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GRAZHDA PERFORMERS [BACK]
Born in Lviv, Ukraine, Solomiya Soroka is a summa cum laude graduate of the Kyiv Conservatory (1995) and holds a D.M.A. degree from the Eastman School of Music (2002). Top prize laureate in the Prokofiev, Lysenko, and Zolota Osin' international violin competitions, she made her Australian debut in 1994 and her American debut in 1997. Ms. Soroka appeared as chamber musician at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and the New Zealand International Chamber Music Festival, as well as soloist in recitals in Europe and the United States. Her recitals in Washington, D.C. were programmed as part of the Smithsonian Institute Performing Arts Series. Ms. Soroka studied with Hersh Heifetz, Olga Parchomenko, Bohodar Kotorovych and Charles Castleman. She has collaborated with such well-known artists as Boris Berman, Lamar Crowson, Mr. Castleman, Dong-Suk Kang, Ronald Leonard, and Torleif Thedeen. Referred to in critical reviews as a profound and masterful pianist, Arthur Greene is gold- medal laureate in the William Kapell and Gina Bachauer international piano competitions, and a top laureate at the Busoni International Competition. He has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras world-wide and has played solo recitals in the most prestigious halls in the United States, Europe and Asia. His extensive concertizing has included 12 tours of Japan and solo recitals in concert houses in Shanghai and Beijing. He has also performed at the Chopin Festival at Marianske Lazne in Poland and has appeared as soloist with the Czech Symphony and the National Symphony of Ukraine. Mr. Greene has presented the complete solo piano works of Johannes Brahms in a series of six programs at the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston. His recordings include the complete Études and the cycle of ten piano Sonatas of Alexander Scriabin for Supraphon. Mr. Greene is chair of the piano department of the University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor, with degrees from Yale, The Juilliard School, and SUNY at Stony Brook.
A native of Kyiv, Ukraine, Stefania Dovhan is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Music (1988) and the Leopold Mozart Academy of Music in Augsburg, Germany (2004). She is first-prize winner in the Schloss Leopoldskron Voice Competition (Salzburg, Austria, 2003) and gold-medal winner in the Rosa Ponselle Young Classical Singers Competition (2001). Last season Ms. Dovhan took part in an apprenticeship program at the Kyiv Opera and subsequently made her debut in a gala concert of operatic singers from the Kyiv Opera. She made her debut in a solo recital at the National Philharmonic Hall in Kyiv to great critical and public acclaim. In April, Ms. Dovhan came in as a top-10 finalist in the Ferrucio Tagliavini International Competition (Deutschlandsberg, Austria), at which Dame Joan Sutherland served as president of the jury.
Laryssa Krupa is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with Fernando Laires and Leon Fleisher. She made her New York debut in 1983 at Carnegie Recital Hall. Her professional experience includes performances with orchestras, as well as in solo recitals and in chamber ensembles in the North America and Europe. Ms. Krupa frequently performs two-piano repertoire with her husband, concert pianist Alexander Slobodyanik, with whom she performed at the Australian International Chamber Music Festival, New Paltz (NY) Piano Summer, and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. Ms. Krupa was a featured performer with Mr. Slobodyanik at the Grazhda in 2001, and with violinist Adrian Bryttan in a concert in 2003. Ms. Krupa is on the music faculty of the County College of Morris in Randolph, N.J.
Born in Ukraine, Alexandre Brussilovsky completed his education and advanced studies at the Moscow Conservatory. He is recipient of the Grand Prix and the Albert Roussel Special Prize at the Jacques Thibaud Competition (Paris, 1975). In 1985, after having been prohibited from performing abroad for eight years, Mr. Brussilovsky was able to leave the USSR and establish his residency in France, where he rebuilt his career. An international soloist, referred to by Lord Yehudi Menuhin as "a most admired colleague and an excellent musician and violinist," he has played with such renowned artists as Mr. Menuhin, Neeme Jarvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Misha Maisky, Gary Hoffman, Eduard Brunner, Kun-Woo Paik, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Patrick Gallois, Zhu Xiao-Mei, Nathaniel Rosen, Francoise Pollet, Natalia Gutman, and Boris Berezovsky. Mr. Brussilovsky is founder and artistic director of the ensemble Ricercata de Paris, the international music academy Masters de Pontlevoy and the chamber music festivals Les MusiCimes (Courcheval, France) and Pont Alexandre III French Music Festival (Moscow).
Luba and Ireneus Zuk, who perform both as soloists and as a piano duo, have appeared in concerts to critical acclaim in North America, Europe, and the Far East. They have also performed and recorded for CBC Radio, Austrian National Radio, and Polish Radio. The Zuk Duo is known for its consistent promotion of music by contemporary Canadian and Ukrainian composers. They have premiered many of their works, and several prominent composers have written especially for them. The duo's recent tours in Ukraine have included several return engagements at the International Music Festival in Kyiv. In 1999, in recognition of their significant artistic achievement, the Zuk Duo was awarded a medal and the title "Merited Artist of Ukraine." Luba Zuk is professor in the faculty of music at McGill University in Montreal. Ireneus Zuk is professor and former director of the School of Music at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Luba Zuk and her brother, Ireneus, are also frequent jury members in Canada and at international music competitions. Born in western Ukraine, Luba and Ireneus Zuk are graduates of McGill University and the Conservatoire de Musique de Quebec. Ireneus Zuk is also a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London and the Juilliard School in New York, and holds a doctorate from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.
