The symphonic-choral oratorio “Song of Songs” by Sister Maria Slepchenko, a Greek Catholic Redemptorist nun and composer from Lviv, won the Grand Prix of the American International Youth Music Competitions (IYMC) in July 2025.
“It’s a great surprise, I still can’t believe it… Now I have the opportunity to represent Ukraine and our Church before representatives from various countries around the world. I strive to continue my studies and work for the glory of Jesus Christ and for the good of our people and the Church,” wrote the winner of the open category, over 27 years old.
As the artist herself explains, “The Song of Songs” is a spiritual story about her calling. The idea of transforming this biblical text into a musical work arose while still in the monastery, but for a long time, she was at a loss as to how to realize it. After many years, the project was completed.
Sister Maria’s compositions have won numerous awards at prestigious European competitions. Her symphonic poem “The Third Angel” won second place at the Vienna International Composition Competition, organized under the patronage of the Franz Schubert Conservatory of Vienna.
Sister Maria has lived in the convent for 26 years. Prayer and music have been inextricably linked to her since the beginning.
Sister Maria’s dream was also to study at the conservatory. She attended the Solomiya Krushelnytska School of Music in Lviv. At the same time, she felt a strong religious calling. Initially, she wanted to enter a monastery, pursue religious formation, and only then study. Her family convinced her to begin her studies first.
“I come from a family of artists. I entered both the monastery and the conservatory at the same time. My teachers were composers Myroslav Skoryk and Myroslav Volynskyi. Reconciling studies with religious life was very difficult. The monastery became my first choice, and I didn’t complete my studies,” recalls Sister Maria.
In 2001, she entered the contemplative Order of Redemptoristine Nuns in Poland. After three years in Tuchów, in 1992 the nuns moved to the new monastery in Bielsko-Biała, where Sister Maria lived for many years and made her religious profession.
Sister Maria Slepchenko’s entire award-winning piece can be heard on her YouTube channel:
During her stay in Poland, Sister Maria took private composition lessons with Professor Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz of the Academy of Music in Krakow, as she was unable to study regularly. She eventually completed her composition studies at the Lviv branch of the American Academy of Music.
To better understand how her compositions sound when performed by an orchestra, she learned to play the violin and harp. Her main instrument, however, is the piano, which she began playing at the age of five. Her mother dreamed of her daughter receiving a musical education, while her father saw her as a painter. Sister Maria also creates icons.
In her room at the monastery, she has an electronic piano that, thanks to headphones, allows her to compose at night without disturbing her fellow nuns. She composes choral and liturgical music, performed during religious services, as well as instrumental and orchestral pieces, including for choir and symphony and chamber orchestra.
Of her vocation, she says: “For me, it’s above all a response to love. It began when I felt how much God loves me. It was an experience so incomprehensible, so overwhelming, that I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t put into words what was happening inside me. I realized I had to dedicate my life to God, even if the shape of this path wasn’t immediately clear.”
The International Youth Music Competitions is an organization that organizes music competitions for young artists. Winners who achieve a minimum score of 80 points are eligible to perform in recitals in New York. The competitions are international in nature and include various categories, from soloists to chamber ensembles, choirs, and composers.
The Order of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptoristine Nuns) was founded in 1731 by the Italian mystic Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa in the town of Scala. The distinctive symbol of the Redemptorists is the red habit. There are currently 47 Redemptoristine convents on all continents. The order’s first monastery in Poland was inaugurated on September 29, 1989, in Tuchów. A similar Greek Catholic monastery was founded in Ukraine in 2016.
source: diecezja.bielsko.pl
