Piano and Voice Recital
The programme includes works by Purcell, Mozart, Mascagni, Bizet, Poulenc, Weill, Lyatoshynsky and Taranenko among others.
Tickets on the door.
Iryna Zhytynska - Mezzo-soprano
Ukrainian mezzo-soprano, graduate of the National Academy of Music in Kyiv (Ukraine). In 2006 Iryna made her professional debut in the Ukrainian National Opera in Kyiv as Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Since 2007 she has appeared as a soloist in the Wroclaw Opera (Poland) performing a number of roles: Verdi – Fenena in Nabucco, Emilia in Otello, Mozart – Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Papagena in Zauberflöte, among others. She gained critical acclaim singing main roles in premiere productions of Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila and Bizet’s Carmen. Iryna regularly appears in major opera theaters as a guest artist: Teatro Real in Madrid, Teatro la Maestranza in Sevilla, Opera Narodowa in Warsaw, Opera Krakow, Romanian National Opera in Bucharest, Teatro Reggio in Turin, Azerbaijan State Opera in Baku, to name just a few. Her repertoire includes Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther, Laura in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, Odarka in Gulak-Artemovsky’s Zaporozhec za Dunajem, and more. Earlier this year Iryna debuted in the role of Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana under the baton of Massimiliano Caldi, in Michal Znaniecki’s production in Opera and Philharmonia in Bialystok (Poland). In September 2023 Iryna debuted in a world premiere of an opera King Stakh’s Wild Hunt by Olga Podgaiskaja, in Barbican Theatre.
Yuliya Shpyg –Soprano
Ukrainian opera and concert singer, currently based in London. Having obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Conducting and Choral department of the prestigious Revutsky Music College in Chernihiv, Yuliya completed her Master’s in Opera Singing at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv. Later, Yuliya worked at the National Opera of Ukraine, performing Natalka Poltavka in Ivan Kotliarevsky’s muchacclaimed opera of the same name. Yuliya is as passionate about opera as she is an experienced musician, having performed for years on stage and in musical international projects across Europe. A skilled singer, Yuliya has been worked as a vocal teacher in her alma mater – the National Music Academy of Ukraine. Well-educated, holistic and openminded, Yuliya is a creator and founder of a charity classical music event Atmosphere of Christmas, which was founded in 2019. Its mission is to create a wonderful atmosphere of the western world’s jolliest holiday, to develop the culture of opera singing in Ukraine and to introduce young promising talents to the wide international audience.
Olga Paliy
At the age when young children dream about what they want to be, Olga Paliy never thought of not being a musician. In her final school year, at the age of 14, she gave two personal recitals in the same week: one as a pianist and one as a singer. A spark ignited. Competition successes followed, including audience-vote prizes, en route to Olga’s Europe-wide career of public concerto, chamber and solo performance, and international lecturing. Originally from Ukraine, Olga is a London-based pianist, teacher and an established researcher of polyphonic music. In 2004 Olga was awarded a Presidential Scholarship for the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music in Kyiv, Ukraine, graduating in 2006 under the expert tutelage of Valery Kozlov. From there she went on to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester to study with the inspirational Norma Fisher. In 2017, she became the RNCM’s first student to receive a PhD in Performance, under the primary supervision of David Horne. On stage, Olga plays the classical piano mainstream and contemporary composers, covering a wide repertoire from Bach and Scarlatti to Carl Vine and James MacMillan. Her solo concert programmes are intelligently and informatively imagined. She has had the pleasure of being a soloist with Kyiv Municipal Symphony Orchestra, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Dnipro Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Beethoven Orchestra, and Worthing Symphony Orchestra, performing concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Ravel and Prokofiev.As well as around UK and Ukraine, her concert career has taken her to Hungary, Czech Republic, Latvia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Spain and Australia. Off stage, Olga is an Artistic Trustee co-driving the British charity, International Music in Performance & Education Foundation (IMPEF), and a judge at the annual Riga International Competition for Young Pianists.