A Duet of Bogdana Pivnenko & Kory Sheldunov

Bohdana Pivnenko is a violinist, an Honoured Artist of Ukraine, a laureate of international competitions, and a laureate of the national program “New Names of Ukraine”. She is a soloist of the National Ensemble of Soloists “Kyivska Camerata”. Bohdana is a participant of numerous international festivals (Berliner Festspiele MaerzMusik, Ruhr /Germany/, Vienna /Austria, Grand Prix/, “Warsaw Autumn”, Krakow, “Nostalgie” /Poland/ etc.), “Days of Culture of Ukraine” (Paris, Vienna, Berlin …). She did numerous concert tours to Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Japan, China, and USA. She repeatedly took part in the premiere performance of works by modern Ukrainian composers.

She presented the author’s program of Valentine Silvestrov “Melodies of the Moments” with the maestro on the stages of Berlin, Poznan, Brno, Kiev, Vilnius, Tbilisi.

Bohdana is also an author and producer of the projects “Anthology of the Modern Ukrainian Music” (8 CD albums) and “The Return of the Names”. As a soloist, she performs with the leading chamber and symphony orchestras of Ukraine, she is a participant in the projects of the Philharmonic of Nations international orchestra.

She graduated with honours and completed an assistantship program course from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine and worked with conductors such as Juozas Domarkas, Vladimir Sirenko, Saulius Sondeckis, Volodymyr Shejko, Theodore Kuchar, Natalya Ponomarchuk, Oksana Lyniv, Erki Pehk, Liutauras Balciunas and others.

Bohdana Pivnenko is boldly called the Ukrainian Paganini. This title is well deserved, taking into account the fact that Valentyn Silvestrov, an outstanding composer and People’s Artist of Ukraine, considers Bohdana a violinist of world importance, not inferior to Spivakov or Kremer. Her playing is virtuosic, unique, passionate, emotional, and intellectual. It is full of hope and beauty. This music overflows with power, fury, and tenderness.

A special programme of duets for two violins will be presented at the concert. It will demonstrate a musical dialogue between the teacher (Bogdana Pivnenko – a prominent Ukrainian violinist and a Cherwell College Fellow) and the student (a young Ukrainian prodigy – Kory Sheldunov).

  • Date: May 19, 2023
  • Start: 7:00 pm
  • Venue: St. Michael at the North Gate Church OX1 3EY

The programme will include works by Ukrainian composers: Valentin Silvestrov, Myroslav Skoryk, Mykola Leontovych, Oleksandr Gonobolin, Hanna Havrylets, a medley of modern Ukrainian hits.