Lviv musicians in America

On February 11, the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra began a large tour of America, the culmination of which should be the evening of February 15 at Carnegie Hall, with an excellent program: the Third, chamber symphony of the Ukrainian composer Evgeniy Stankovych (his name is well known to those who lived in the USSR in the 70s). 80 years), Brahms's First Piano Concerto (soloist Stanislav Khristenko) and Dvorak's Symphony “From the New World”.

All 10 concerts of the tour are conducted under the direction of the orchestra's artistic director, American conductor Theodore Kucher. A native New Yorker, he grew up in the Ukrainian community of Cleveland, began playing violin at age 10, then switched to viola and rose to the position of first violist in the orchestras of Cleveland, Helsinki and Cape Town, while also pursuing a serious conducting career. He led several orchestras in Australia and the USA, and at the same time spent more and more time in Ukraine - first as chief guest conductor, and since 1994 as director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. As for the soloist, Stanislav Khristenko, he is not yet 40, he was born, grew up and began his musical education in Kharkov, at the age of 11 he gave his first solo concert in the hall of the Kharkov Philharmonic, then studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Vera Gornostaeva and at the Cleveland Institute with Sergei Babayan, participated - almost always becoming a laureate - in almost 30 competitions, and since 2008 he has lived in America, toured successfully all over the world, began a conducting career, and several years ago founded a very interesting international music festival in Kharkov.

Concerts will also be held in concert halls in Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island, Iowa, and Kansas. The tour is part of the “We and the World” project, sponsored by the Lviv Kozitsky Charitable Foundation. At the same time, an exhibition of works by 11 contemporary Ukrainian artists was organized. You can see it at the Ukrainian Institute of America (corner of Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, Manhattan).

Posted by Maya Pritzker