It’s been three-plus years of brutal warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine with more than 100,000 troops killed combined, according to the Biden administration in 2024, and more than 13,000 Ukrainian civilians killed, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights this year. Mikhail Bozylev — Russian, a pianist and composer as well as a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance — would like to remind everyone of the common love and humanity we all share. “And not the violence,” he emphasizes. So the 29-year-old went to a studio in Eugene and recorded his premiere album, Love and Death, which he will perform May 30 at the UO. As Bozylev notes, the album contains two parallel plots, which represent general civilians’ stories from both sides of the conflict. It is a story about love and death that are so different, but never survived without each other. Bozylev is an accomplished composer and performer. In 2020, he became an artist of the Siberian State Symphony Orchestra, and last year his solo piano piece “Dialogue” took a special prize in the 4th Ise-Shima International Composition Competition.

Mikhail Bozylev performs from his premiere solo piano album Love and Death 7:30 pm Friday, May 30, at Frohnmayer Music building, room 190, at the University of Oregon. The concert is free.