Author Archives: Andrii Murza

Kyiv Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1979, the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra (KSO) has established itself as one of Ukraine’s leading cultural forces. Known for its dedication to preserving and promoting Ukraine’s musical heritage, the KSO also plays a crucial role in representing Ukrainian culture on the international stage.

The KSO has performed in some of Europe’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Rudolfinum Concert Hall in Prague, and the Warsaw Philharmonic. Additionally, on June 29, 2022, the orchestra performed for NATO heads of state and government at the summit in Madrid. In recent years, the KSO has participated in renowned international festivals, including the Grafenegg Festival (Austria), the 39th International Music Festival of the Canary Islands, Kunstfest Weimar, Wiener Festwochen, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and many others.

The KSO’s repertoire spans from the 16th century to the young generation of contemporary composers. In recognition of its outstanding interpretations of contemporary music, the orchestra was awarded the prestigious Musical Contest Prize of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco in 2022.

Since August 2024, the KSO has been in residence in Monheim am Rhein and is part of Monheimer Kulturwerke GmbH.

Since 2023, the orchestra has been under the patronage of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Oksana Lyniv

Oksana Lyniv began her career as an assistant conductor at the Lviv National Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 2004, she won third prize at the Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition. She served as deputy chief conductor at the Odessa Opera Theater from 2008 to 2013 and, from 2013, as an assistant to the music director at the Bavarian State Opera.

From 2017 to 2020, she was the chief conductor of the Graz Opera and the Graz Philharmonic. Oksana Lyniv served as the Music Director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna from 2022 to 2024, making her the first female chief conductor of an Italian opera house.

In 2021, she made history as the first female conductor in the Bayreuth Festival’s history, opening the festival with her debut production of The Flying Dutchman. Following the sensational success of this premiere, she was engaged at Bayreuth through 2024.

In February 2024, Lyniv made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as the first Ukrainian conductor ever, leading Puccini’s Turandot to tremendous success.

Her notable achievements include performances at the Bavarian State Opera, the State Opera Berlin, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra National de Paris, Oper Frankfurt, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Theater an der Wien, and the Stuttgart State Opera.

Renowned for her exceptional combination of precision and artistic temperament, Lyniv is a prominent figure on the international stage, ranking among the leading conductors of her generation.

Her international concert activity flourishes: as a guest conductor, she collaborates with numerous world-leading orchestras, including the Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, DSO Berlin, Staatskapelle Berlin, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Korean National Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Graz Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, and Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.

She has been awarded several international titles and prizes, including the Festival Prize of the Bavarian State Opera in 2015 and the prestigious TREBBIA International Award in the category “For Artistic Activities” (Czech Republic) in 2019. In November 2020, Oksana Lyniv received the Opera! Award for Best Conductor of the Year 2020. In 2021, she was honored with the Ukrainian Order of Princess Olga, and in 2022, she became the laureate of the European Helena Vaz da Silva Award for raising public awareness about cultural heritage. In 2023, she received the special Opera! Award for Outstanding Engagement. In 2024, she was honored with the Bavarian Constitutional Medal, the highest state award in Bavaria, Germany, “for her extraordinary artistic work, especially as the first female conductor of the Bayreuth Festival, and for her passionate commitment to promoting classical music and supporting young talents in this area.” In November 2024, she was also awarded the Bavarian Cultural Prize.

Oksana Lyniv is also deeply committed to nurturing young musical talent and is the founder and chief conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (YsOU).

In 2016, Oksana Lyniv co-founded the International Festival of Classical Music LvivMozArt in Lviv, Ukraine. Additionally, she initiated comprehensive international research on the personality of Franz Xaver Mozart in collaboration with the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg.

Tetiana Bielikova

Tetiana Bielikova (b. 1996) was born in Starobilsk, Ukraine. Her passion for music developed early, and at the age of five, she began her musical education under the guidance of Kseniia Holubieva at the music school in Severodonetsk. During her school years, she actively participated in national and international competitions, including the Virtuosi per musica di pianoforte competition in Ústí nad Labem (2009), where she was a finalist.

At the age of 15, Tetiana continued her education at the Kharkiv Special Boarding Music School in the class of Svitlana Zakharova. She later studied at the Kharkiv National University of Arts, where she performed concerts across Ukraine and Europe.

