Dr. Taras Filenko is a noted scholar and performer of Ukrainian music. A graduate of the National Academy of Music in Kyiv, Dr. Filenko went on to serve as a member of the faculty and eventually as Associate Dean of Conducting and Voice. From the Academy, he was awarded a Ph.D. in historic musicology in 1989, later earning a doctorate in Ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1998. For over forty years, Dr. Filenko has worked in the fields of History of Music, Ethnomusicology, and Music Performance (piano, organ, and choir directing), successfully combining his work as scholar, teacher, and performer. He has presented concerts throughout Europe and North America, making numerous media appearances promoting the works of contemporary Ukrainian composers.

Dr. Filenko is a recipient of Fulbright and Petesh Scholarships. The themes of his academic publications (more than 100) embrace ethnic studies, musical culture and politics, ethnomusicology, and music and poetry. Together with his mother, Tamara Bulat, he authored The World of Mykola Lysenko: Ethnic Identity, Music Culture and Politics, (2001). A Ukrainian version of this important work was published in 2009. Dr. Filenko has participated in numerous musicological conferences and in international symposiums in Austria, Belgium, France, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Russia, Canada, and the United States.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Dr. Filenko has volunteered his talent for numerous lectures and concerts, raising awareness of Ukrainian culture and funds for humanitarian relief. Focusing on the performance of Ukrainian composers, and, when possible, providing talks on the history of Ukrainian musical culture, these events have been highly praised, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. As part of this effort, Dr. Filenko has presented in Pittsburgh, New York City, Florida, Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill in North Carolina, various venues in Southern California, the Embassy of France in Washington D.C., and numerous other locations.

___

Violinist Stephanie Arado’s career encompasses a wide range of performance and teaching experience. She most recently completed a year of teaching at the Interlochen Arts Academy, an institution she graduated from in 1982. She occupied the Loring M. Staples Chair as Assistant Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1991 to 2013. During the 1995/96 season, Ms. Arado served as Concertmaster of The Colorado Symphony under the baton of Marin Alsop. While in Minneapolis, she maintained a private teaching studio and was a founding member of the Bakken Trio, a premier chamber music organization in the Twin Cities. Through her work with the Bakken Trio she has collaborated with many living composers and commissioned numerous chamber compositions. Ms. Arado continues to serve as a Co-Artistic Director of the Bakken.

Ms. Arado played her first solo recital at the age of eight. She went on to debut with the Chicago Symphony as a 12 year old; following that she has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras throughout the US, including the Detroit, St. Louis, and Minnesota Orchestras. As a 21-year-old, Ms. Arado was the first American ever invited to play with the European Union Youth Orchestra led by Claudio Abbado and Leonard Bernstein. She was also invited to perform as a part of the prestigious chamber music festival Musiktreffen in St. Moritz, Switzerland with Paul Tortelier and Yuri Bashmet, two of the most renowned chamber musicians of the century.

Ms. Arado was born and raised in Chicago. She began playing the violin at the age of five using the Suzuki method with Sister Mary Ricardo of La Grange. Later, she was fortunate to have worked with many fine violin pedagogues in her youth including Paul Rolland, Eugene Gratovich and David Cerrone at the famous Meadowmount School, and she spent five summers as a Fellowship student at the Aspen Music School. Ms. Arado received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music at Western Illinois University (Macomb, IL) studying with Almita and Roland Vamos, and completed her Masters Degree at Juilliard in New York City under the tutelage of Dorothy Delay and Paul Kantor.