KЯIK
The world behind the name
Composer · Pianist · Musical storyteller
Award-winning composer and pianist specialising in emotionally precise, narrative-led music for psychological drama, film, television and musical theatre.
Vlad Krik is a composer and pianist based in Wiesbaden, Germany. Under the name KЯIK, he creates melodic, cinematic and narrative-led music for the concert stage, musical theatre and visual storytelling.
His work is shaped by a sustained interest in character, memory, symbolic conflict and the moments in which human choice becomes irreversible.
Alongside composition and performance, Vlad’s background in analytical psychology informs his sensitivity to the inner architecture of a story — without separating that enquiry from the music itself. He has been composing since the age of fourteen and works across piano and orchestral writing, thematic development, improvisation, score preparation and collaborative revision.
He is a member of GEMA. His current focus is the development of the musical Hotel Macdonald Forest Hills.
Download artistic CV
Visual language
Fields of colour held by frames
The deep blue and the thin gold lines of this website come from a painting that hangs behind Vlad Krik: separate fields of colour, each one held inside its own frame, all of them belonging to a single surface.
The same principle organises the music — distinct emotional states, clearly bounded, sounding together as one work.
Professional information
- Membership
- Education
- Release history
Method
Inner drama as compositional material
For Vlad Krik, music is not an illustration added after the story has been told. It is one of the forces through which a character, relationship or conflict becomes audible.
Melody remains central. Harmonic movement, recurring motifs, silence and changes of texture allow an emotional situation to develop over time rather than being explained in words.
This approach is especially present in Hotel Macdonald Forest Hills, where musical themes carry memory, attachment, inherited conflict and the possibility of transformation.
For directors and producers
What the music brings to a dramatic narrative
- Translate nuanced psychological states into memorable themes, restrained textures and evolving leitmotifs.
- Create evocative, immersive soundscapes that support narrative complexity without overpowering dialogue or silence.
- Analyse character arcs, relationships and unconscious conflict through a dual perspective as composer and psychological consultant.
- Move fluently between intimate solo piano, chamber textures, orchestral colour and contemporary cinematic sound.
Craft
Composition & production skills
Narrative & dramatic
Psychological storytelling through music; character themes and leitmotifs; emotional pacing; thematic transformation; tension, silence and subtext.
Composition
Piano, chamber and orchestral writing; neoclassical and cinematic style; improvisation; melodic development; harmonic atmosphere.
Production
Logic Pro X; MIDI sequencing; orchestral mock-ups; audio editing; demo production; delivery of alternate versions and stems.
Notation
Sibelius Artist; score preparation; piano-vocal writing; parts and MusicXML-based exchange.
Collaboration
Remote workflow; interpreting creative briefs; constructive revision; communication with directors, performers, arrangers and editors.
Studio
MIDI keyboard; Focusrite Scarlett 4x4; virtual instruments; recording and editing of piano-based material.
Awards & recognition
International Youth Music Competitions, New York 2022
- First Prize — VII International Art CompetitionTurkey · 2021
- Second Prize — IYMC Composition CompetitionUSA · 2021
- Artist of the Year recital winnerNew York, USA · 2022
- First Prize — IYMC International Composition CompetitionAtlanta, USA · 2022
Education & artistic development
- Music School and Music College, Rostov, Russia — piano and music studies.
- Music Academy Wiesbaden, Germany — composition and piano studies.
- Private composition and piano studies with Dias Karimov.
- C.G. Jung Institute Zurich — advanced studies in analytical psychology.
German — professional working proficiency · English — working proficiency · Russian — native
Writing & research
Alongside the music
Alongside his musical work, Vlad Krik develops essays and practice-based projects at the intersection of analytical psychology, ontology, language and artistic form.
Performative research refers here to practice-based artistic work in which composition, performance and reflective enquiry develop together.
Availability
Available for remote freelance collaboration on episodic drama, feature and short film, musical theatre, and psychologically driven visual storytelling. Open to project-based composition, cue development, thematic packages and ongoing series collaboration.