In 2023, The Ukrainian Institute and the British Council supported the visit of two Ukrainian music professionals to The Great Escape showcase, which took place from 10 to 13 May 2023 in Brighton, UK. Dartsya Tarkovska and Olga Bekenshtein were part of the British Council’s international delegation of 15 music industry representatives from Asia, Europe, and South America.
Ukrainian Music Professionals at the Great Escape 2023
In 2023, The Ukrainian Institute and the British Council supported the visit of two Ukrainian music professionals to The Great Escape showcase, which took place from 10 to 13 May 2023 in Brighton, UK. Dartsya Tarkovska and Olga Bekenshtein were part of the British Council’s international delegation of 15 music industry representatives from Asia, Europe, and South America.
The Great Escape (TGE) showcases the best in the UK and international underground music scene inside the city’s music venues, theatres, pubs, bars, and street corners. The TGE Conference runs alongside the gigs featuring insightful panels, topical debates, keynote speakers, and networking opportunities in abundance. Each year, it is attended by 3,500 music industry professionals.
Dartsya Tarkovska is a co-founder of the independent initiative Music Export Ukraine. After working in the music industry for over a decade, she takes care of the sustainable development of Ukrainian music in an international context. Since 2018, she has provided management support for Ukrainian artists at showcase festivals, coordinated exchange programmes and music conferences, initiated international collaboration projects, and cooperated with state cultural institutions of Ukraine. Dartsya is a graduate of the International Music Marketing course at Berklee College of Music and the author of educational projects on music management and marketing.
Olga Bekenshtein is a music curator, arts administrator, and DJ from Luhansk/Kyiv, Ukraine. She has been the founder of the Am I Jazz? festival, a co-founder of the non-profit organisation OK Projects, and part of the team that runs the club/art centre Closer in Kyiv with its electronic music festivals Strichka and Brave! Factory, the largest and most internationally recognized in Ukraine. Her curatorial approach centres on cross-sectoral, multi-genre contemporary music programming; presenting vanguard artistic projects and commissioning experimental collaborations. As a Fulbright scholar, she earned an MA in Arts Administration from the University of New Orleans in 2020. In her theoretical research, she focuses on decolonization, politically aware performance, and ethics in the music industry.
Read the overview of the main discussions of the TGE conference by Dartsya Tarkovska.