She was born in 1978 in Brody. She is the daughter of two musicians and the granddaughter of a choral conductor. Her father is also a choral conductor.
In her youth, she studied piano, flute, violin and singing. From 1992 to 1996, she studied flute and conducting at the Stanislav Liudkevych Music School in Lviv. She first conducted an orchestra at age 16, which aroused her interest in conducting.
She conducted the 2021 opening of the Bayreuth Festival, a new production of Der fliegende Holländer, as the first female conductor at the festival. Oksana has been the Music Director of Teatro Comunale di Bologna since 2022, making her the first female chief conductor of an Italian opera house.
She has been very vocal on the effects of the crises in her country. “War injures everyone and every day a state of moral and physical exhaustion also breeds a feeling of powerlessness, aggression and anger. It is very important for all of us, in Ukraine and abroad, to be able to gather, consolidate all efforts to fight the enemy and communicate with the world about Ukraine as a state.”
“Friends died, buildings crumbled, and, experiencing death every day, I wanted to stop it. I couldn't understand how people could try to eliminate each other, how one country could bomb another. It became a personal issue for me. Now, music is no longer abstract. It has become directly relevant to me," she said, adding that when she performs Verdi's "Requiem" now, it's not just because it's a famous masterpiece. "It makes me naturally think of the victims.”
“Art is not just mere entertainment. It is a process of asking questions and seeking answers to understand what is happening in the world, and it is an act of healing the soul,” she emphasized.
In 2022, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Oksana became a co-initiator of the cooperation project "Music for the Future," an evacuation music camp for young Ukrainian musicians in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Oksana Lyniv emerged as a dedicated
cultural ambassador of her country. She passionately advocates for the
performance of Ukrainian composers on international stages.
