Oksana Shkurgan

uni_femaleOksana Shkurgan graduated from the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University in Kiev, Ukraine, and the Postgraduate Studies (Doctoral Programme) at the Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. In 2019 she obtained the title of Doctor of the Liberal Arts in the field of art studies, on the basis of a dissertation entitled “Studies on the Musical Heritage of Ukraine. The Reception and Adaptation of Music Composed in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for the Needs of the Roman-Catholic Church – in Uniate Circles in the 17th and 18th Centuries” (supervised by Professor Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińska, PhD, Habil., at IS PAN). Shkurgan’s research focuses on the religious music culture of communities following the Eastern church rite in the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and in particular – on music written for the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic (Uniate) Churches in the 17th and 18th centuries. An important place in her academic work is occupied by the studies of how the musical achievements of Polish-speaking Roman Catholic circles influenced the Uniate music that became part of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. Another area of her research concerns the problem of the reception and adaptation of songs from the Polish Roman-Catholic repertoire for the Uniate congregations. These include compositions performed during the Basilian monks’ folk missions in the 2nd half of the 18th century, as well as the songs compiled by the Basilian missionary fathers Korneli Sroczyński (1731–1790) and Tymoteusz Szczurowski (1740–1812), who were active on the Eastern frontier of the Commonwealth. 2018 saw the publication (in the series Fontes Musicae in Polonia) of the facsimile edition of Simon Maychrowicz (1717–1783). «Nauka zbawienna na missyi Societatis Jesu zwyczayna» (Lwów 1767) [Simon Maychrowicz (1717–1783). ‘The Salutary Teaching Customary at the Missions of Societas Jesu’ (Lviv 1767)], edited by Oksana Shkurgan. The author is currently working on another facsimile edition – that of the Jesuit hymnbook Pieśni nabożne [Devotional Songs] (Vilnius 1745)