Oksana Lyniv (born 6 January 1978, Brody, Lviv oblast, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian conductor. She is the first woman to hold the position of chief conductor of the Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra in Graz. Founder and artistic director of the LvivMozArt festival, founder and chief conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine/YsOU. She is an honorary citizen of Brody.
Daughter of two musicians and granddaughter of music teacher and church choir regent Dmytro Lyniv. Her father Yaroslav Lyniv (b. 25 January 1952) is the director of the Boyan Folk Choir in Brody. Has a brother Yurii.
Education.
Mykola Lysenko National Music Academy. Lviv. 2015
Oksana Lyniv graduated from the music school in Brody. Then she studied at the Vasyl Barvinskyi Drohobych Music College, but after the first year she transferred to Lviv and in 1996 graduated from the Stanislav Liudkevych Lviv Music College, where she studied to play the flute. Later, from 1996 to 2003, she studied at the Mykola Lysenko Lviv State Music Academy in the class of opera and symphony conducting of Bohdan Dashak, the chief conductor of the Lviv Opera. While studying at the Academy, she became Dashak's assistant.
In 2004, she took part in the first Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition at the Bamberg Philharmonic. It was Lyniv's first trip abroad, where she won third place. After that, in 2005, she became an assistant to conductor Jonathan Nota at the Bamberg Philharmonic.
In 2005, Oksana Lyniv moved to Dresden, where she studied at the Carl Maria von Weber Hochschule für Musik (postgraduate studies) and has been attending masterclasses with Eckegard Klemm since 2007.
Lyniv has been a recipient of scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Goethe-Institut and the Oskar and Vera Ritter Foundation. From 2007 to 2009, she was supported by the Conductors' Forum of the German Musicians' Association. Since then, she has attended masterclasses by such figures as Hartmut Haenchen, Kurt Masur, Georg Fritsche and Roland Seifarth.
For Bavarian radio, she has conducted recordings with the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra and, in 2007, the 97th phase of the local youth orchestra.
Personal life.
On 6 November 2021, she married violinist and musician of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra Andriy Murza, with whom she had been engaged since February 2021.
Musical activity
Oksana Lyniv works with numerous leading orchestras and opera houses in Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Japan, and Ukraine. Among them are the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Berliner Staatsoper, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra, Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Hessian State Orchestra in Wiesbaden, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Graz Philharmonic Orchestra, Toulouse Opera Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and others. She has worked as an opera conductor at the Bavarian State Opera, Gran Teatre Liceu in Barcelona, Theatre an der Wien (Vienna), Staatsoper Stuttgart, Estonian National Opera, Opera Houses in Bonn, Osnabrück, Bremen, Royal Swedish Opera, Lviv National Opera, Odesa National Opera and many others.
From 2008 to 2013, Oksana Lyniv worked as a conductor at the Odesa National Opera and Ballet Theatre. She conducted operas such as La bohème, Rural Honour, Rigoletto and Madama Butterfly. She has also staged operas by Ruggero Leoncavallo, such as Pagliacci, Dmitri Bortnyansky's Alcide, ballets to music by Gustav Mahler, Johann Strauss, The Mystery of the Vienna Woods, and Ludwig Minkus' Don Quixote. Since the 2013/2014 season, Oksana Lyniv has worked as musical assistant to Kirill Petrenko, General Music Director and Conductor of the Bavarian State Opera, where she conducted Count Ori, The Mercy of Titus, and the premiere of the opera The Wall Clock[de]. In 2015, Oksana Lyniv was recognised as the best conductor of the Bavarian State Opera in the classical music category.
In February 2017, Oksana was elected as Dirk Kaftan's successor[de] and from the 2017/2018 season she became the principal conductor of the Graz Opera and the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra. The 2019/20 season is marked by important debuts with the Berliner Staatsoper, the Munich Philharmonie and Daniel Barenboim in Berlin. Highlights included the revivals of Cherubini's Medea and Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Berlin State Opera, a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida at the historic Hatshepsut Temple in Luxor, Egypt, with the INSO-Lviv Orchestra, and productions of Verdi's Don Carlos, Weinberg's The Passenger and Sergei Prokofiev's ballet. Prokofiev's Cinderella at the Opera Graz (Austria); a production of Judith at the Bavarian State Opera.
On 6 November 2020, the Golden Hall of the Vienna Philharmonic hosted the premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina's eponymous work The Wrath of God, conducted by Oksana Lyniv. The concert was postponed four times due to the coronavirus pandemic. "The Viola Concerto was performed by Antoine Tamestit, one of the best violists of our time. On 8 November 2020, the Lviv National Philharmonic named after M. Skoryk hosted another premiere with Oksana Lyniv - a production of the opera Oksana's Heart by Stefania Turkevych-Lukiyanovych. The opera was written exactly 60 years ago in 1960 and was first staged in Ukraine. On 20 November 2020, Oksana Lyniv made her debut with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with works by Felix Mendelssohn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
On 30 November 2020 in Berlin, Oksana Lyniv was awarded the prestigious Oper!Awards in the category "Best Conductor 2020" by the opera magazine Oper!Das Magazine. This award is given to artists in the field of opera.