In 2018, she moved to Germany to study at the Folkwang University of the Arts in the class of Prof.
Henri Sigfridsson. In 2021, she specialized in chamber music and collaborative piano and began her
Master’s studies in the class of Prof. Evgeny Sinaiski.

Since 2020, Tetiana has performed as a duo with violinist Dmytro Udovychenko. The duo has played on various European stages and participated in masterclasses with Gidon Kremer, Boris Garlitsky, and Christian Tetzlaff. Some of their performances have been recorded by SWR2 (“Die Villa Musica zu Gast im Künstlerhaus Edenkoben”) and WDR3 (“WDR 3 Campus-Konzert”). Additionally, their performance was recorded as part of the “Musiq3 Festival” for Belgian radio Musiq3. In 2024, Tetiana accompanied Dmytro Udovychenko as a collaborative pianist at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, where he won first prize.

Since 2022, Tetiana has been actively working as a collaborative pianist. At that time, she started
working in the bassoon class at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen as well as in the violin
class at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf.

She has also accompanied masterclasses by Zohrab Tadevosyan, Waldemar Schwiertz, Milan Turković, Malte Refardt, Johannes Gmeinder, Michalis Semsis, and Florian Peelman. She is regularly engaged as a collaborative pianist at the festivals “Sommermusik im Oberen Nagoldtal,” “Die Internationalen Musiktage in Starnberg und Seefeld,” and the “InterHarmony Festival” in Acqui Terme, Italy.

Saeko Kitagawa

Saeko Kitagawa took her first piano lessons at the age of five and had her first performance at the age of six. After successfully completing her bachelor’s degree, she performed extensively in Japan. She came to Europe to further develop her education and studied at the Bern University of the Arts and the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, where she completed her master’s degree with distinction in 2012. This was followed by another master’s degree at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen with Professor Henri Sigfridsson, which she successfully completed in 2016.

As a rehearsal pianist for Murray Perahia, Saeko played with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy in 2010.

In 2011 and 2012 she played successful solo and duo recitals in Berlin and Prague, and since then she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Germany, Japan and Taiwan, including at the Piano Marathon as part of the Ruhr Piano Festival 2015.

In 2017 and 2018 she was a lecturer at the Summer Masterclass in Taiwan. In 2019 and 2022 she completed a duo concert series at Villa Musica with great success.

Since 2016 she has been working as a répétiteur in various violin and cello classes at the Folkwang University of the Arts. Since 2021 she has been accompanying Prof. Maria Kliegel’s master classes.

Inna Firsova

Inna Firsova started her piano lessons with Svetlana Korzhova in Ukraine. At the age of 13 she was the 1st prize winner of the “Vivat Musica” international competition for Young Pianists in Nova Kakhovka. 2007, Inna won two 1st prizes at the “Jugend musiziert” All-German Competition for Violin and Piano Duo and for Woodwind and Piano Duo. In Bad Minden/Germany Inna was selected to play Mozart’s Concerto No. 11 with Capella Istropolitana. Her other prizes include a scholarship award from the “Yehudi Menuhin/Live Music Now Rhein-Ruhr” Association, as well as
awards from the Lions Club of Ludenscheid (Germany).

Inna Firsova was a young student at the Music Academy of Hamburg in the class of Prof. Grigory Gruzman. In 2006 she continued her studies with him in Weimar at the Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere, from which she graduated in 2009. Then she studied at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen, Germany in the master classes of Prof. Arnulf von Arnim, Henri Sigfridsson and Evgeni Sinaiski.

2015 Inna Firsova won the competition of Dörken Stiftung/Herdecke and was chosen for a series of 18 solo concerts in Germany for the season 2016/17.Her appearances with the orchestras include The 3rd Piano Concerto by Rachmaninov, Mozart, Beethoven and Clara Schumann. Inna‘s performance engagements include concerts all over the Europe, USA and Japan.

Inna Firsova and violinist Aleksey Semenenko made numerous duo-concerts throughout Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Usedom Music Festival and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele (Germany), the Bonn Beethoven House (Germany) and at the international Summer Acadamy in Cervo (Italy). She performs with Aleksey Semenenko around the United States, including important concerts at Merkin Concert Hall (New York City); The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington DC) and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston).

In the season 2021/22 Inna Firsova played several solo concerts in Italy and Germany. Also she had a big Tournee through Irland as a member of Jablokov project.

