***This event has been cancelled, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions for our visiting artist.***
Celebrated Ukrainian Musicians to Perform All-Beethoven Program for College of Charleston Charleston Music Fest, a year-round celebration of the finest classical and contemporary chamber music performed by world-class artists
Housed in the College of Charleston School of the Arts, Charleston Music Fest (CMF) will present the Kyiv Trio – three virtuosos from a similar background: violinist Nazar Pylatyuk, cellist Natalia Khoma and pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky. The performers hail from Ukraine and are international competition winners. Each has an established and distinguished career as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, and each has appeared with major orchestras and on premier chamber music series throughout the United States and Europe.
The concert program honors the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth coinciding with the College of Charleston’s 250th anniversary. The all-Beethoven performance will include two of his most celebrated trios – Trio Op.1 No.1 for violin, cello and piano and Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, Archduke Trio.
CMF Artistic Director, Natalia Khoma, shares, “There are so many amazing classical music composers, but Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most significant composers in human history, a great musical genius. He is one of three of my favorites, alongside Bach and Mozart. In his music we can find expression of all human emotions and feelings – joy, passion, sadness, melancholy, excitement, and so many more that even words cannot describe. His music is pure, speaks directly to our hearts and teaches us how to be better, more kind, and more compassionate. It gives us hope and happiness and brings people together.”
The event will take place on Thursday, March 26, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. in the Recital Hall, Simons Center for the Arts, 54 Saint Philip St. General admission is $25, and tickets can be purchased ONLINE, by calling (517) 980-1295, or at the door. All students can attend for $10 admission at the door.
Nazar Pylatyuk is the first prize winner at Yankelevych International Competition in Russia (2011), Laureate of Karl Flesh (2003) and Mykola Lysenko International Competitions (2007) and a Gold medal holder of the Academy of the Arts of Ukraine (2010). Pylatyuk has been featured as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic and Ukraine. As a soloist, he has had a pleasure to work with such eminent conductors as Vladimir Spivakov, Saulus Sondetskis, Bohuslav Davidoff, Cheslav Grabovsky, Zigmund Richerd, V. Sirenko, S. Burko, V. Kozhuchar, I. Yuzyuk,V. Suvochip. He often performs with the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra, “Kiev Soloists,” “Lviv Virtuosi,” Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, “Academia” Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with noted musicians such as Myroslav Skoryk, Shlomo Mintz, Alexander Brussilovsky, Volodymyr Vynnytsky, Natalia Khoma, and Robert Kanetti. “His talent – boundless, his playing astounds…” describes Swedish newspaper Eskelstuna Kompiun. Pylatyuk was born in 1987 in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. He began violin studies with his father Ihor Pylatiuk and then pursued his Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Doctorate degrees from the Lviv State Academy of Music. While a student at the Academy, Pylatyuk was awarded by Lviv City Council as the “Best Student of the Year,” and he was a Presidential Grant holder. The Hero of Ukraine, composer Myroslav Skoryk dedicated to Pylatyuk his Concerto No.7 for violin and orchestra. From 2008-2011, he was a Concertmaster of Opole Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra (Poland) – the youngest concertmaster in the history of this orchestra. Pylatyuk is a founding member of the Kiev Trio with cellist Natalia Khoma and pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky. He is a Merited Artist of Ukraine (the state honorary title of decoration awarded by Ukraine for outstanding achievement in the performing arts) and a soloist of Organ Hall in Kyiv.
Natalia Khoma is an internationally renowned cellist. Since winning first prize at the Lysenko Cello Competition, Khoma has won top prizes at the Budapest Pablo Casals International Competition, Markneukirchen Competition in Germany, and the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow, as well as first prize at the Belgrade International Cello Competition.
A native of Lviv, Ukraine, Khoma studied at Solomia Krushelnytska School for gifted children with Evhen Shpitzer, at the Moscow Conservatory with Natalia Shakhovskaya, and at Boston University (Artist Diploma) under the direction of Leslie Parnas.
The first and only Ukrainian cellist to become a laureate of the Tchaikovsky Competition, Khoma has since distinguished herself as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras throughout Russia, as well as the United States, Canada, South America, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, South Africa and the Middle and Far East. She has performed as a soloist with such leading ensembles as the Berlin Radio Orchestra, Moscow Radio Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Ukrainian National State Symphony Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Ensemble of New York City Symphony Orchestra, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and has had solo recitals in Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow), Carnegie Hall (New York), Jordan Hall (Boston), Schauspielhaus (Berlin), Palais des Beux Arts (Brussels), Amphitheatre Richelieu de la Sorbonne, Salons de Boffrand de la Presidence du Senat (Paris), Philharmonic Big Hall of Columns (Kyiv), Gaillard Center, Sottile Theatre (Charleston) and in a host of countries across the globe. She is often invited to appear at international festivals in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Canada, Ukraine and the United States. among others.
