Join us for a riveting concert Sunday, July 28th at 1:00 p.m. Ukrainian-Australian violinist Markiyan Melnychenko and pianist Peter de Jager perform at UIMA, as part of their national tour which will be giving the American premiere of virtually unknown miniature works by Ukrainian composers such as Barvinsky, Lyatoshynsky and more. The concert will be a fundraiser and donations will go to the Ukrainian Classical Music Recording Project.
Markiyan Melnychenko, Violin
Ukrainian-Australian violinist Markiyan Melnychenko CF has been described as “an artist of patrician sensibility, spectacular technique”, and “possessing an extraordinary combination of bravura, brains and elegance”. He has served as Principal 1st Violin with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Lecturer in Violin at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where he is currently completing a PhD.
Markiyan has performed in 17 countries including solo performances in New York (Alice Tully Hall), Washington DC (Kennedy Centre), and has made a number of solo appearances with orchestras in Ukraine, Australia, Japan and America. He has been broadcast on ABC Classic FM, 3MBS FM and Radio NZ, and has commercially released recordings on the Tall Poppies (2019) and Naxos (2020) labels. In 2019 he was awarded the Dr Iain C. Medgett Churchill Fellowship and is a 2024 Norman MacGeorge Scholar.
He is a multiple 1st prize winner in national and international competitions and in 2013 he was selected to perform in a quartet at the US Capitol for the Inaugural Luncheon at Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration.
Markiyan obtained his Bachelor and Masters of Music at the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Professor of Violin – Oleh Krysa. He was additionally awarded Eastman's Performer's certificate and the highly prestigious Artist Certificate, being the first violinist to receive this award in over 50 years. Additional studies have been at the Australian National Academy of Music with Alice Waten and William Hennessy, and also with Cyrus Forough.
Peter de Jager - Piano
Peter de Jager is a pianist, harpsichordist, and composer based in Melbourne. His career has
encompassed every style of Western classical music as well as music theatre and cabaret. He is in demand as a solo and collaborative keyboardist, and has had compositions commissioned by several major Australian ensembles.
Career highlights include winning the inaugural Australian International Chopin Competition in 2011; placing second in the Australian National Piano Award in 2016; commissioning Chris Dench's monumental 98 minute Piano Sonata, for the performance of which he was the recipient of an APRA AMCOS Art Music Award; performing the complete keyboard works of Xenakis in the Melbourne Festival to rave reviews in 2017; and co-writing and performing Reception: The Musical with Bethany Simons.
Peter is currently on staff at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music as a collaborative pianist, and teaches at the Australian Institute of Music. Current projects include completing a PhD in Spanish Renaissance music, singing in the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir (and occasionally playing the piano in rehearsals), and learning the oud.