Dmytro Tkachenko

Tkachenko’s articulation of ungovernable passions was properly breathtaking... Tkachenko brought timbral variation and lyrical charm

The Times

Ukrainian violinist Dima (Dmytro) Tkachenko started playing the violin and piano before the age of 6. He studied at the Lysenko Music School in Kyiv, graduating to the National Music Academy of Ukraine (former Kyiv Conservatoire) studying under Bogodar Kotorovych and Yaroslava Rivniak. In 1998 he was invited to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Yfrah Neaman. In 2002 Dima was made a Fellow of the Guildhall School and until 2008 was working with Krzysztof Smietana and David Takeno. He was awarded the Guildhall School Concert Recital Diploma (Premier Prix) and was a prize-winner at several international violin competitions including the Carl Nielsen Competition (Odense, Denmark), the Lysenko Competition (Kyiv, Ukraine) and the Wronski Solo Violin Competition (Warsaw, Poland).

He has toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas and has been broadcast on Ukrainian Radio and TV, Danish Radio, Latvian Radio, Polish Radio and TV and on BBC Radio 3 in the UK. He performed at such venues as London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican and Cadogan Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Toronto’s Roy Tomson Hall, Cologne Philharmonie, Tokyo Opera City, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Liszt Academy Hall in Budapest, Berlin Konzerthaus and Berlin Philharmonie Chamber Music Hall, Megaron in Athens, Palau de Musica in Barcelona and Auditorio Nacional in Madrid.

His recent performances include appearances with the MAV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara (Turkey), the Istanbul Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Warsaw and Cracow Philharmonics, the Liepaja Symphony in Latvia, the Symphony Orchestra of Chile in Santiago, the Athens State Orchestra, the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, the EuroAsia Symphony in Astana (Kazakhstan), tours in Spain and Germany, recitals in the UK, Ukraine, France, Japan, Singapore, the USA, Italy, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland and North Macedonia. He performed Stankovych No. 2 Concerto all over the US and Canada, in the extensive American Tour with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.

His repertoire covers nearly every major violin concerto from Vivaldi Quattro Stagioni to Schoenberg and Ligeti, numerous sonatas and smaller works for violin and piano, programme cycles such as the complete 24 Paganini Caprices, complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas, complete Beethoven Sonatas.

Apart from his busy concert career, Dima Tkachenko presently teaches at the National Music Academy of Ukraine, gives masterclasses (the recent ones in Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, Turkey, Malta, Poland and Lithuania), goes on jury to several international competitions, was the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Benjamin Britten International Music Competitions in London and the Artistic Director of the Lysenko International Music Competition in Kyiv, Ukraine and from November 2023 also serves as the Artistic Director of the National Chamber Ensemble Kyiv Soloists.