Name: Illia Razumeiko
Age: 29
Education: Kyiv Music Academy (2012), University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (since 2013)
Profession: Composer
Did you know? In the last five years Razumeiko has flown 70,000 km between Vienna and Kyiv with WizzAir
Illya Razumeiko is a hard person to track down, dividing his time between Ukraine and Austria, especially the cities of Vienna, Kyiv, and Ivano-Frankivsk. He is heavily involved in numerous groundbreaking cultural events.
A native of Zaporizhia, the city of 750,00 people located 560 kilomters southeast of Kyiv, Razumeiko moved to Kyiv to study music composition at the National Music Academy, from which he graduated in 2012. While studying there he met Roman Hryhoriv, and the two have since become the co-composers of major experimental operas such as IYOV, Babilon, and The Arch. These operas have been staged as part of the NOVA OPERA project, both in Ukraine and internationally.
Razumeiko is currently finishing his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He decided to study anew in Vienna because of a unique course offered there — electroacoustic composition. While studying in Vienna he has brought lots of innovative electroacoustic music to Ukraine by means of Porto Franko, an international arts festival he organizes in Ivano-Frankivsk. There, he and his team have staged musical performances that made use of the acoustic properties of an airplane and an old church, among other things.
Not all Razumeiko’s cultural innovations are welcome by everybody in Ivano-Frankivsk: Some more traditional listeners have found certain performances staged during the festival unsettling. One of Razumeiko’s opponents is Roman Martsinkov, the mayor. After attending one performance, Martsinkov asked local priests to consecrate a concert venue where he said an impure performance had been held.
Notwithstanding the mayor’s disapproval, Razumeiko and his friends continue to foster international cultural ties. Razumeiko takes inspiration from Vienna, a world center of musical arts. He has developed a tour of Viennese cemeteries dedicated to great composers buried in the city — Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, and others.
Razumeiko is working on his graduation paper. He has two great professors helping him with his work — Karlheinz Essl (composition), and Gesine Schröder (theory).
Razumeiko’s own pieces, instrumental music written under his German-style pseudo name Elias Spricht, are performed mostly in Austria, including at the famous Wien Modern festival in Vienna. Ukrainians who cannot afford a ticket to Vienna can download Elias Spricht’s music from cloud applications in the Internet.