Radoslav Zuk, architect and professor of architecture at McGill University in Montreal, gained international recognition for his design, among other projects, of Ukrainian churches in North America. The exhibition of architectural drawings and photographs "Radoslav Zuk — Tradition and the Present: Ukrainian Churches in North America and Museum Projects in Ukraine," features nine Ukrainian churches which were designed by Radoslav Zuk, as well as his projects for the expansion of the National Museum of Ukrainian Art in Kyiv. Since its opening at the prestigious Architekturgalerie in Munich, Germany, in 1996, the exhibition of his work has been shown in Great Britain, North America, Europe and the Middle East. Radoslav Zuk has been a guest lecturer and guest review critic at numerous universities in North America and Europe. He also has served on juries of architectural competitions at leading universities, among them Harvard, MIT, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rhode Island School of Design and Yale, and has published articles on design theory, cultural aspects of architecture, and on the relationship between architecture and other arts. Radoslav Zuk is a graduate of McGill University and MIT. He is a recipient of a Ukrainian Canadian Congress Centennial Medal and a co-recipient of a Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Governor General's Medal for Architecture, the highest architectural honor in Canada.
Ukrainian tenor Volodymyr Hryshko (Vladimir Grishko) is Grand Prize laureate at the Francisco Vinas International Singing Competition (Barcelona, 1989), where he was accorded the Plàcido Domingo "Best Tenor" title, and at the International Vocalists Competition (Toulouse, 1990). A star of the Kyiv Opera, Mr. Hryshko has been engaged as leading tenor in Europe and North America. His European engagements include several seasons with the Kirov Opera under the direction of Valery Gergiev, as well as engagements with L'Opéra de Paris-Bastille, Salzburger Landestheater, Prague State Opera, Czech National Theater, Dresden Opera, Arena di Verona, Opera-Frankfurt, and Bregenz Festival, among others. Mr. Hryshko made his U.S. debut in 1990 as Alfredo in "La Traviata" in Baton Rouge, La. His American engagements include leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Washington Opera, and Houston Grand Opera, among others. Among recently sung roles are Radames in Aida with the Salzburger Landestheater; Lensky in Eugene Onegin with Kyiv Opera; as well as Prince Anatol Kuragin and Gerard in War and Peace, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Andrei Khovansky in Khovanshchina -- with The Metropolitan Opera; and Vladimir Igorevich in Prince Igor and Macduff in Macbeth with New York City Opera. In recognition of his artistic achievements and the representation of Ukraine in the field of music world-wide, Mr. Hryshko was accorded the Taras Shevchenko National Award (2001) and the title of Knight of the Order of Prince Volodymyr the Great.
Victor Markiw holds a MFA degree from SUNY Purchase, where he studied piano with Vladimir Feltsman and Volodymyr Vynnytsky, and chamber music with Paul Ostrovsky. Currently, he is pursuing a doctorate in piano at the University of Connecticut, studying with Neal Larrabee. He has received a scholarship to perform Myroslav Skoryk's piano works in Ukraine. Mr. Markiw has performed with area orchestras throughout the New York Metropolitan area and has given recitals in Spain and Brazil. He is an adjunct professor of music at the University of New Haven and serves on the faculty of the University of Connecticut.
Internationally acclaimed cellist Vagram Saradjian is grand-prize laureate in the International Cello (Geneva) and Tchaikovsky competitions. Born in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of distinguished musicians, he studied at the Moscow Conservatory under the tutelage of Mstislav Rostropovich. Mr. Saradjian appeared as soloist at the invitation of Maestro Rostropovich at the latter's debut with the Kyiv Philharmonic, where he played Dvořák's Cello Concerto. He has also performed with such renowned conductors-composers as Kondrashin, Khachaturian, Svetlanov, Temirkanov and Maxim Shostakovich. As chamber musician he has performed with, among others, Viktor Tretyakov, Evgeny Kissin, and Maxim Vengerov. Mr. Saradjian is a member of the string faculty at the University of Houston Moores School of Music and music director of the Schlern International Music Festival held in Italy under the auspices of the UNESCO Italian National Commission. Previously, he served on the music faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, Connecticut College, Aaron Copland School of Music (CUNY), Purchase Conservatory (SUNY), as well as the Moscow Conservatory. Mr. Saradjian's extensive recordings include the cello concertos of Schumann, Saint-Saëns, Dvořák, Honegger, and Karen Khachaturian as well as Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations.