At the 67th Dubrovnik Festival in 2016, the Duo Semenenko-Firsova was presented with the Jury Prize as well as the Orlando Prize for best artistic achievement of the Festival.

2017 they gave their Debut at the Wigmore Hall in London and since than made several recordings for BBC Radio 3.

Doug Sheldon (USA)

Doug Sheldon has been a leading international artist manager for more than 50 years and is well known for his collaborations arranging orchestral tours for conductors such as Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, and his extended relationships with New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and his tours of San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, China Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony to name a few. He has represented Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Leonard Slatkin, Nelson Freire, singers Grace Bumbry and Teresa Berganza and artists such as Leonid Kogan.

After 5 decades at Columbia Artists, he resigned as Chair in 2019 and founded his own Sheldon Artist LLC and continued his now 38-year representation of Anne-Sophie Mutter. Other Sheldon Artists currently are violinists, Simone Lamsma, Vadim Repin, Gidon Kremer, Nigel Kennedy, Mihaela Martin, Kyung-Wha Chung, Kevin Zhu and Paloma So; cellist Luka Coetzee; pianists Yulianna Avdeeva, Hayato Sumino, Claire Huangci, Tom Borrow and conductors Constantine Orbelian, Dennis Russell Davies, Laurence Equilbey, Steven Fox, Alondra de la Parra and Dawid Runtz.

Sheldon Artists also tours the London Symphony with Antonio Pappano, Seoul Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden, Daniel Hope with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Polish Chamber Orchestra, Brno Filharmonie with Dennis Russell Davies, the Mutter Virtuosi and Minería Symphony of Mexico with Carlos Miguel Prieto.

He has served as Jury Chair for the Sarasate Violin Competition and Canadian National Competitions for Violin and Organ and has been a member of juries of the Olga Kern Piano Competition, the Rosalyn Tureck Bach Piano Competition, International Concours Musicale Montreal, Enescu and Tongyeong Violin competitions and Malta Piano Competition.

Mr. Sheldon served for 10 years as Vice Chair of the White Nights Foundation of America, led St. Peters Church Choir for 46 years, continues his conducting with the Baldwin Choir of New York and the Hamilton College Male reunion Choir, and is in his 13th year as President of his public school alumni association.

Zohrab Tadevosyan (Spain-Armenia)

With a dynamic career, that bridges performance and pedagogy, Zohrab Tadevosyan stands as a beacon of musical artistry and dedication. His exceptional journey marked by collaborations with some of the greatest talents of our time and a passionate commitment to shaping the next generation of violinists.

Assistant to the Legendary Prof. Ana Chumachenco:
A rare honor, this role allowed Tadevosyan to work closely with one of the world’s foremost violin pedagogues for more than a decade, honing his insight and depth as both a performer and educator.

Visiting Professor at Leopold Mozart University, Augsburg:
Since October 2024, Tadevosyan has shared his extensive expertise with students, infusing his classes with a blend of tradition and innovation.

Chair of the Jury, 2024 International Aram Khachaturian Violin Competition:
Leading this prestigious competition, Tadevosyan continues to set standards of excellence and inspire young musicians from around the world.

Professor at Reina Sofía School of Music, Madrid (2010-2020):
For a decade, Tadevosyan taught alongside Ana Chumachenco, developing an acclaimed violin program that focused on pedagogical mastery and interpretative depth.

Frequent Invited Artist at European Festivals and Masterclasses:
Regularly featured at top music academies, including the Swiss International Music Academy and the Mozarteum International Summer Academy, Tadevosyan brings his unique style and vision to students across Europe.

Guest Violinist at Santander Music Festival:
His evocative performances at one of Spain’s most prestigious festivals have captivated audiences and earned him widespread acclaim.

International Educator in Japan:
With a dedication to cross-cultural exchange, Tadevosyan offers masterclasses in Japan, nurturing talent and inspiring students far beyond Europe.

Renowned Jury Member at Leading Violin Competitions Tadevosyan’s expertise sought after worldwide, serving on juries for elite competitions, such as:
• 2019 International Louis Spohr Violin Competition (Weimar)
• 2020 Aram Khachaturian International Violin Competition (Yerevan)
• 2021 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition (Hanover)

Global Masterclass Leader and Influential Musical Figure:
Known for his charismatic teaching style and profound knowledge, Tadevosyan continues to inspire through masterclasses worldwide, fostering the growth of aspiring artists and shaping the future of classical music.