Khoma has been hailed around the world as “technically dazzling,” “intense, brilliant, and with perfect structure.” She also has been praised for “the precision of her executions, Slavic Zen, full warm cello tone….and, what a drive!” “A deeply emotional yet meticulously precise reading, full of fire, that transcended the barriers of music, musician, and audience.” Khoma made her first public appearance on TV at age ten and performed her first concerto with orchestra at age thirteen.
Khoma has been a professor at the Lviv Conservatory in Ukraine, Roosevelt University College of Music in Chicago, Michigan State University and was a visiting professor of the University of Connecticut School of Music. In 2011 she was appointed Artistic Advisor of the Music and Art Center of Greene County, New York. She is an Honorary Professor of Lviv State Academy of Music, Odesa State Music Academy and Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory).
In 2010 Khoma was featured on a Grammy nominated CD for the Dorian Sono Luminus label. She has also recorded for NHK-TV (Japan), Naxos, TNC/Cambria, Blue Griffin, IMP, Dorian, Centaur and Ongaku labels, as well as for Ukrainian, Russian, German, Spanish, Serbian, Israeli and Hungarian Radio and Television and has appeared on WNYC-FM in New York, WGBH-FM in Boston and CKWR in Ontario (Canada).
For several years she played on famous Stradivarius cello. In addition to her performing activities, Khoma is an Associate Professor of Cello at the College of Charleston and Director of the Charleston Music Fest. She serves as organizer of the Children and Music Foundation, which provides musical training, instruments and financial aid to young, gifted Ukrainian students in need.
In February 2020 Khoma toured around North America as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, one of the finest symphony orchestras in Europe. This tour was managed by Columbia Artists, a legendary organization in the performing arts industry and a global leader in artist management.
Internationally renowned pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky is laureate of the Margueritte Long-Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris. Vynnytsky has performed with leading orchestras and appeared in solo recitals in many prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Steinway Hall, the Phillips Gallery in Washington D.C., Charleston’s Gaillard Center, Tsai Performance Center (Boston), the Great (Bolshoi) Hall at the Moscow Conservatory, the Theatre Champs d’Elysees, Amphitheatre Richelieu de la Sorbonne, Salons de Boffrand de la Presidence du Senat in Paris, St. John’s Smith Square in London, Philharmonic Big Hall of Columns (Kyiv), Odesa Philharmonic Theatre in Ukraine, Teatro de Santa Isabel in Recife, Brazil, Linder Auditorium in Johannesburg and Baxter Theatre Centre Concert Hall in Cape Town, South Africa among many others.
A popular television and radio guest, he has also been featured on NHK-TV (Japan) and in the United States on WQXR-FM in N.Y., and nationally on NPR.
Recital and chamber music appearances have included guest invitations in numerous International Festivals in Ukraine (Kyiv Music Fest, “Virtuosi,” “Contrasts,” “Bridge of Alexandre III”), France (Masters de Pontlevoy, “Les MusiCimes,” “DSCH”), Brazil (“Virtuosi”), Curacao (Art in Avila), Canada (Niagara International Chamber Music Festival), Czech Republic (“American Spring” Festival), and United States (Artosphere Arts Festival, Chamber Players International, LWMF, Mohonk Festival of the Arts, Windham Chamber Music Festival, Southampton Festival of the Arts, Lake San Marcos Chamber Music Society, Music Mountain in Connecticut, Piccolo Spoleto, Rachmaninoff International Festival in Los Angeles, “Music at the Institute” in New York and Art Center of Greene County.
Described by critics as possessing “incredible technique and deep musical understanding,” “The pianist is simply superb!”, “The phenomenon in concert is a rare one,” “Mystically powerful pianist,” “a grand display of skill and precision that was breathtaking,” Vynnytsky has performed in recital in the United States, France, England, Denmark, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa among many others.
Born in Lviv, Ukraine, Vynnytsky studied at the Lviv Music School for Gifted Children and later at the Moscow Conservatory. After earning his doctorate from the Moscow Conservatory under the direction of Yevgeny Malinin, he taught at the Kyiv Conservatory and concertized extensively throughout the world.
Vynnytsky has been a visiting member of the piano faculty in SUNY at Purchase, N.Y. and at the University of Connecticut. He served as a Chairman of the Jury of the Emil Gilels International Piano Competition in Odesa, Ukraine. He is an Honorary Professor of Lviv State Academy of Music, Odesa State Music Academy and Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory). Vynnytsky is Director of Chamber Music at the College of Charleston, and Music Director of the Music and Art Center of Greene County, New York.
In February 2020 Vynnytsky toured around North America as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, one of the finest symphony orchestras in Europe. This tour was managed by Columbia Artists, a legendary organization in the performing arts industry and a global leader in artist management.