Vasyl Yakovlevych Vasylenko (8 December 1955, Medvyn village, Bohuslav district, Kyiv region) is a Ukrainian conductor, poet, People's Artist of Ukraine. Honoured Artist of Ukraine (1998), President of the Prokofiev Charitable Foundation, Director and Artistic Director of the Golden Crown International Opera Festival, member of the National Union of Theatre Workers of Ukraine.
Currently, Vasyl Vasylenko is the conductor of the National Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the Opera Studio Theatre of the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine.
Biography.
His father is Yakiv Nesterovych and mother is Maria Oleksandrivna Vasylenko.
After graduating from school, he studied at the Tarashchansk Technical School of Mechanisation and Electrification of Agriculture.
In 1986, he graduated from the Lviv Conservatory. He worked as a conductor at the Kharkiv and Donetsk Opera Houses, and improved his skills in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre with Professor Maysurov, People's Artist of Russia.
Since 1994, Vasylenko has been conductor, and since 2001 he has been General Director and Artistic Director of the Odesa State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. V. Vasylenko founded the Golden Crown International Opera Festival (1998, Odesa).
In 1995-2005, under the leadership of V. Vasylenko, the Odesa Opera Theatre toured the USA, Canada, Lebanon, Croatia, Switzerland, Romania, and Moldova. In particular, in 2002, for the first time - in the UK.
Since 2003, he has been the Chief Conductor of the Donetsk National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after A. Solovyanenko.
His name is associated with numerous opera and ballet premieres, including Falstaff by G. Verdi, La bohème and Turandot by G. Puccini, Eugene Onegin by P. Tchaikovsky, Romeo and Juliet by S. Prokofiev, and One Thousand and One Nights by F. Amirov, which rightfully became landmark events in the history of music and theatre in Donbas and Ukraine.
In 2005, together with the Donbass Opera staff under the direction of the theatre's general director Vasyl Ryabenkyi, the maestro completed a grandiose project - an all-Ukrainian production of K. Dankevych's opera Bohdan Khmelnytsky (directed by Vasyl Vovkun) with the participation of famous Ukrainian artists.
Vasyl Vasylenko is the initiator of the first staging in Ukraine of the opera "The Flying Dutchman", a unique Ukrainian-German international project dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Wagner (2012).
After the occupation of Donetsk by the Russian-terrorist forces, he was forced to leave his job at the Donetsk National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after A. Solovyanenko.
In his opinion, by the middle of summer 2014, "it was possible to raise the issue at the state level of relocating the entire staff of the Donbas Opera with its (at that time not yet destroyed) material and technical base to Kyiv (for example, to perform in the Zhovtnevyi Palace), or to move the staff to Sumy, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, where there are no opera houses. This will save the "golden fund" of the Donetsk National Academic Solovyanenko Opera and Ballet Theatre, its creative potential and unique repertoire."
Since 2015, he has been a member of the National Presidential Orchestra.
Vasyl Yakovlevych Vasylenko is fond of poetry.
His creative poetic heritage includes literary and artistic publications:
"Where the Rosa bell cries" (1997)
"Medvynski Sady" (2002)
"Totokha" (2009)
"On the banks of the Brave" (2018)
Anniversary concert 25.12.2015
State awards of Ukraine
Order of Merit III class (20 January 2006) - for a significant personal contribution to the socio-economic and cultural development of Donetsk region, significant labour achievements, high professionalism and on the occasion of the Day of Unity of Ukraine
People's Artist of Ukraine (20 March 2009) - for a significant personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian theatre, fruitful creative achievements and high professionalism and on the occasion of the International Day of Theatre
Honoured Worker of Arts of Ukraine (23 November 1998) - for a significant personal contribution to the development of national culture, significant creative achievements
Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in 2014 - for the opera "The Flying Dutchman" by Wagner at the Donetsk National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after A. Solovyanenko (as a member of the collective)
