UKRAINIAN CONDUCTOR IN UK

Another find in the BBC music magazine our neighbor gives us each month is another famed Ukrainian musician.

Since the invasion of his beloved homeland in February 2022, the conductor KIRILLS KARABITS has combined a punishing schedule here and around the world with constant concern for his family, friends and country.

Regarding Russia’s invasion of his home country, Kirills said it has “a huge impact on my life, my career and my state of mind as a musician and human being,” and he thinks about what he can do as a conductor.

" I think that in such tragic circumstances Ukraine and Ukrainian culture has a huge chance of getting better known around the world and I see my very important role in promoting the music of Ukrainian composers which I do on many levels."

But he says, more than anywhere else, he has found the greatest support and understanding with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, its staff, musicians and audiences.

 It more than sums up the remarkable bond formed over the past the fifteen years since he began his musical stewardship in the 2009/2010 season, having first performed with the orchestra back in 2006. He followed the famed American conductor, Marin Alsop- not an easy task.

 Another of his great highlights in the past 15 years has been conducting the music of his late father IvanFedorovych Karabyts, a renowned Ukrainian conductor and composer.

Having achieved everything he wanted to achieve, at the age of 47 Kirills now finds himself trying to work out what his next challenges are.

 “Part of this is that together, we have been championing Ukrainian music for many years, before it was fashionable. Now it’s fashionable. When Ukraine began to appear every day in the news in 2022, the orchestra knew much more than other people about it."

Kirills was born in Kyiv (then in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union). In his youth, he studied piano, musicology and composition developing an interest in conducting at age 13. His early teachers included Tatiana Kozlova. In Kyiv, he studied at the Lysenko Music School, and later at the National Tchaikovsky Music Academy. In 1995, he began studies at the Vienna Musikhochschule and earned a diploma in orchestral conducting after five years of study.

Kirills made his first public conducting appearance aged 19. He was the first Ukrainian conductor to be named principal conductor of a UK orchestra.

A series of CDs with music by composers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine, such as Kara Karayev, Boris Lyatoshynsky, Chary Nurymov and Avet Terterian has appeared on the Chandos label

Kirills was recognized with an Honorary OBE earlier this year for Services to Music and the promotion in the UK of symphonic works from Ukraine and the East.

His last concert as chief conductor in the orchestra’s home base was an emotional occasion. A packed audience gave him a standing ovation before he had even conducted a note. The last piece played was the beautiful and mysterious: the Farewell Serenade by fellow Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov (see following Blog), a piece whose ineffable gentleness, beautifully played by the orchestra, came as a healing balm.