The University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts has announced the winners of the 2025 SFA Annual Awards, an honor that honors faculty and staff for their exceptional work and dedication. Among the honorees is Ukrainian violinist and music professor Solomiya Ivakhiv, who received the title of Outstanding Faculty. She received the award for her outstanding contributions to the development of arts education and the popularization of Ukrainian music in the United States.
This was reported by UConn School of Fine Arts.
“Last week, during the annual School of the Arts faculty and staff retreat, we recognized the 2025 SFA award winners – those whose dedication and professionalism inspire our community... “Outstanding Teacher” – Solomiya Ivakhiv (violin and viola, music),” the announcement reads.
Solomiya Ivakhiv is a world-class concert violinist, chamber musician, teacher, and Honored Artist of Ukraine. She is also the Chair of the Strings Department, Professor of Violin and Viola at the University of Connecticut, works in the Violin Department at the Longy School of Music at Bard College, and is the Artistic Director of Caspian Monday Music.
“Congratulations to Solomiya Ivakhiv, Artistic Director of the Music at the Institute concert series! We are incredibly proud to have you as part of our team!”, shared Ukrainian Institute of America.
After the start of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine, she organized and gave numerous charity concerts in support of Ukrainian musicians and humanitarian initiatives, including the Lisa Batiashvilli Foundation, the Tikva orphanage in Odessa, the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.
For example, her solo album “Ukraine: Journey to Freedom – A Century of Classical Music for Violin and Piano” entered the Top 5 “New Classical Releases” on iTunes Billboard and won a silver medal at the Global Music Awards (2016). During the airstrikes in November 2023, she recorded the albums “Ukrainian Masters” and “Ukrainian Christmas”. Since 2010, she has been the artistic director of the Music at the Institute (MATI) concert series at the Ukrainian Institute in New York, where she and her colleagues continue to popularize Ukrainian classical music.
“I am a concert violinist, but as a Ukrainian I feel that it is my duty to promote Ukrainian music, and I started doing this from a young age. Since 2011, when I became the artistic director of the Music at the Institute concert series at the Ukrainian Institute of America, I have included more than 160 Ukrainian composers in the program.
Why is this important? Because the works of Ukrainian composers sound together with the works of Western ones, which emphasizes the main thing: Ukrainian music is part of the world cultural heritage, it should not be an exception or marginalized. It has its own full place in the world of classical music,” said Solomiya Ivakhiv about her activities and creative mission, joining the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the USA.
Solomiya Ivakhiv also conducts master classes at leading educational institutions. Yale and Columbia universities, Penn State, Boston Conservatory, Oberlin, etc. During the pandemic, it created unique opportunities for students to speak and collaborate with various institutions.
“As the Chair of Strings at the University of Connecticut, I also encourage students to study Ukrainian music. They not only perform works by Ukrainian composers, but also become advocates for Ukrainian culture. My former student Jack Nygan initiated the correction of the Russian transliteration of Ukrainian composers’ names into Ukrainian in the Indiana University libraries. While Jack was at UConn, I repeatedly told him about the injustice and how Moscow culture censored and appropriated Ukrainian artists. Now Jack has made it his personal mission to restore the truth about Ukrainian authors in databases and academic space,” said. Ivakhiv.
She received her doctorate from Stony Brook University (USA) and her master’s degree from the Lviv National Academy of Music named after M. Lysenko. She moved to the United States to study at the Curtis Institute, where her teachers were Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank, Philip Setzer, Ani Kavafyan and Rafael Druyan.
Photo: solomiyaivakhiv.com and thestrad.com
Author: Inna Mikhno