Elections without a choice: the capital conservatory semi-secretly held rector elections

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The National Academy of Music in Sofia, which still bears the name of the Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, has elected a rector. According to information UP. Culturewill remain in this position for another 5 years Maxim Tymoshenko. He was the only candidate. The first round of elections took place on November 24, and it will also be the last. Tymoshenko was voted by an overwhelming majority – a total of 373 votes of teachers and student representatives. Against – 64. A total of 512 people could participate in the vote.

The very election campaign of the head of the institution, to which professionals, students, and music connoisseurs have many questions, took place in a semi-secret way. On the official website of the conservatory there is only one notification from September 12 that the Ministry of Culture announced a competition for the position of rector.

There is no information about the end of the campaign on the websites of either the Academy or the ICIP.

At the request of Ukrainian Pravda, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy did not provide information on the number of candidates and the course of the elections. The Music Academy refused to talk about this topic. There are still no official announcements regarding the results of the voting on the morning of Monday, November 27.

Rector of the Academy of Music Maxim Tymoshenko. Photo: Petro Tchaikovsky Facebook

The Ministry of Culture also did not provide information at the request of Ukrainian Pravda regarding the documents that Maksym Tymoshenko submitted to the competition, referring to the Law on the Protection of Personal Data. There they only noted that he “submitted the necessary documents to the ICIP within the specified period”.

Tymoshenko Rectorate

For the first time, Maksym Tymoshenko was elected rector of the National Academy of Music in an open competition in 2018. However, his predecessor Volodymyr Rozhok, who managed the conservatory 14 years before, did not want to resign just like that. Therefore, the beginning of Tymoshenko’s tenure was turbulent: the struggle for power, suspension and reinstatement through the court.

After all, the Academy disappeared from the news for a while. It was mentioned only in 2019 in connection with the state program “Great Restoration” – the prominent building on Maidan Nezalezhnosti has had its facade renovated.

With the start of the full-scale Academy, attention is drawn again. But not because of its consolidating role for the musical environment, not because of support programs for students and teachers, but because of the name of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, which the institution continues to bear. And this despite the law on pre-colonization, despite the demolition of monuments to the colonizers and the renaming of streets and cities, despite the protests of students, graduates and teachers.

Updated facade of the building. Photo:

The administration of the university, led by Tymoshenko, continues to insist that Tchaikovsky – Ukrainian composer and his creative heritage belongs to Ukraine. Although Tchaikovsky himself repeatedly called himself a Russian. Although he created the music for the propaganda work of the Russian Empire “Mazepa”, which strengthened Russian subjects in the opinion that the outstanding Ukrainian hetman was a loser and a traitor.

The reproduction of Ukrainian melody in some of the composer’s works and the Ukrainian origin of the family proved to be more important for keeping his name in the title. For this purpose, the Academy even commissioned an examination from the National State Institute of Ukrainian Studies. It was stated there “Ukrainian genetic code” Tchaikovsky.

Portrait of Tchaikovsky in one of the offices of the academy. Photo: Petro Tchaikovsky Facebook

The name of Tchaikovsky was assigned to the Kiev and Moscow conservatories by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in honor of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Since then, both institutions bear this name.

Starting from June 2022, due to the name of Tchaikovsky in the name of the Academy, one by one, the best teachers of the NMAU began to resign: musicologists Olena Korchova and Yurii Chekan, conductor Volodymyr Sirenko, composer Alla Zagaikevich. The students were also not silent and organized a protest. The leadership of the Academy ignored this event.

Read also:

Kyiv Conservatory refused to remove Tchaikovsky from its name

Time “C” for the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. What is wrong with her and why is the problem not only in the name

“It’s a shame that we still have to prove something”: protests against Tchaikovsky in the name of the capital conservatory

Instead, under Tymoshenko’s leadership, the Academy of Music is conducting an active campaign to link the institution’s history to the Russian Imperial Music Society. On October 27, 2023, the administration of the conservatory organized a concert in honor of the so-called 160th anniversary of the institution. Although in 2013 the institution celebrated its 100th anniversary, taking November 3, 1913 as the foundation date – opening day of the conservatory.

Corruption scandals – another topic that makes the institution appear in the news. On November 3, 2022, the SBU exposed Academy officials – one of the vice-rectors and the director of the opera studio – for systemic corruption. They decided to make money from the illegal rental of premises in the heart of the capital.

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