Folklore Lecture Series at the Kule Folklore Centre

“Music & Comics: An intermedia lecture-recital exploring a music-based graphic narrative”

Join us on January 23, 2026, for the next Kule Folklore Lecture with Illia Pokotylo, an
MA graduate in Media and Cultural Studies, MLCS.

How does music influence image and story? In this lecture-recital, Illia Pokotylo will present Borys Liatoshynsky: A Life in Reflections (2025) — a graphic narrative about the Ukrainian composer that he co-created with visual artist Ihor Tvoronovych. The talk will explore how musical ideas can be reimagined through the visual language of comics, using A Life in Reflections as a central example. The presentation will conclude with a live performance of excerpts from Liatoshynsky’s piano cycle “Reflections,” which served as a foundational music piece for the creation of the graphic narrative.

🗓 January 23, 2026
🕙 12 p.m. MDT
📍 Student Lounge, Old Arts Building, University of Alberta
💳Free admission (please register!)

🔗 RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/music-comics-exploring-a-music-based-graphic-narrative-tickets-1980292955538?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Illia Pokotylo is a recent graduate of the Master’s program in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. Originally from Kyiv, he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Ethnomusicology at the National Academy of Music of Ukraine. This interdisciplinary program shaped his initial interest in conducting research on how music — in its broad sense — is represented across non-sounding artistic media. During his Master’s program at the University of Alberta, Illia examined the representation of music in graphic narratives such as comics and graphic novels, which led to the creation of Borys Liatoshynsky: A Life in Reflections.