Andriy Yurkevych (12 October 1971, Zboriv, Ternopil region) is a Ukrainian opera conductor specialising in the bel canto style. He has been the Musical Director of the Warsaw Opera since 2015. He has been an Honoured Artist of Ukraine since 2019.
Andrii Yurkevych was born into a family with no musicians in it. He attributes his musical success to the fact that "the music director at his kindergarten in Zboriv organised a small ensemble in which he played a one-and-a-half octave accordion, which he bought with his grandfather's modest pension". Andriy believes that it is very important that every child has a chance to showcase their musical abilities.
After graduating from the secondary and music school in Zboriv (accordion class of M. Dovhan, 1986), he entered the Solomiya Krushelnytska Ternopil Music College, graduating in 1990 (accordion class). During his studies, "he conducted an orchestra of folk instruments, teachers and musicians he knew noted that I showed a talent for this business."
Later, he entered the Vasyl Stefanyk Pedagogical Institute in Ivano-Frankivsk, studying classical choreography, "which helped me a lot later as a ballet conductor."
He transferred to the Mykola Lysenko Lviv Music Institute to study opera symphony conducting (class of Professor, People's Artist of Ukraine, Shevchenko Prize winner Yuriy Luciv), graduating in 1996.
In 1993, he first took the conducting console at the Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv Opera and Ballet Theatre, where he made his debut in many opera and ballet performances.
Since 1996, Andriy Yurkevych has worked as a conductor at the Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv Opera and Ballet Theatre, conducting opera and ballet performances. While working at the Lviv Opera, Andriy conducted opera performances by Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, Mykola Lysenko, Denys Sichynsky, Anatol Vakhnyanyn, and Ukrainian composer from the United States Igor Sonevytsky. Among the ballets he conducted: "The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Bayadereka and Coppélia.
In 1998, he became a diploma winner of the second Stefan Turchak National Conducting Competition in Kyiv.
From 1999 to 2002, he worked as a lecturer at the Department of Symphonic and Choral Conducting of the Mykola Lysenko Lviv Music Academy.
He took part in the Contemporary Music Festival in Lviv - "Contrasts-96" and "Contrasts-97", where he performed works by Ivan Nebesnyi, Yuriy Lanyuk and other Ukrainian and foreign composers. As a conductor of the orchestra at the Youth Chamber Theatre in Lviv, he toured Poland (Krakow, Walbrzych) [4].
Andriy Yurkevych's first foreign internship took place at the Warsaw Opera with conductor Jacek Kasprzyk[pl], where he was invited as a young promising conductor of the Lviv Opera House. However, after his internship in Warsaw (2001-2002), he realised that he had to study further.
Subsequently, he improved his performing skills at the Chigi[it] Music Academy (Siena, Italy) with Gianluigi Gelmetti[it]. Since 2002, he has studied composition at the Conservatory of Gioachino Rossini[it] (Pesaro, Italy), where he also attended masterclasses of Alberto Zeda[it] at the Academy of Young Opera Singers.
Andriy Yurkevych believes that the work of an opera conductor is, first and foremost, work with singers. "For bel canto singers, it is not enough to have an angelic voice, you need a personality. For this, you need to have life and dramatic experience. "The human voice is a perfect instrument with which you can create anything: express any emotions and experiences, reach any tones and pitches, create a timbre palette of any beauty and texture. We, the orchestra, are the servants of the voice, the bel canto vocalists."
Awards
Winner of the Special Prize of the Second S. Turchak National Competition in Kyiv.
Discography
2005 - Romeo and Juliet by Filippo Marchetti (composer), Andriy Yurkevych (conductor), Italian International Orchestra, Dynamix (recording company)
2007 - Romeo and Juliet by Filippo Marchetti (composer), Andriy Yurkevych (conductor), Italian International Orchestra, Naxos (recording company)
2009 - OPERNGALA - 16th Gala Concert for the AIDS Foundation Andriy Yurkevych (conductor), Deutsche Oper Berlin[de] (orchestra), Naxos (record company)
2010 - Lucrezia Borgia by Gaetano Donizetti (composer), Andriy Yurkevych (conductor), WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln (orchestra), & 5 more formats: Audio CD, Nightingale (record company)
Video.
Gala for Aids, Berlin, 07.11.2009; Andrey Yurkevich (conductor), Deutsche Oper Berlin
Jacques Offenbach - La vie Parisienne, Ouverture, Andrey Yurkevich (conductor), Harmonia Symphony Orchestra & Wiener Staatsoper;
Dvořák - Song to the moon - Valentina Nafornice (soprano), Andriy Yurkevych (conductor)
Ella giammai m'amo - G. Verdi: Don Carlo - Ildar Abdrazakov (bass), Andriy Yurkevych (conductor)
"Lucia di Lammermoor - Gaetano Donizetti (composer), Andriy Yurkevych (conductor)
