Piano Concert

We are thrilled to welcome back Myroslav Mykhailenko at the piano with friend and special guest, Julia Perekhozhuk, a wonderful young violinist also from Ukraine. The concert is free and open to all. A love offering will be taken to support these young musicians' further musical studies.

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Myroslav Mykhailenko has been described as a “music prodigy from Ukraine” (WTTW’s Chicago Tonight). An avid soloist, collaborator, and chamber musician, he is a versatile artist who loves to pursue an active music career and create meaningful music experiences. Myroslav was the winner of the 2022 Chicago International Music Competition (Concert Artist Category) and Concours International de Piano Ville de Gagny in 2017. He also won prizes in the Medici International Music Competition, Rocky Mountain Music Competition, and Birmingham International Music Competition.

Most recently, Myroslav performed at the Anthem Concert Hall and Meridian International Center in Washington D.C. He also appeared three times on WFMT’s Introductions, a Chicago program that features talented pre-college classical musicians. In the latter appearance, Myroslav played at the beautiful Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston, Illinois. In collaboration with Sidney Lee, he performed a recital at the Skokie Public Library (Skokie, IL) with the assistance of the “Young Steinway Concert Series.” Before immigrating to the United States in 2017, he played concerts across many venues in Ukraine, the most prominent of which was the White Hall of the Kyiv Scientists House.

In addition to performing solo, Myroslav enjoys playing chamber music. His group, Domino Piano Trio, was part of the intensive chamber program at the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, becoming the Overall Winner of the MYA Discover National Chamber Music Competition in 2019. The trio later went on to participate in the Fischoff Competition. Another of Myroslav’s groups, Dando Piano Trio, won the first prize at the Tenth Annual 2022 A.N. & Pearl G. Barnett Chamber Music Competition in Chicago.

Festivals at which Myroslav appeared included the Manhattan in the Mountains Festival (2018 and 2019), the Palmetto International Piano Festival at Erskine College, and the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory Chicago Chamber Music Workshop. He had masterclasses with many prominent teachers and artists, such as Marian Hahn, Shai Wosner, Logan Skelton, Michael Brown, Daniel Shapiro, and Marta Aznavoorian. Active as a collaborative artist, Myroslav has enjoyed collaborating with his brother Nazarii Mykhailenko, baritone. Together, they created a brand “Brothers Mykhailenko” and performed in a variety of concerts in the Chicago area, presenting both Classical and Ukrainian music. In an effort to raise funds for Ukraine, Myroslav and Nazarii concertized extensively at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. Among others, Myroslav collaborated with vocalist Sharon Garvey Cohen, violinist Julia Perekhozhuk, and organist Henry Rye.

Myroslav is passionate about performing community concerts in the Chicago and Baltimore areas. He likes prioritizing places that do not often hear Classical music and finds fulfillment in being of service to others. Performances included places like Skokie Public Library (Skokie, IL), Ukrainian National Museum (Chicago, IL), and Edenwald Senior Living (Towson, MD), among others.

Currently, Myroslav is pursuing his B.M. in piano performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studies with Benjamin Pasternack. He formerly attended the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory and was a scholarship Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college musicians.

Myroslav studied with Lyudmila Lakisova and Jose-Ramon Mendez. Before immigrating to the United States, he studied at the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum under the tutelage of Nina Naiditch.

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Julia Perekhozhuk (14 y.o.) is a Fellow at The Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago that is a nationally recognized training center for highly gifted pre-college pianists and string players. She started playing the violin at the age of four with Mrs. Olga Karabinovych (2014-2018) and is currently studying with Ms. Sang Me Lee.

Julia has won prizes at numerous competitions, including DePaul Concerto Festival, Sejong, Granquist, Society of American Musicians, American Protégé, Ukrainian Music Festival, and the talent competition of the USA Ukrainian Diaspora. She has won cash prizes at the Ukrainian Music Festival named after Marta Krawtsiv-Barabash in Toronto, Canada (2017,2020). Julia received the Frank Little Merit Scholarship Awards (2020, 2021, 2022) and the Academy Merit Scholarship Award (2022, 2023) at MIC.

She has had masterclasses with well-known musicians such as Jennifer Koh, Robert Chen, Sixto Franko, Nurit Pacht.

In addition to performing solo, Julia loves playing chamber and orchestra music. She has been a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras since 2015. She was a concertmaster of the Debut, Concert and Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2023 she is a member of the Symphony orchestra – the top of CYSO.

Julia had the opportunity to participate in music summer camps, such as CCMF at Northeastern University of Chicago in 2021 and 2022, Chicago Vocal Bootcamp at MYAC in 2022, and Center Stage Strings at University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in 2023, where she had private lessons with an internationally recognized pedagogue Simon James.

In 2022, Julia was featured in WFMT “Introductions” Ukrainian Music with Myroslav Mykhailenko & friends. Julia is an active member of Ukrainian community Chicago. She performs in community concerts, festivals, and different cultural events. In 2023 she played two solo recitals with collaborative pianist Myroslav Mykhailenko. All donations from the concerts were contributed to Ukrainian orphans with disabilities.

Julia is graduated from The Avery Coonley School in Downers Grove, and is a freshman at Benet Academy in Lisle, IL. In her free time, she likes drawing, reading, and singing.