Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine

two-week engagement with the Staatskapelle Weimar in Bayreuth, Dresden and Weimar. Highlights of the past several seasons have included a four-week, 20 concert tour of the USA with the Czech Symphony Orchestra and guest conducting engagements including the BBC Symphony, BBC National Symphony Orchestra of Wales (filling in on one day’s notice to conduct Josef Suk’s epic Asrael Symphony), English Chamber Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. Equally committed to musical theatre he has held a special relationship, totaling over 200 performances, with the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. He has collaborated with major artists including James Galway, Jessye Norman, Lynn Harrell, Itzhak Perlman, YoYo Ma, Sarah Chang, Mstislav Rostropovich, Joshua Bell, Joseph Calleja and Frederica von Stade, among others.

Among Mr. Kuchar’s numerous accolades include BBC Record of the Year, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Record of the Year, Chamber Music America Record of the Year, Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice, the WQXR Record of the Year and a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Instrumental Album of 2013. Recent releases of seven new compact discs, devoted to the complete symphonies of Ukrainian Boris Lyatoshynsky and Yevhen Stankovych (National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine), orchestral works by the Turkish composer Ulvi Camal Erkin (with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra). In March, 2019 the Brilliant Classics label released a 13-CD compilation – Theodore Kuchar – The Complete Edition devoted to the conductor’s complete discography for that label.

With the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Kuchar has recorded 15 compact discs devoted to the complete symphonies of Carl Nielsen, the complete overtures and tone poems of Dvorak, and the complete orchestral works of Czech composer Bedrich Smetana for the Brilliant Classics label. Also completed for Brilliant Classics was a world premiere recording of Rachmaninov’s Fifth Piano

Concerto, a reconstruction of that composer’s Second Symphony based on the composer’s earliest manuscripts, and the Piano Concertos of Ravel and Bartók. With the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Kuchar has conducted tours of Australia, Germany, Italy, Korea, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and the USA.

During his tenure with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Kuchar conducted cycles of the complete symphonies by Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Mozart, Prokofiev, Schubert and Shostakovich, and led eleven international tours to Asia, Australia, Central Europe and the United Kingdom. Under Mr. Kuchar’s direction, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine became the most frequently recorded orchestra of the former Soviet Union. Between 1994 and 2004 the orchestra recorded over 80 compact discs for the Naxos and Marco Polo labels, including the complete symphonies of Kalinnikov, Lyatoshynsky, Martinu and Prokofiev, as well as major works of Chadwick, Dvorak, Glazunov, Morton Gould, Mozart, Piston, Shchedrin, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. They also recorded the symphonies and orchestral works of Ukraine’s leading contemporary symphonist, Yevhen Stankovych. The recording of Lyatoshynsky’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 was awarded ABC’s “Best International Recording of the Year” in 1994. Their recording of the complete works for violin and orchestra by Walter Piston for the Naxos label was hailed by Gramophone (January, 2000) as a “Record of the Year” for 1999. The complete symphonies of Prokofiev, on the Naxos label, are regarded by many critics as the most accomplished cycle available on compact disc.

Kuchar remains as strong an advocate of composers of the present day as he does of the great composers of the past. In addition to his recordings of contemporary works with the NSO of Ukraine, he has also conducted premieres of works by Lukas Foss (the Capriccio for Cello and Orchestra, with Yo-Yo Ma as soloist), Giya Kancheli, Joseph Schwantner, Alfred Schnittke, Osvaldo Golijov and Rodion Shchedrin, among others. He has led numerous operatic productions in centers including Buenos Aires, Caracas,

Helsinki, Kyiv, Prague and San Francisco with soloists including Jessye Norman, Frederica von Stade, Joseph Calleja, Jorma Hynninen, Isabel Bayrakdarian and Kelley O’Connor, among others.

Vladyslava Luchenko

Violin Soloist

For Vladyslava Luchenko performance is far more than providing a form of entertainment, however elevated. “I see the musician’s true purpose in being a guide to a person’s most sacred, hidden unconscious, their own sacred heart. Through raw and authentic emotion, a frequency itself we’re able to transmit wisdom and healing directly. Understanding music as a profound healing tool, a bridge to the higher dimensions and universal source of life have become crucial in my work.”

Born in 1988 and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, Vladyslava began her musical studies at the age of three and shortly after knew that she would become a violinist. Her earliest years were extremely prodigal, supported by several international foundations, and her primary teacher, Yaroslava Ryvniak. She made her solo debut in the Kiev National Philharmonia at the age of eleven and soon after with concerts in the Kremlin, tours throughout Europe and triumphs at major national and international competitions, her first major victory at the age of ten.

With the desire and passion to seek out a greater musical understanding, she left her native Ukraine to enter the elite violin class of the famous Zakhar Bron in Zurich in 2006. Thus began her emerging European career, when she won several prestigious prizes, among others the top-prizewinner in the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, the Rahn Music Prize, and the David Oistrakh Violin Competition while receiving special recognition at the Queen Elizabeth of Brussels Competition. Soon after followed opportunities to perform as a soloist with the Luzerne Symphony Orchestra in the Zurich Tonhalle, the Verbier Festival, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of UkraineLviv and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine as well as numerous additional solo and chamber music engagements.

