LUBOMYR MELNYK

After Lubomyr Melnyk arrived on the scene, the world of the piano was permanently changed. He completely redefined the instrument’s possibilities, bringing a whole new level of virtuosity to the stage with music that is both engaging and powerful. His visionary approach introduced astounding new elements into piano playing.

Born in Ukraine in 1948, Lubomyr Melnyk fell in love with the piano at an early age. After his family emigrated to Canada following the fall of the Iron Curtain, he began taking lessons as a child and was immediately captivated by the instrument’s potential. “On the piano, you can create whole worlds,” he reflects. “I realized that it could be an orchestra, a choir of sound.”

Trained for the classical concert halls, Lubomyr changed course while living in Paris in the early 1970s. Struggling financially and living the life of La Bohème, he discovered a new world of piano music. To support himself, he accompanied dance lessons for a company led by experimental choreographer Carolyn Carlson. This experience became a revelation: watching Carlson’s dancers, he began to play a new kind of music—spontaneous and improvisatory—responding not to rigid classical conventions but to the movement unfolding before him. Using the sustain pedal to create echoes and reverberations, he transformed cascading notes into hypnotic waves of sound. Eventually, he gave this new style a name: Continuous Music, a term he still uses today.

His Continuous Music blends four key elements: classical piano, minimalist drumming, martial arts, and transcendental meditation. With these influences, Melnyk achieves what no other pianist has done before, thanks to his extraordinary virtuosity. His unique technique allows him to create dreamlike effects on the piano, producing textures and rhythms that seem almost impossible to execute. He composes as he plays, shaping intricate lines and rhythmic patterns that expand into vast, interwoven soundscapes.

Critics have noted influences from Ravi Shankar and Indian classical music in Melnyk’s work, alongside the insistent, repetitive textures of minimalist pioneers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass. He himself acknowledges his debt to American composer Terry Riley, particularly Riley’s groundbreaking 1964 composition In C, which he credits with opening new musical horizons for him. But if you listen carefully, you will also hear the lilting contours of traditional Ukrainian folk music woven into his compositions. In truth, Melnyk’s music is unlike anything else: a unique and pioneering sound, boldly charting its own path.

His deeply personal performances have captivated audiences around the world, while his most complex compositions have astonished the piano establishment, as they are nearly unplayable. His music creates a magical auditory experience, merging the beautiful Voice of the Piano with a sense of mysticism. This is why listeners find his concerts so powerful and transformative.

The Sacred Thousand is Lubomyr Melnyk’s latest release and most recent creation. He describes the music as a film for the mind: “It is a highly unusual work, where the right hand maintains an endless stream of patterned tones, while the left hand sails like a ship on the sea, moving through harmonic cadences spread over two octaves. It is a somber and thought-provoking piece.” Dedicated to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who held out against the overwhelming Russian army for several weeks at the Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol, it is a spiritual journey into the soul of humanity and the profound depths of our inner strength.