Yurii Pikush was born in 1998 in Dnipro City, Ukraine. He studied at the Dnipro Music Academy (mandolin, 2013-2017) and the Kyiv National Music Academy of Ukraine (composition bachelor’s degree: class of Oleksandr Kostin, 2017-2022, master’s degree: class of Mykola Kovalinas, 2022-2023). He is currently in his third year of postgraduate musicological studies.
All-Ukrainian Borys Liatoshynskyi Composition Competition: diploma of the IV prize and laureate of the Walter Feldman Special Prize (Kharkiv, 2018). Resident of the Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi Scholarship (Lviv, 2021).
Winner of the Second Myroslav Skoryk All-Ukrainian Composition Competition (Lviv, 2023).
Laureate ofLevko Revutskyi State Music Prize (2024). Laureate of Hanna Havrylets’ Composer’s Prize (2025). Laureate of Mykola Leontovych Art Prize (2025).
Presidential scholarship holder (2025). Grant recipient of President of Ukraine (2025).
Member of the National Composers’ Union of Ukraine.
He has participated in numerous master classes of new music—International Master Classes COURSE—Lviv, 2019, 2020—and consulted with composers such as Simon Vosecek, Tamara Friebel, Anna Korsun, Slawomir Wojciechowski, Sergei Meingardt, Etienne Hann, and others. During the composer master classes within the “Warsaw Autumn” festival framework, he consulted with Yannis Kyriakides and Sky Macklay (Poland, 2023).
Yurii’s works have been performed at well-known international festivals of contemporary music: Musikfest Berlin, Musica Viva (Germany, 2025), Kyiv Music Fest (Ukraine, 2025), Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival (USA 2025), 2 Days and 2 Nights of New Music in Odesa (Ukraine 2025), 67th Warsaw Autumn (Poland 2024), 10. Days of Ukrainian Music in Warsaw (Poland 2024), Kyiv Music Premieres of the Season (2024), 19. Neue Tagen Musik Bamberg (Germany, 2023), Usedomer Musikfestival (Germany, 2023), Contrasts (Ukraine, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024), “Kharkiv Music Fest” (2018, 2023), “New Music in Ukraine” (2018), etc. He participated in the Muse Project by Le Vivier Universitatre (Canada) and Kyiv National Music Academy of Ukraine (2023), Transhumanism Multimedia Project (Kyiv, 2023).
Among the performers of Yurii’s music are Basel Sinfonietta (Switzerland), National Soloists Ensemble Kyiv Camerata, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Symphony Orchestra of the Kyiv National Philharmonic, Academic Chamber Orchestra “Lviv Virtuosos”;
NotaBene Chamber Group, Senza Sforzando, Kharkiv Music Fest Quartet, Ensemble Nostri Temporis (Ukraine), PinkNoise Ensemble (USA),Recherche Ensemble (Germany),Proton Ensemble Bern (Switzerland), soloists Nataliia Kozhushko-Maksymiv, Anna Ivaniushenko, Artem Poludennyi, Kateryna Boichuk, Roman Fotuima, Daria Shutko, Viktor Rekalo, and others.
His works have been conducted by Titus Engel (Switzerland), Vincent Kozlovsky (Poland), Roman Rewakowicz (Poland/Ukraine), Natalia Stets, Oleksandr Perepelytsia, Viktor Ploskina, Oleh Marynchenko, Roman Kreslenko, Antonii Kedrovskyi (Ukraine).
Selected works
Solo:
- Variations for piano (2018)
- Split for cello (2020)
- M’Atematics for flute (2024). Commissioned by Nataliia Kozhushko-Maksymiv
String quartets:
- Contrapunctus (2022)
- Radio Quartet (2022)
Piano quintets:
- #melancholie (2019)
- Sempre (2020)
For ensemble:
- Quintet for flute oboe, clarinet, cello, double bass (2019)
- Summa Tempologica for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello (2021)
- Protean for flute, oboe, clarinet, harp, piano (2023). Commissioned by Ensemble Proton Bern
- Be a Cycle for flute, violin, double bass, piano (2023). Commissioned by Neue Musik Tagen Festival in Bamberg
- Noon for violin, cello, electric guitar, visual series (2023)
- Terra Clastri for harpsichord and string quartet (2024; arr. for harpsichord and string orchestra)
- Saxon Blue for saxophone and piano (2024)
- Be a Spiral for NotaBene Chamber Group (2025)
- Between Raindrops for etc.duo (2025)
- And Strawberry in the Hand for voice and ensemble. For Senza Sforzando (2025)
- Res Ficta for sopilka, oboe, violin, double bass and harpsichord (2025)
- Musica Facta (2026) for four violins. Written for Petrichor Ensemble
For orchestra:
- Summa Temporum for chamber orchestra (2021)
- Concerto for violin and symphony orchestra (2023)
- Concerto for cello and symphony orchestra Concellastra (2023) for All-Ukrainian Myroslav Skoryk Composers Competition
- Escape Velocity for chamber orchestra (2024). Commissioned by Pro Musica Viva Foundation
- Domi Res Militaris for symphony orchestra (2024). Commissioned by Warsaw Autumn and Institute of Adam Mickiewicz
- Summa Rerum for symphony orchestra and electronics (2025). Commissioned by the President of Ukraine Grant Program
Chamber opera Josephine after the novel by Franz Kafka (2020).
