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 United Kingdom. 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, Megaron in Athens.
His recent performances include appearances with the MAV Symphony Orchestra at the Liszt Academy Hall in Budapest, the Russian Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra in Moscow (with live broadcast on Russian TV), the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Odessa Philharmonic, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara (Turkey) within the Ankara Music Festival, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London at Cadogan Hall, the Cracow Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra of Chile in Santiago, the Athens State Orchestra, tours with the Lemberg Philharmonic in Spain and Germany, also recitals in the UK, Ukraine, Japan, Lithuania (within the Vilnius Festival) and Poland.
His upcoming engagements include several recitals, performances and tours with many renowned orchestras such as the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Kyiv Philharmonic, Cracow Philharmonic, Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, St Petersburg Philharmonic, and many others.
Apart from his busy concert career, Dima Tkachenko teaches at the National Music Academy of Ukraine (since 2006), gives masterclasses (the recent ones were at the Hida-Takayama Music Festival in Japan, at Bilkent University in Ankara and at the Vilnius Festival in 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.