Kyiv Children’s Academy of the Arts is an unusual educational institution already existing for eight years. The Grand Concert demonstrated that many talented children study there. When you appreciate children’s performances, usually you have to make allowances for their age, but not on this case. One was nicely surprised with beautiful timbre of both string and wind instruments and their deep understanding of the composer’s style and the epoch. In addition to the children’s confident behavior onstage, these were traits characteristic for all the performers. However, there were some outstanding and vivid personalities, like Dmytro Makarenko, who played Caprice for Violin by Nicolo Paganini, a composition beyond the powers of many adult musicians, or Akademiya [Academy] jazz ensemble enchanting the public with its interesting improvisations and performing a composition for an unusual cast (cello, saxophone, and clarinet).
During an hour and a half various epochs from baroque to the present passed before the audience. On the academy scene a grand piano stood side by side with the harpsichord, classic dance with a fragment of a modern musical. In addition to a traditional for Ukraine bandura players trio an instrumental bandura also appeared.
“Children come to study at our preparatory faculty at the age of four,” academy rector Mykhailo Chymberzhi said. “Then, after coming through a serious competition, they enter their first year and study at the Higher Arts College of the Academy for fourteen years. We don’t believe it necessary to wait for the moment when a child gets his/her diploma, so they work professionally according to the level of their abilities. They take part in National Opera performances and dramas.”
In the rector’s words, studying process is a wide space affecting a person in and out. The main thing is teaching and studying from the best instructors, using the best instruments and modern techniques. True professionals, the cultural elite of Ukraine, teach at the academy: Professors Bohdan Kotorovych, Yevhen Stankovych, Hennady Liashenko, Vsevolod Vorobiov, People’s Artistes of Ukraine Bohdan Stupka and Oleksiy Kuzhelny, et. al. It is noteworthy that the academy is among first educational institutions to enter computer technologies into the educational process under the oversight of a medical center.