Zohrab Tadevosyan is not only a distinguished musician and educator but a vital force in the global music community, bridging generations through his artistry and mentorship.

“Mr. Tadevosyan combines technical precision with a profound musical insight, ensuring that students not only develop strong fundamentals but also gain a deeper understanding of the music they interpret. His exceptional talent as a violinist, coupled with his ability to teach at a remarkably high level, has left a lasting impression on both the students and myself. His teaching style is a balance of approachability and discipline, fostering both trust and high performance among his students. As an outstanding musician and inspiring educator, Mr. Tadevosyan’s contributions extend beyond the classroom, enriching the learning experience through his enthusiasm, expertise, and dedication.” — Ana Chumachenco ”

Rūta Lipinaitytė (Lithuania)

Rūta Lipinaitytė is a violin professor and since 2015 has worked as Head of String Department at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The violinist often gives violin master classes both in Lithuania and abroad.

The violinist’s academic activities include management of a wide range of cultural development projects, and organisation of concerts, master courses, and competitions. Rūta Lipinaitytė is one of the main organisers and the artistic director of the Jascha Heifetz Violin Competition in Lithuania, the organizer of annual Lithuanian String Competition, Raimundas Katilius Competition for Young Performers and competition-festival “Baltic Strings”.

Rūta Lipinaitytė has been invited as a member of the jury at international violin competitions including the Violin Competition Vaclav Huml in Croatia, the Violin Competition Arthur Grumiaux in Belgium, the Violin Competition Karol Lipinski in Poland, the Il and the IV Piccolo Violino Magico Competitions in Italy „Violinissimo” in Kazakhstan, Jascha Heifetz Violin Competition in Lithuania, Sigulda Competition of Young Musicians in Latvia, the Latvian and the Estonian String Competitions for young string players, international competitions for young string players named “Baltic Strings” and “Premio Scarlatti”, as well as many national competitions. Also in 2021-2023 the violinist was an expert of the Lithuanian Council of Culture.

The violinist is the laureate of several Lithuanian and international violin and chamber music competitions. As a soloist, Rūta Lipinaitytė has appeared with numerous orchestras including Dresden Philharmonic, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Artists Symphony Orchestra (TASO), the Lithuanian National and State Symphony Orchestras, Kremerata Baltica, Camerata Kazakhsan, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, as well as chamber orchestras of Klaipėda, Vytautas Magnus University, Šiauliai, Tallinn, and Arkhangelsk, the State Wind Orchestra Trimitas, Accademia d’Archi Arrigoni Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Chamber orchestra “The Seasons”, and Ensemble Musica Humana. In 2022, Rūta Lipinaitytė made her debut as a soloist with the Eesti Sinfonietta in the renowned Wiener Konzerthaus.

The violinist has received several State Scholarships for Lithuanian Artists and a scholarship by the Yamaha Music Europe Foundation. In 2020, Rūta Lipinaitytė won the Golden Disc Award of the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union in the category of solo instrumentalists.

Rūta Lipinaitytė’s repertoire is versatile and diverse, yet her heart is with the Lithuanian contemporary music. Rūta Lipinaitytė is the first performer of many works by Lithuanian composers. Several composers such as A. Martinaitis, J. Tamulionis, J. Juozapaitis, J. Jurkūnas, M. Salynas have dedicated their music to the violinist. In 2022, an international recording company Ondine released a CD with music by Lithuanian composer Algirdas Martinaitis including a violin concerto Three M’art Comedy Seasons performed by Rūta Lipinaitytė.

Rūta has released several music albums.. The Lithuanian radio archives store over 40 audio recordings of the violinist’s performance together with various Lithuanian orchestras. In 2020, violinist initiated an independent project: through various social networking platforms, she has been promoting music by Lithuanian composers for violin solo: to date, this initiative has featured over 20 video recordings of such works performed by Rūta.

Rūta Lipinaitytė was a member of Grammy-winning orchestra Kremerata Baltica (since its foundation in 1998 to 2014) established and headed by Gidon Kremer. The violinist is often invited to participate in various orchestral projects as a concertmaster or an assistant concertmaster. She has been Guest Concertmaster of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and the Eesti Sinfonietta.

