Kyiv avant-garde


The Kyiv avant-garde was an informal group of avant-garde composers that was formed in Kyiv before 1965.
The composers of the group studied the works of Stravinsky, Bartók, composers of the Second Viennese School, as well as Edgard Varèse, Cage, Xenakis, Luciano Berio, Witold Lutosławski and other post-serial avant-garde composers. Due to the divergence from the retrograde tendencies of the official musical circles of the USSR, members of the "Kyiv avant-garde" were subjected to various kinds of oppression. In 1970, V. Silvestrov, V. Godziatsky, L. Grabovsky, V. Guba were expelled from the Union of Composers of the Ukrainian SSR. Soon the group disbanded, and the members of the Kyiv Avant-Garde, expelled from the union, were reinstated only three years later, after they, in search of protection, wrote a letter to the Lenin Prize laureates - Shostakovich, Kara Karaev and Khachaturyan. According to Valentyn Silvestrov, expulsion from the union "could be compared to strangulation."
Members of the Kyiv Avant-Garde group in the early 60s were:
A little later, they were joined by:
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