She continued her education in Berlin, at the Hans Eisler Academy with Stephan Picard for two more years until entering Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, under the supervision of the one of great violinists of our times, Augustin Dumay. These were fruitful years, with intensive work, hundreds of performances, including tours to China, India and Puerto Rico. Since having arrived in Belgium, Vladyslava Luchenko has had the possibility of collaborating with numerous orchestras, including the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liege, with which she made her debut and subsequent solo recordings with orchestra for the Outhere label. These have included: Edouard Lalo – The Concertante Works for Solo Violin, Violoncello and Piano (2015), A Tribute to Ysaye and Mozart Double Concerti. Supported by the Borgerhoff Foundation she could dedicate herself to practice and crystallize her musical skills to completely new degree, where she rose in her understanding of the sound, expression and the role of an artist in general. Since 2018, she is a recording artist for Claves Records in Switzerland. Vladyslava performs a Francesco Gobetti violin of 1710, on loan from a private collection.

Oksana Rapita

Piano Soloist

One of the most prominent Ukrainian pianists of the present day, Professor Oksana Rapita is a laureate of the Mykola Lysenko International Piano Competition (1984), and a top prizewinner at the Paloma O’Shea International Piano Competition (1990, Spain).

Oksana Rapita is one of the best-known and respected pedagogues in Ukraine, serving as Professor at the National Music Academy in Lviv. Over the past two decades she has trained more than 50 laureates of major international competitions.

The piano repertoire of Oksana Rapita includes works from the baroque to the present day. She has performed more than 20 world premieres of works by Ukrainian and foreign composers, taken part in numerous recording projects of music by Ukrainian composers including Stanislav Lyudkevych,

Miroslav Skoryk, Yuriy Lanyuk and Oleksandr Kozarenko, among many others. Oksana Rapita tours extensively in Ukraine and abroad, including Austria, Belgium, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Russia and Switzerland and collaborates with symphony Orchestras in Ukraine, Poland and Switzerland recently.

Guest artist at such international festivals: “Contrasts,” “Virtuosos,” “Kyiv Music Fest,” “Kyiv premieres,” “2 days and 2 nights,” “Colours of the 20th century music” named after I. Stravinsky (Ukraine), “Music days of Kraków composers,” “Warsaw music meetings,” the Festival of modern music named after W. Lutosławski in Lubin (Poland), «Menhir» (Switzerland), The F. Schubert Festival (Switzerland-Germany), “New Itineracy” (Russia- Kyrgyzstan).

Oksana Rapita was born in Ternopil and studied in her native city at the Solomiya Krushelnytska Music Academy with L. Korniy, Lviv National Musical Academy named after Mykola Lysenko with L. Krykh and in Moscow at the Gnessin State Musical College with A. Aleksandrov.

Stanislav Khristenko

Piano Soloist

Described as a “poet of piano” by Le Soir (Belgium), Ukrainian-born American pianist and conductor Stanislav Khristenko has performed as a pianist in some of the world’s major concert halls and recently launched his second career as a conductor. He has been praised for “emotional intensity,” “charismatic expression,” “pallette of touches,” “solid” and “precise technique” by The New York Times, The Washington Post and Miami Herald (USA); Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine (UK) and El Pais (Spain).

In recent years Mr. Khristenko has appeared as a piano soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Phoenix, Puerto Rico and Richmond Symphonies, National Orchestra of Belgium, Bilbao, Madrid and Tenerife Symphony Orchestras, Liege Royal Philharmonic, and Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. His performance highlights include solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus,

Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels, as well as performances with orchestras in The Berlin Philharmonie, Seoul Arts Center, Prague Rudolfinum, Moscow Conservatory Great Hall, among others. His recordings were released on Steinway & Sons label (“Fantasies” and “Romeo and Juliet”), Naxos (“Soler Sonatas”), Oehms and Toccata Classics (“Ernst Krenek Piano Works”).

Prizewinner of over 30 international piano competitions, Stanislav Khristenko recently started an educational project for young pianists: “Rethink Piano.” The project includes discussions about all aspects of competitions and a competition simulator that gives young pianists an opportunity to analyze competition selection processes in order to improve their own performance, overcome stress and develop a strategy for successful professional growth.

In his hometown in Ukraine, Mr. Khristenko initiated a music festival KharkivMusicFest that in just four years of existence presented performances of world’s top musicians as well as unique projects including outreach concerts, painted pianos on streets, Festival Orchestra, classical music forum, Children’s Orchestra, among others. As a Music Director, he also founded Nova Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra that performed works of over 40 composers in its first three seasons.

Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Stanislav Khristenko studied with Vera Gornostaeva in the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and with Sergei Babayan in the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also studied orchestral conducting at the Warsaw Chopin University with Tomasz Bugaj.

Stanislav Khristenko is a Steinway Artist. For details visit khristenko.com

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