This program is the remarkable debut of our Ukrainian Artist Series. In connection with City of Asylum’s Fellowship for Ukrainian writers displaced by war, this series celebrates the richness of Ukrainian history, language, and culture, and the efforts being made to protect these things. Featuring authors, composers, musicians, poets, and more, the series honors the resiliency of Ukrainian people and amplifies the remarkable work of Ukrainian artists. March’s program features violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv. Solomiya is accompanied by esteemed pianist Sung-Im Kim and celebrated Ukrainian poet, Yuriy Tarnawsky.

Solomiya Ivakhiv, a Ukrainian born violinist, is a highly celebrated soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She has made solo appearances with the Istanbul State Symphony, Charleston Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Lviv National Philharmonic of Ukraine, and the Hunan Symphony Orchestra in China, and she has performed at such prestigious concert halls as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, CBC Glenn Gould Studio, Curtis Institute Field Concert Hall, Philharmonic Hall in Kyiv, Pickman Hall in Cambridge, and Concertgebouw Mirror Hall in Amsterdam. She has been featured at chamber music festivals worldwide, including Tanglewood, Ottawa Chamberfest, Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, San Jose Chamber Music Society, Newport and Nevada Chamber Music Festivals, Emerson Quartet Festival, “Contrasts,” “Virtuosi,” and KyivFest, and she is Artistic Director of the Caspian Monday Music Festival in Greensboro, VT.

Sung-Im Kim (she/her), born in Seoul, South Korea, started playing the piano at the age of seven. Two years later she won first prize in the Korean National Competition. By the age of fifteen, Sung-Im had her debut as soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She went on to win the Eum Ak Chun Chu and Jung-Ang competitions, among the most prestigious in Korea.  As a student in Seoul, she performed numerous solo and chamber concerts, including her solo debut recital as the winner of the Chosun Ilbo National Competition. As an active chamber musician, Sung-Im has performed recitals and chamber music throughout Pittsburgh, collaborating with Ray Chen, Sergey Schepkin, Luz Manriquez, and members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Internationally, she has performed at chamber music series in Taiwan and has traveled to Shaoxing, China to perform a solo recital and to give a series of master classes. Sung-Im is an Assistant Teaching Professor in Collaborative Piano, a chamber coach, and teaches preparatory school at Carnegie Mellon University.

Yuriy Tarnawsky is a bilingual Ukrainian-American writer and author of over three dozen books of fiction, poetry, drama, essays, and translations in Ukrainian and English. He was born in Ukraine, but was raised and educated in the West. He is a cofounder of the avant-garde group of Ukrainian diaspora writers, The New York Group, as well as member of the US innovative writers’ association Fiction Collective/FC2. He is considered to be one of the most daring innovators of Ukrainian literature of the second half of the 20th Century. His notable works include poetry collections Life in the City and Without Spain, and fiction works Three Blondes and Death and The Placebo Effect Trilogy among others. An engineer and linguist by training, he has worked as a computer scientist, specializing in Artificial Intelligence at IBM Corporation as well as a Professor of Ukrainian Literature and Culture at Columbia University. He lives with his wife Karina in the New York City metropolitan area.

Ukrainian Artist Series: Solomiya Ivakhiv, Sung-Im Kim, & Yuriy Tarnawsky