Roman Rudnytsky is an internationally active concert pianist whose frequent performances, held under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy's public diplomacy program, take him all over the world. In addition to performances in capital cities and important musical centers, Mr. Rudnytsky, who as of this year, has played in nearly 80 countries of the world, often performs in places away from the musical mainstream, bringing the pleasure of classical music to audiences which seldom experience this type of music in live performance. In addition to his many recitals, Mr. Rudnytsky has also appeared as a soloist with many orchestras around the world. Between 1990 and 1993, he gave the British, Latin American and Australian premiere performances of the recently discovered Liszt Concerto No. 3 in E Flat. Mr. Rudnytsky is a prizewinner in 10 piano competitions, including such prestigious ones as the International Leventritt Competition (New York) and International J.S. Bach Competition (Washington) and, in Italy, the F. Busoni and A. Casagrande international piano competitions. Born in New York into a prominent Ukrainian musical family, Mr. Rudnytsky holds degrees from The Juilliard School and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. He is, since 1972, a member of the piano faculty of the Dana School of Music of Youngstown State University in Ohio.
Acclaimed cellist Natalia Khoma has distinguished herself as a recitalist and soloist with leading ensembles and orchestras around the world since winning top prizes at the Budapest Pablo Casals Competition (1985), Markneukirchen (1987) and the Tchaikovsky (Moscow, 1990) international competitions, as well as first prize at the Belgrade International Cello Competition (1990). Ms. Khoma studied in Lviv, Ukraine, and is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. She was a member of the cello faculty at the school of music at Michigan State University, and is currently on the faculty of College of Charleston. Ms. Khoma has recorded for NHK-TV (Japan) and made CD recordings for Cambria, Blue Griffin, IMP and Ongaku labels, as well as for Ukrainian, Russian, German, Spanish, Yugoslavian, Israeli, and Hungarian Radio and Television as well as WNYC-FM in New York and WGHB-FM in Boston.
Violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv is a graduate, with highest honors, of the Curtis Institute (2003) where she studied with Joseph Silverstein and Rafael Durian. While at Curtis she was a member and later, concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Ivakhiv is a laureate of the Prokofiev International Competition and recipient of the National Ukrainian Presidential Award in Classical Music. As soloist and chamber musician, she has participated in such well-known music festivals as Tanglewood and Steamboat in the United States, as well as Prussia Cove in England, Holland Music Festival (Bergen), Henryk Wieniawsky in Poland, and the Normandy Chamber Music Festival in France. A native of Lviv, she is a frequent guest soloist with the Lviv Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the Lviv Chamber Orchestra.
Concert violinist Yuri Kharenko is a graduate of the Kyiv Conservatory, where he taught violin before emigrating to the United States in 1991. Mr. Kharenko is a regular participant at such music festivals as "Mostly Mozart," Newport, Texas Music, Music Mountain, as well as Moscow Autumn, Kyiv, Victoria (Canada), and São Paolo (Brazil). He is a former member of the Leontovych String Quartet (1983-2000) and a Merited Artist of Ukraine. In 2001, Mr. Kharenko performed the world premiere of Violin Concerto No. 3, written for him by Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk, in a performance with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine at the Kyiv International Music Festival. Mr. Kharenko teaches at the Hartford Conservatory in Connecticut.
Guest artist Randolph Kelly is principal violist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where, since 1976, he has played under the direction of Andre Previn, Lorin Maazel and Mariss Jansons. Mr. Previn once wrote that Mr. Kelly "…transformed his section" into what he considered to be "the best viola section of any orchestra in America." A highlight of Mr. Kelly's tenure with the Pittsburgh Symphony was performing the world premiere of the Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (2002), written for him by Samuel Adler. Mr. Kelly made his European solo debut playing the Walton Concerto with the National Orchestra of France under the direction of Maestro Maazel. In addition to his orchestral career, Mr. Kelly is a celebrated soloist and chamber musician. He has recorded and toured extensively with the Los Angeles Piano Quartet. Additionally, he has performed as a guest artist at chamber music festivals in Japan, Australia, Europe, Taiwan and Russia. Mr. Kelly is a graduate of the Curtis Institute.
Concert pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky is a laureate of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition (Paris, 1983). Born in Lviv, where he began his music studies, he is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and former member of the piano faculty at the Kyiv Conservatory. As an international laureate he went on to perform as soloist with the leading orchestras of France, Poland and Ukraine. Since coming to the United States in 1991, his appearances have included recitals in Carnegie, Weill Recital, Merkin, and Steinway halls in New York, the Phillips Gallery in Washington, as well as the Great Hall at the Moscow Conservatory, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, and St.John's Square in London. As a chamber musician he as performed with such noted ensembles as the Leontovych, Lysenko (Ukraine), St. Petersburg (Russia) and the Zapolski (Denmark) string quartets in concerts in New York City, Connecticut's Music Mountain as well as in Copenhagen and Malmo, Sweden. Mr. Vynnytsky is a former visiting member of the piano faculty at SUNY and the University of Connecticut. Mr. Vynnytsky is music director of Music and Art Center of Greene County and served as MACGC artistic advisor and resident pianist from 1996- 2002. |
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