ABOUT OLEG BEZBORODKO

Oleg Bezborodko is a Ukrainian pianist and composer whose works have been performed in more than twenty-five countries across Europe, North America, and Asia. His artistic path combines performance, composition, and teaching, making him one of the most versatile representatives of contemporary Ukrainian music.

After studying piano and composition in Ukraine and Switzerland, he earned a Ph.D. from the Ukrainian National Academy of Music, where he currently serves as Head of the Piano Department. Alongside his academic role, he is in demand as both a chamber musician and an interpreter of contemporary repertoire. His interpretations of Valentin Silvestrov’s music, in particular, have been praised by the composer himself.

Oleg’s music has been performed by leading ensembles such as musikFabrik, the Chain Ensemble, and the Kyiv Piano Duo, as well as by acclaimed soloists including pianists Stephen Gutman, Roglit Ishay, Timothy Hoft, and Dmytro Choni; violinists Dmytro Tkachenko and Orest Smovzh; and violist Tatjana Masurenko. He has collaborated with all major Ukrainian orchestras, both as a pianist and as a composer, and his works have been performed under the direction of conductors such as Andrey Boreyko, Hobart Earle, Kirill Karabits, Volodymyr Kozhukhar, Vincent Kozlowski, Ivan Ostapovych, Viktor Ploskina, Natalia Ponomarchuk, Volodymyr Sheyko, and Volodymyr Sirenko.

His music has been presented at international festivals including Kyiv Music Fest, Contrasts (Lviv), Two Days and Two Nights (Odesa), Euphonie (Warsaw), Iš ARTI (Kaunas), the Biennial Festival of New Music at Florida State University (Tallahassee), INS OFFENE (Berlin), and the Brandenburgisches Fest der Neuen Musik (Potsdam).

A laureate of national and international competitions, he received the Levko Revutsky Music Prize (2008) from the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Mykola Lysenko Composition Award (2017). His works have been commissioned by the Goethe-Institut, the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, the Ukrainian National Academic Concert Band, Musica Mundi Frankfurt,  and the Lviv Organ Hall.

Since 2023, Oleg has served as Artistic Director of the “Kyiv Music Premieres” festival, one of Ukraine’s leading platforms for new music.

In recent years, his orchestral works have gained particular recognition. In 2025, his Symphony Peine Del Viento (Comb of the Wind) received second prize at the San Sebastián Symphony Concours, organized by County Hall Arts in London. That same year, on June 10, his Symphony Unbroken was performed alongside Beethoven’s Eroica at the closing concert of Kharkiv Music Fest — the first symphonic concert in Kharkiv since the start of the full-scale war.

Presented by Mannes Sounds Festival in collaboration with the Mannes Composition Department / Composition Forum.