea of nurturing new music community, developing its ecosystem, creating new formats and opportunities for education, exchange, and professional fulfilment of artists in Ukraine and around the world. We expand the landscape of new music by enriching it with Ukrainian voices and experiences.
KCMD is about the people first and about the music right after that.
Strategic priorities
1. Educational activities
2. Concert activities
3. International integration
4. Work with the community and its interests
History
KCMD was founded in 2015 by Francisco Morais Franco (guitarist, Portugal), Darko Horvatic (clarinetist, Serbia-Croatia), Junya Makino (violin, Japan), and Albert Saprykin (composer, pianist, Ukraine).
Throughout 2015–2024, we did over 160 events in Ukraine, Portugal, Japan, Germany, and Lithuania with musicians from over 25 countries.
Among the performers KCMD worked with are Ensemble KNM Berlin, ensemble mosaik, Sarah Maria Sun, Gerald Preinfalk, KONTRA Trio, Ozgür Aydin and Antonii Baryshevskyi, Junya Makino, Yuri Matsuzaki, Milosz Drogowski, Nina Janssen-Deinzer, and many others.
As for composers, Åke Parmerud, Alla Zagaykevych, Annette Vande Gorne, Jaime Reis, Maxim Kolomiiets, Mehmet Can Özer, Michael Quell, Sergej Newski, Stefan Prins, Svyatoslav Lunyov, and others contributed to our mission by working with us.
24.02.2022 —
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine started, we streamlined our activities into two directions:
Preserve the Ukrainian musical community (both classical and contemporary classical) by supporting Ukrainian classical musicians. To this end, we've started the Support Fund for the Ukrainian classical music community.
KCMD is putting effort into the presentation of Ukrainian contemporary music and culture internationally through various activities from public talks and concerts to private consulting about the Ukrainian music scene. To this end, the KCMD team held a string of international public talks in partnership with initiative neue musik berlin (Germany), CelloBello (USA), Jauna Muzika (Lithuania), Ulysses Network, and organized or took part as partner in 8 events — both online and offline — in Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania, and the USA.
Moreover, KCMD has created and maintains a Portfolio of key actors in the sphere of Ukrainian new music. It is a curated selection of organizations and professionals that best represent the field of new music in Ukraine today and are the go-to institutions for international cooperation.
Our partners
KYIV
CONTEMPORARY
MUSIC DAYS
nurturing new music
communities in Ukraine
and the world
Newsletter