Lubomyr Melnyk. The transcendent continuous piano
Monday, 23 February 2026, 8pm
The New Space, Gradel Quadrangles, Mansfield Road
Balliol College Music Society presents: Lubomyr Melnyk live in Oxford - first return series
The Balliol College Music Society (BCMS) brings you another recital from the world-class Ukrainian pianist Lubomyr Melnyk, in The New Space of New College, as he returns to Oxford for an highly anticipated return series. Filling the Barbican in 2023, and packing venues in the Colleges Balliol, Magdalen and Wadham in November 2025, Lubomyr looks forward to sharing continuous music with you all, dear friends, this February 2026.
Last November, the BCMS saw, for the first time, academics in tears, and we were moved by the fantastically warm reception and to see just how touched many of our attendees were by Lubomyr's music. We are extremely excited to announce that this return will be complemented by the activities of the professional film-maker Rupert Clague, who has been making a documentary about Lubomyr over the last 5 years - executive producer, Werner Herzog! - and by the research interests of Oliver Durcan, a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, University of London and founder of Creative Empirical. The BCMS will be working with Durcan and others going forward to better understand the wealth of anecdotal claims made about Lubomyr's neurophysical technique and the extraordinary experiences of a certain percentage of audience members.
Register for the study here (must do so in advance, if interested).
Purchase tickets for this concert here.
One of the most remarkable pianists of our time, Lubomyr creates music which is immersive and transporting. As he channels phenomenal energies and speeds in unbroken yet dynamic pieces, the typical audience is thunderstruck by his stamina and is swept up in the glistening polyphony, perhaps not realising that, for him, the playing is joyful and as easy as breathing: there is no real question of 'stamina'. Often described as transcendental, Lubomyr prefers to think of (the more recent incarnations of) his music instead as the: "operatic voice for the piano," as his great calmness allows him to maintain a multitude of songs over and under the flow of the piece, a calm which extends to an incredible feeling of freedom: the open-minded listener is able to join him in the eye of the storm. That calmness is even found notable when his students give amateur performances.
What was initially an attempt to bring the burgeoning minimalist, ambient sound and the Indian classical virtuosity to the Western classical tradition soon became an entirely new genre and world of sound, when Lubomyr left the Canadian conservatoires in the early '70s to work in Paris. Lubomyr's pioneering "continuous music" is both a new physical and mental technique, orthogonal to those of the classical traditions, and a philosophy of piano music and performance. His incredible creates a sound which is tangible, often sounding like three or four pianos at once, or not like a piano at all. His range of touches - from the impossible liquidity to the raw hurricane in "Windmills", his greatest piece - is made possible only by his mental state, and he attributes the spiritual force of his playing to his Ukrainian heritage.
The organiser, Nathan Adlam, and Lubomyr extend their thanks to the Warden, Fellows and Porters of New College for the venue; to all at Balliol College for their continuing support of both Lubomyr and the musical society; to Dr Emilie Capulet, Dr Juan Gonzalez, Dr Alexander Binns, Dr Sung Hee Kim, Dr Anna Zerio, the Revd Dr Laura Biron-Scott, Professor Kate Crosby, Professor Thomas Melham, Louisa Denby, Dasha Nepochatova, Sylvia Temple, Alexander Russell, Oliver Durcan, Rupert Clague, Sean Qualter, Peter Tsakov and countless others for their particular interest and support of this series; and to the Oxford University Ukrainian Society for their endless spirit and the undeniable community buzz they bring to our events. We also thank any and all who attended our last concert series with Lubomyr, and those who joined in the 'fireside chats', making last November so special and leaving Lubomyr feeling very welcome in Oxford.
