Yevhen Stankovych (born in 1942) is one of Ukraine’s leading contemporary composers. His music for violin and piano is recorded here almost all of it for the first time. The works on this album cover a wide range of emotions, from wild highland dances that distantly recall Szymanowski to the plangent, lyrical lament of Maydan Fresco, protesting the deaths of demonstrators in Maydan Square in 2013.

The musicians here – wife-and-husband team Ukrainian Solomia Soroka and American Arthur Greene – have consulted the composer on the preparation of this programme, giving their interpretations a rare authenticity.

Solomia Soroka was born in Lviv, Ukraine. She earned her master’s degree and completed her postgraduate studies in the Kiev (Kyiv) Conservatoire, and later served on its staff in the department of chamber music. Since her American debut in 1997, she has performed throughout the United States as well. She is a professor of violin at Goshen College, Indiana.

Arthur Greene, born in New York, went to Yale University and The Juilliard School; he now teaches at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Together they have recorded a number of albums for Toccata Classics, in music by Arthur Hartmann (TOCC0089), Mykola Lysenko (TOCC0177) and Myroslav Skoryk (TOCC0137). Toccata Classics has also released the first volume in Arthur Green’s complete recording of Lysenko’s music for solo piano (TOCC0287).