Rūta Lipinaitytė has also performed chamber music worldwide together with G. Kremer, T. Grindenko, M. Fedotova, K. Sidorova, A. Mustonen, A. Posch, M. Marcelli, P. Sadlo, S. Krimer, L. Geniušas among others.

Aleksey Semenenko (Germany – Ukraine)
Co-organizer and atistic director

The refined, impassioned and commanding playing of Ukrainian violinist Aleksey Semenenko identifies him as inheritor of the great Odessa violin tradition and earnt him places on both the BBC New Generation Artists scheme and Young Concert Artists in New York, bringing him to the attention of audiences across Europe and the US.

Semenenko has given recitals at Snape Maltings, Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center and Alice Tully Hall, and performed concertos with orchestras including BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Seattle Symphony, Orchestra of St Luke’s, National Orchestra of Belgium, Ulster Orchestra, Kyiv Symphony and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. His festival performances include invitations at the Hay, Cheltenham and Edinburgh festivals.

Recent highlights include a UK tour with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, and the televised return of BBC Radio 3’s ‘Friday Night is Music Night’ with the BBC Concert Orchestra. This season, Semenenko tours Europe with chamber recitals, as well as concerts and recordings with BBC Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra and Szczecin Philharmonic.

The most recent addition to Semenenko’s discography is his album ‘Crossroads’ on BIS, with pianist Artem Belogurov, featuring sonatas by Previn, Schemmer and Gay. The launch of the album was marked by a Wigmore Hall recital in which the duo performed a selection of American works.

Semenenko began his violin studies at the age of six with Zoya Mertsalova at the Stolyarsky School, making his solo debut with orchestra only a year later with the Odessa Philharmonic. He completed his studies with Prof. Zakhar Bron and Prof. Harald Schoneweg at Cologne’s Hochschule für Musik and was a prize winner in the 2015 Queen Elizabeth Violin Competition.

Alongside his performing career, Semenenko is Violin Professor at the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen, Germany.

Mario Hossen (Austria – Bulgaria)

Mario Hossen is a renowned Austrian- Bulgarian violinist celebrated for his virtuosity, deep musical interpretation, and scholarly approach to performance. He has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras worldwide and is recognized for his expertise in the works of Niccolò Paganini. As a dedicated educator and competition juror, he has shaped the careers of young violinists on an international scale.

Mario Hossen has served as a jury member for several of the most prestigious violin competitions, including: Jascha Heifetz International Violin Competition (Vilnius), Fritz Kreisler Competition (Vienna), Ginette Neveu Competition (Avignon), Tibor Varga Competition (Sion).

Mario Hossen has performed as a soloist with major orchestras, including: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Vienna Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Wiener Akademie, Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra (Moscow) I Virtuosi del Teatro alla Scala. Additionally, he has collaborated with numerous orchestras from Europe, China, and the Middle East.

He is Artistic Director of the Varna Summer International Music Festival (since 2019)- the festival under his artistic leadership became recipient of the European Festival Association (EFA) „Audience Award“ and the Laureate Award.

Founder of Paganini Ensemble Vienna (2019) – ensemble dedicated to the chamber music of Paganini, named as Ambassador of the European Paganini Route(2024).

Mario Hossen is known for his historically informed performances and scholarly approach. His research focuses on the original sources of Niccolò Paganini. As Editor of Paganini’s Complete Works for Solo Violin and Violin with Orchestra, published in Doblinger Vienna Diletto Musicale series.

Hossen has recorded major violin works, including: Complete Violin Concertos of Paganini, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Bruch. Complete Violin Sonatas of Beethoven, J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, Paganini15 Quartets for Guitar & Strings, World Premiere Recordings of Paganini, Rolla, Mercadante, Mozart, Tartini, and others. Between the Composer’s who have dedicated works to him are Rainer Bischof, Georgi Arnaoudov, Tomas Marco, Milko Kolarov, Francois-Pierre Descamps, Alessandro Solbiati and Walter Baer.

He is Artist of Thomastik-Infeld (since 2008), plays a G.B. Guadagnini Violin (1749), which is loaned to him by the Austrian National Bank and is Honorary Member of „Amici di Paganini“ Association (Genoa) – in recognition for his distinguished contributions to Paganini’s musical heritage.

