Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine

The ‚Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine’ was created in 1995 and started its main concert activity in the principal concert hall of Ukraine: Lysenko Concert Hall of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine.

During the concert seasons, the Orchestra performed more than 50 symphony concerts. The Orchestra repertoire is very diverse and includes works of composers of al epochs and styles.

For its lifetime the Orchestra had a possibility to be a partner of soloists such as Salvatore Accardo, Yuriy Bashmet, Eliso Virsaladze, Tatiana Grindenko, Natalia Gutman, Liana Isakadze (‘You have a wonderful orchestra with a great future and a great conductor. It is always nice to make music with you’), Vladimir Krainev, Gidon Kremer (‘Many thanks to the Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine for its attention and serious attitude, for warmth and music’), Dora Shwartsberg, Paul Bandura-Shkoda, and others. The Orchestra was conducted by various chiefs as Aleksandr Dmitriev, Roman Kofman, Yuriy Nikolaevskiy, Krsistof Penderecki (‘I thank you cordially for the great joy by the performance of my new works: Credo and Violin concert. It’s a wonderful orchestra’), Mikis Theodorakis and others.

The Symphony Orchestra carries out wide concert activity abroad. There were several concert tours in Germany as in the Hall of Berlin Philharmonic, Cologne Philharmonic, and Munich Philharmonic. Newspaper ‘Kölner Stadtanzeiger’ wrote, that the performance of Tchaikovskiy’s Sixth Symphony was such a bright one, with such warmth, with the blood of heart, powerful force and instrumental virtuosity that are inherent only just to a few orchestras of East Europe. Audience was charmed. The Orchestra toured also in Spain, Switzerland, France, Austria, Japan in the Suntory Hall, Triphony Hall, Osaka Symphony Hall and in Poland. Tour geography increases constantly.

Today, the Orchestra collaborates actively with the known international musical festival ‘La Chaise’-Dieu’ in France. Since 2001, Orchestra has been invited constantly to be a base group of the festival. At its first arrival, after the performance of Tchaikovskiy’s music, the newspaper ‘La Tribune’ wrote: ‘…Musicians from Kiev bathed in this universe which pathetic blows got directly into a heart. Strings cause a considerable delight by their warmth, the wind do the same due to their openness and all this under the fervent guidance of Mykola Diadiura.’

During festivals in La Chaise-Dieu – the Orchestra played with soloists as Salvatore Akkardo, Paul Badura-Shkoda and Yury Bashmet. About skillful accompaniment of the Orchestra the newspaper ‘Montagne’ wrote: ‘…concert by Saint-Saens, for cello with orchestra, was never performed so carefully, so artistically and the classicism contrivance never had such appreciation in the pieces of orchestral performance. Who said that Slavs absolutely cannot understand French music of 19th centenary?’

Another significant page of the Orchestra’s history is the participation in the Berlioz International musical festival which is held annually in city La Cote St.-Andre – the city where Hector Berlioz was born. French press wrote: ‘…One feels further unification with musicians, which do not play foul with sensations. All they demonstrate extraordinary technical skill and tempting musicality, which radiate a spirit of generosity’.