Dima Tkachenko
... Tkachenko’s articulation of
ungovernable passions was properly breathtaking...
...Tkachenko brought
timbral variation and lyrical charm…
The Times
Ukraine-born
violinist Dima 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 Jaroslava 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.
Dima Tkachenko 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, ORT and Kultura Russian TV, Danish 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, Cologne Philharmonie, Moscow’s Great Hall of the Conservatoire, Liszt Academy Hall in Budapest, Konzerthaus in Berlin, 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 Russian Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra in Moscow (with live broadcast on Russian TV), the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara (Turkey) within the Ankara Music Festival, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Cracow Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra of Chile in Santiago, the Athens State Orchestra, tours in Spain and Germany, also recitals in the UK, Ukraine, Japan, Singapore, Lithuania (within the Vilnius Festival) and Poland.
His repertoire covers nearly every major violin concerto from Vivaldi Quattro Staggioni to Schoenberg, 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, all Mozart Violin Concertos.
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 and Lithuania), goes on jury to several international competitions and is the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Benjamin Britten International Music Competitions in London.
