National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine

Maya Wichert was born in Munich in 2006, and started receiving violin lessons at the age of four. Since 2015, she has been studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Professor Sonja Korkeala and has also been coached by Professor Ana Chumachenco. She receives a scholarship from the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein and has attended masterclasses with Julia Fischer, Christoph Poppen, Ingolf Turban, Miriam Fried and Pavel Vernikov.

Maya Wichert has repeatedly won ?rst prizes at the “Jugend musiziert” competition, and won the 1st prize at the “Internationaler Florian Meierott Wettbewerb”. In 2015, she received the 1st prize at the “Carl Bechstein Wettbewerb” in Berlin, and in 2016, she was awarded the 1st  prize at the “International Anton Rubinstein Competition” for young violinists in Düsseldorf. At the international “Il Piccolo Violino Magico” competition in Italy in 2016, she won the 1st prize and the audience prize. At the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer 2016, she received the “Dr.  Konstanze Koepff-Röhrs Förderpreis”, as the youngest participant. At the “9th  International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists” in October 2019 in Weimar, she was awarded the 1st prize and also the Neue Liszt Stiftung special prize.

As a soloist, Maya Wichert has already performed with various orchestras in Germany, Italy and Slovenia. In April 2018, she was the youngest performer at the “Internationales Festival junger Meister” concert series with the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim in Ravensburg, Lindau, Memmingen and Augsburg. In 2018 and 2019, she also performed with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the City of Ulm, the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Jena Philharmonic. The Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben award-winner is also active as a chamber musician and has gained orchestral experience in the Puchheim Youth Chamber Orchestra.

Volodymyr Sirenko was born in 1960 in the Poltava region of Ukraine.

His conducting debut took place at the Kyiv Philharmonic Hall in 1983 with works by Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Boulez. In 1989 Sirenko graduated from the Kyiv Conservatoire where he studied conducting under Prof. Allin Vlasenko. In 1990, he was a finalist at the International Conducting Competition in Prague. A year later, he was appointed as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Ukrainian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 1999. During this period, he made over 200 recordings with the orchestra including Mozart Symphonies Nos. 38 and 41, Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Brahms A German Requiem, Dvorak Symphonies Nos. 7 and 9, R. Strauss “Macbeth”, Janacek “Taras Bulba”.

Since 1999 he has been the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. Highlights among the hundreds of programmes he has performed with the orchestra are: the cycles of Gustav Mahler’s Complete Symphonies; Bach’s Four Passions and Mass in B Minor; Lyatoshynsky’s Complete Symphonies; Honegger’s “Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher”; Berlioz’s “La damnation de Faust”; Debussy’s “Le Martyre de St. Sebastien.

He has made over 50 recordings, with the CD of Silvestrov’s “Requiem for Larissa” being nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005. He has also premiered many works by Ukrainian composers including Sylvestrov’s Symphonies Nos. 7, 8, 9, Stankovych’s Symphony No. 6, oratorios “A Tale of Igor’s Campain” and “Taras Passion”.

Sirenko has toured Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Volodymyr has previously collaborated with high-profile orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Warsovia, NOSPR (Katowice), the Bratislava Radio Symphony, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the BBC Philharmonic. Sirenko has appeared in numerous concert halls around the world, including Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Berliner Philharmonie, Brucknerhaus (Linz), Barbican Hall and Cadogan Hall (London), Theatre des Champs-Elysees and Opera Comique (Paris), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Seoul Arts Center (Republic of South Korea), Palau de la Musica in Valencia and Centro Manuel de Falla in Granada, Filharmonia Narodowa (Warsaw), the Roy Thomson Hall (Toronto), the Tokyo City Opera and the Osaka Symphony Hall in Japan.

Formed by the Council of Ministers of Ukraine in November of 1918, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is considered to be one of the finest symphony orchestras in Eastern Europe. Its first conductor was Oleksandr Horilyj. Natan Rachlin was the Artistic Director of the Orchestra from 1937 until 1962. Stefan Turchak, Volodymyr Kozhuchar, Fedir Hlushchenko, Igor Blazhkov and Theodore Kuchar consequently conducted the Orchestra as its Principal Conductors. Other conductors who have worked with the NSOU include Kostiantyn Simeonov, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Markevitch, Kurt Sanderling, Kiril Kondrashin, Kurt Masur, Hermann Abendroth, Willy Ferrero amongst others. The orchestra has also worked with many high-profile soloists including Artur Rubinstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Gidon Kremer, Oleh Krysa, Monserrat Caballe, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli and Juan Diego Flores. The NSOU was entrusted with the premiere performances of the works of the Borys Liatoshynskyi, Valentyn Sylvestrov, Myroslav Skoryk, and Yevhen Stankovych.

The Orchestra has gained international recognition over a remarkably short period of time. Since 1993, the NSOU has released more than 100 recordings which include both Ukrainian and international repertoires, many receiving the highest international acclaim. In 1994, the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) rated NSOU’s recording of Borys Liatoshynskyi’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 3 as ”The Best Recording of the Year” whilst the CD of Sylvestrov’s “Requiem for Larissa” was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005. The recordings of Bloch and Lees’ Violin Concertos were also nominated for a Grammy Award four years later. 

The NSOU has performed in successful concert tours throughout Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States of America.  

The orchestra’s current Artistic Director & Chief Conductor is Volodymyr Sirenko, and the Managing Director, Director and Producer is Oleksandr Hornostai.