Orest Smovzh is a Ukrainian violinist whose main interest is in creating innovative programmes, recitals, combining different eras, and creative collaboration. In addition to an active concert schedule, Orest is involved in organising festivals and historically informed performances. Over the past few years, he has been perfecting his skills with Midori.
Orest has collaborated in chamber performances with members of the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Suntory Hall Chamber Music Academy, pianists Thomas Hoppe, Albert Tiu, Fazil Say, cellist Michael Cannen, and violinist Vadim Gluzman. He has recently received landmark masterclasses from pianists Ferenc Rados, Leon Fleischer, Jeffrey Kagain, Ellen Mack, conductor György Takács-Nagy, baritone Thomas Hampson and lutenist Nigel North. As a soloist, he has performed with Masaaki Suzuki in Singapore and the USC Baroque Sinfonia in Los Angeles, and has also participated in several projects in Mexico, the United States, and Japan.
Orest has commissioned and premiered about 60 works by leading composers from Ukraine, Singapore, and the United States. He is a co-founder of the Dzenzeliv Classical Music Evenings festival, the first Ukrainian chamber music festival in a village, where he served as artistic director for 8 years; Collegium Musicum Lviv, one of the most prominent concert organisations in Ukraine; and Melaka Classics, an innovative classical music project in Malaysia.
He is the winner of the 2015 Tadeusz Wroński Violin Solo Competition and a finalist of the 2018 Gheorghe Enescu Violin Competition.
Orest has played instruments by Guarneri del Gesù, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume and others, donated by Rin Kei Mei and from private collections.
He has performed as a soloist with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Yamagata Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, Lublin Philharmonic Orchestra, Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra, Ukrainian Festival Orchestra, in such iconic venues as the Romanian Ateneum in Bucharest, Santori Hall in Tokyo, Hitashi Systems Hall in Sendai, among others. His performances have been broadcast by Medici, Lithuanian National Radio and Television, Danish Broadcasting Company, Kol Ha Musica, WXQR and the National Radio Company of Ukraine.
Orest studied at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv, the Yong Siew-See Conservatory of Music in Singapore, the Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, where he was taught by Yaroslava Rivniak, Dmytro Tkachenko, Qian Zhou, and Midori. Orest has participated in masterclasses with Vadim Repin, Ilya Gringolts, Ivri Gitlis, Pierre Amoyal, Nam Yun Kim, Pinchas Zuckerman, Petru Munteanu, Krzysztof Wiegwin and David Takeno.
Orest's concert geography includes numerous countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.
Orest is a recipient of the Levko Revutsky Prize, and since 2018 has been receiving grant support from the VERE FUND, and actively performs in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
