According to the festival’s main organizer Albert Saprykin, the idea to create a contemporary art music festival emerged when the planned series of concerts by Kroiser Ensemble became a total of sixteen events and eleven participants, eight of which were international guests. It showed that there was quite a high demand for art music in Kyiv, so the organizers decided to increase the number of participants and venues, transforming a series of concerts into a full-fledged music festival.
The main goal of Kyiv Contemporary Music Days is to promote contemporary art music, both works that are already considered contemporary classics (pieces by Giacinto Scelsi, Witold Lutosławski, Toru Takemitsu, Tristan Murail, Galina Ustvolskaya, Marc-André Dalbavie, etc.) and the latest works by European and Ukrainian composers. The program of the inaugural edition of the festival focused on orchestral woks by prominent composers of the 20th and 21st centuries that had never been performed in Kyiv before.
The program of the first Kyiv Contemporary Music Days featured concerts by Kroiser Ensemble, Armonia Ludus Chamber Orchestra (conductor Mikheil Menabde), Sed Contra Ensemble, pianist Antony Baryshevsky, and other performers. Honorary guests of the festival included well-known contemporary composers from Russia, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Poland, and Italy.
Although the festival’s name suggests that the event takes place in the city of Kyiv, some concerts are also held in Lviv. In Kyiv, venues that host the festival concerts include Mystetskyi Arsenal, Goethe-Institut, the Chocolate House in Shovkovychna Street, Dim Master Klass, Petro Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine, Kharms Art Cafe & Bookstore, and the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. In Lviv, concerts are held at Lviv Philharmonic and the Word and Voice Center.
