Dmytro Malyi: The Scomorokhs

Dmytro Malyi (b. 1987) is a Ukrainian composer, pianist, and teacher from Kherson. In 2007, he finished the Kherson Music School as a pianist, and in 2012 he completed his studies at the Kharkiv Kotlyarevskyi National University of Arts as a composer (under Professor Victor Muzhchyl) and a pianist (under Professor Volodymyr Ptushkin). After graduating from the university, he worked in China for five years, teaching piano, composition, and music theory. Since 2020 he has been working at the departments of composition and music theory of the Kharkiv Kotlyarevskyi National University of Arts. Dmytro Malyi has won many awards: at the international competition ITF (Mansi, USA, 2019), Shid-opera (Kharkiv, 2020), Spheres of a Genius – A Tribute to Leonard Bernstein (Vienna, 2021). Malyi’s works are performed in Ukraine (in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and other cities), as well as in the USA and China. The composer has written over 30 works, including symphonic pieces such as Angelic Acts, Concertino for guitar and orchestra, Concerto for Orchestra, and Overture ‘Land of the Ancestors’; chamber pieces such as Fools for trombone and piano, and Sound Engravings for flute, clarinet and piano; as well as vocal works such as Christmas Mass for soloists, children’s choir and chamber ensemble, Ave Regina Caelorum for choir accompanied by piano, My Land for soloists, children’s choir, bagpipes and piano, Lullaby for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble, and the opera Green Circle (libretto by Yulita Ran). Currently he is working with non-traditional notation and extended techniques of playing instruments.

The Scomorokhs (The Tragicomic Scene) was written for the 2019 International Trombone Festival’s Composers Workshop. The “Skomorokhs” were ancient Russian street performers, who entertained people with songs, dances, comic plays and acrobatics. They appeared in the 11th century, were considered “devil servants”, and later outlawed by the church in the 17th century.