On 19 November 2020, Oksana Lyniv conducted the official Advent concert of the WDR channel in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was broadcast live from the Basilica of St Mary in Kevelar. The conductor collaborated with the WDR Radio Orchestra and soloists such as soprano Golda Schultz, renowned Wagnerian tenor Klaus Florian Vogt and clarinetist Sharon Kam. The concert featured a new orchestral version of Shchedryk arranged by Ivan Nebesnyi. Among the honoured guests of the concert was Armin Laschet, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia.
In 2021, Oksana Lyniv became the first woman conductor in the 145-year history of the Bayreuth Festival to conduct at the world's most prestigious opera festival. In Bayreuth, Oksana performed the premiere of The Flying Dutchman, on which she collaborated with Dmitry Chernyakov.
On 1 January 2022, Oksana Lyniv became the first female musical director of the Teatro Comunale Bologna in Bologna.
Cultural diplomacy
Oksana Lyniv is responsible for the development of classical music in Ukraine and is known as Ukraine's cultural ambassador to the world. For her international success and dedication to the development of Ukrainian culture, she was awarded the title of Honorary Ambassador of the City of Lviv. In 2016, she initiated the foundation of the LvivMozArt International Classical Music Festival in Lviv and has been leading it as its artistic director ever since. In 2016, Oksana Lyniv initiated the founding of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (YsOU), the first and only youth orchestra that brings together talented young people from all over Ukraine. The orchestra has become a powerful platform for the development of young musicians aged 12 to 22, and has already won international recognition with brilliant performances in Bonn (Beehovenfest Bonn), Berlin (Young Euro Classic Youth Orchestra Festival), Bayreuth (Bayreuth Young Artists Festival), Graz (Musikverein Graz), Lviv (LvivMozArt Festival) and Kyiv.
"Oksana Lyniv was a huge success. In one evening, she showed all, indeed all, facets of Bartok! The pattern of her movements is clear and precise. The quintessence of subtle drama, an extraordinary tonal range from softness to harshness, from gentle sound to razor sharpness. The State Orchestra of Bavaria embodied all the nuances of the great master at the console. The sound ranged from delicate to extremely concentrated. But not a single moment of overpowering or excessive noise! Flawless groups of trumpets and trombones, solos from flute to bassoon: it won't be long before someone else can do something like this!"
Oksana Lyniv has joined several music initiatives in Ukraine with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. In collaboration with cultural manager Yaryna Vynnytska, she participated in the large-scale art project Ark Ukraine: Music, which was first broadcast online on 24 October 2020. The project combines Ukrainian archaic music with modern classical pieces. In addition, it symbolises a musical ark, which aims to preserve the Ukrainian heritage and convey this treasure to future generations. In this project, Lyniv collaborated with nearly 200 participants from all over Ukraine: the bands DakhaBrakha, Kurbasy, the Dudaryk Men's Choir, the Mykola Lysenko Kyiv Girls' Choir, Serhiy Zhadan, and Polissya singer Dominika Chekun. The Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, led by its conductor, also took part in the project.
Returning the memory of Mozart to Lviv
Oksana Lyniv is actively promoting the return of the memory of the Mozart family in Lviv and other places in Galicia where Franz Xaver Mozart, Wolfgang Mozart's youngest son, lived and worked. In the process of creating the LvivMozArt festival, a good connection was established with the Mozart family. Lyniv established important connections between Lviv, Salzburg, and Vienna. In particular, since the first festival, she has established cooperation with the International Mozarteum Foundation. In 2019, Lviv was admitted to the International Association "Mozart's Paths", an international organisation that is open to cities that are historically connected to the work of Mozart or his family. For the second LvivMozArt festival, the Mozarteum Foundation provided an original violin by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Among the planned events in connection with the inclusion of Galicia in the Mozart Trail are the unveiling of a monument to Franz Xaver Mozart in Lviv, the development of a brand for Lviv as a city of Mozart, the creation of a tour programme of Mozart's places, and research into the history of Franz Xaver. Lyniv called this research Mozertiana Galicia, which means researching archives and all documents, including his letters and travel diary, that will testify to Mozart's activities in Lviv. All of these documents will be published in Ukrainian translation by the Staryi Lev Publishing House with original illustrations and a brief introduction by Oksana Lyniv to each chapter of the book.
"This work will become the basis for many of our sub-projects. For example, for excursions to Mozart's places, for creating a virtual museum. When you arrive in Vienna, you can see the cult of Mozart at the airport. I want something like that to happen here. This will include souvenirs and special sweets - I have already thought of what they will be," says Lyniv.
Awards and honours
2015 - Star of the Year in the Classical category and the Munich Opera Festival prize
2017 - Order "For Intellectual Courage"
2017 - "People of Lviv"
2017 - "Man of the New Time"
2018 - "BOOM Awards"
2018 - "100 most influential women of Ukraine"
2019 - "100 Most Influential Ukrainians" by Focus magazine and "Top 100" by NV magazine
2019 - TREBBIA International Award in the nomination "For Artistic Activity"
2018-2019 - "Styrian of the Year" in the category "Art" (Graz, Austria)
2020 - Best Conductor of 2020 (Oper! Awards, Germany)
2021 - Women in Arts 2021 (in the nomination "Women in Music")
2021 - Order of Princess Olga, III degree - for significant personal contribution to state-building, strengthening defence capabilities, socio-economic, scientific, technical, cultural and educational development of the Ukrainian state, significant labour achievements, many years of conscientious work and on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence
2022 - Helena Vaz da Silva Award.
