A journey through music shaped by migration: Roman Mints' Another Music Festival at St John's Waterloo

Roman Mints' Another Music Festival

Stefania Turkewich (Turkevycz) was the first Ukrainian woman composer. Born in Lemburg, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine) in 1898, she fled Lviv in 1944 and moved to the UK in 1946 where she died in 1977. In the late 1940s, Turkewich returned to composing and created a significant body of work. From time to time she acted again as a pianist, in particular in 1957 in a series of concerts in Ukrainian communities in Britain, and in 1959 at a concert of piano music in Bristol. She was a member of the British Society of Women-Composers and Musicians (which existed until 1972).

Stefania Turkewich in 1920

Yet, amazingly, her music is hardly heard. Like a host of other émigré composers, Turkewich found a refuge in the UK, but did not really find a musical home. Some composers like Andrzej Panufnik seemed to integrate into British musical life, but others like Berthold Goldschmidt did not. 

On 18 January 2026, young Ukrainian musicians Ira Marchuk and Maksym Artemenko will perform Turkewich’s violin sonata in the UK for the first time. They will perform from a photocopy of the manuscript, as the work has still not been published. The performance takes place at St John's Waterloo as part of Roman Mints' Another Music Festival which over three days explores the rich legacy of composers who have lived or continue to live in exile.

There will be music from historical giants – Chopin, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Enescu, Bartók to neglected composers, including Ukrainian composer Theodore Akimenko (1876-1945), who was Stravinsky's first composition teacher. 

The programme features works composed both before and after emigration, highlighting the continuity and evolution of the composer’s artistic voice, including premieres of Alexey Kurbatov’s Quartet, Boris Filanovsky’s Supremus 3, and two UK premieres: Stephania Turkevych’s Sonata for Violin and Piano and Leonid Desyatnikov’s Leaden Echo.  

Such artistic enterprise does not come cheap, and the festival has a fund-raiser to help defray expenses. Do contribute at their GoFundMe page. 

Another Music Festival is at St John's Waterloo on 18, 21, 23 January 2026, full details from the festival website.