Andrii Murza (Ukraine)
Founder and artistic director

One of the most exiting representatives of Ukrainian violinists of his generation, who firmly establishing himself as a compelling and versatile interpreter. Andrii has performed in numerous important festivals including Lucerne Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Beethovenfest Bonn, Young Euro Classic, Kunstfest Weimar, MDR Musik Sommer, Un week-end a l`est, Santander International Festival, LvivMozArt und Kaunas Festival.

Andrii Murza has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as Birmingham Symphony Ochestra, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonie Baden-Baden, Orquesta de Córdoba, Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra, Kaunas Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of Moldova, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine under the baton of internationally renowned conductors such as Oksana Lyniv, Pawel Przytocki, Peter Csaba.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Andrii Murza has performed in many of the most prestigious concert halls, including Berliner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wiener Konzerthaus, Birmingham Symphony Hall, KKL Luzern, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Shenzhen Concert Hall, Prinzregententheater München, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Theater Chatelet with a wide repertoire, including works by later and contemporary Ukrainian composers.

His dedication to chamber music opens him the opportunity frequently collaborate with various well-known artists such as Valeriy Sokolov, Andrea Griminelli, Nicholas Daniel, Alexey Stadler in number international festivals such as Heidelberg Kammermusik Festival, Varna Summer Festival and LvivMozArt Festival, where he had the honor to perform on the original W. A. Mozart’s violin made by Pietro Antonio Dalla Costa (1764), kindly provided by Mozarteum Foundation.

Andrii was born in Odesa (Ukraine) in a family of musicians. He began his education at the famous Stolyarsky Music School at the age of 6 with Anna Lapteva and later at the Odesa National Music Academy named after A.V. Nezhdanova by professor Mikhail Turchinsky. After his graduation, he continued his postgraduate studies in Europe with professor Marco Rizzi at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid and at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts.

Being passionate about pedagogy, he began his pedagogical activities by joining the faculty of the Odesa National Music Academy and has been later appointed teaching assistant to Marco Rizzi at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts. In addition, he is a founder and artistic director of the Odesa International Violin Competition (member of the WFIMC), which he currently leads together with a violinist Alexey Semeneko.

Andrii Murza plays a violin made by Auguste Sebastien Philippe Bernardel (Père) in 1840.

Soyoung Yoon (South Korea)

Renowned for her meticulous and highly disciplined artistry, violinist Soyoung Yoon has garnered widespread acclaim, with critics from Gramophone praising her performances as “meticulous” and The Guardian describing them as “suave,” emphasising the seamless integration of technical perfection in service of the music.

She is prize winner of three important violin competitions in the world, The Indianapolis International Violin Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Soyoung Yoon has earned high results at prestigious competitions like the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, Moscow International David Oistrakh Violin Competition, and Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, solidifying her reputation as an outstanding violinist and chamber musician, earning the admiration of her peers. Her latest achievement is winning the first prize at the Tokyo Classic Violin Competition 2024.

Soyoung’s demand on the international stage continues to grow, with performances alongside prestigious orchestras worldwide. Notable collaborations feature engagements with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

She has collaborated with esteemed conductors and musicians such as Krzyszstof Penderecki, Ivor Bolton, Maxim Vengerov, and Eiji Oue, Sascha Goetzel, Yi- Chen Lin and Michal Nesterowicz showcasing her versatility and musical prowess.

Soyoung’s role extends beyond the spotlight; she has lent her expertise as a judge in esteemed competitions like the Menuhin in Richmond, Princess Ann in Trondheim, and Prague Spring.

She’s embracing new activities by starting to add ‘Play and Conduct’, showing her adaptability and leadership in this new venture to further exemplify her divers qualities as a musician.

In addition to her endeavours, Soyoung collaborates frequently with the Korean Chamber Orchestra and touring across Asia, Europe, and North America.

Her chamber music performances have inspired audiences in renowned venues worldwide, from London’s Wigmore Hall to the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Zurich Tonhalle, and cities such as Beijing, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Manchester.

Currently based between Barcelona and Seoul, Soyoung’s musical journey spans formal education at the National University of the Arts in South Korea, under the guidance of Zakhar Bron at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, and studies at the Zurich University of the Arts.

With her chosen instrument, the J. B. Guadagnini violin (ex-Bückeburg), crafted in Turin in 1773, Soyoung Yoon continues to enchant audiences, leaving an indelible mark on the global stage.