General and Specialized Piano Department

The General and Specialized Piano Department unites students of Performance and Musicology (except students of the Special Piano Department) and Orchestra Faculties, contributing to comprehensive artistic development of future specialists. Strong professional traditions were established by the founders of the Department, which was created by graduates of the St. Petersburg Conservatory — Associate Professor A.M. Goldinger, Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin graduate M.L. Guzikova, Moskow Conservatory graduate Associate Professor G.K. Stepanova, who headed the General Piano Department in 1934-1951. The successor of the latter was the widely educated musician V.O. Teplov, who graduated from the Historical-Theoretical and Piano Faculties (with honors) of the Kharkiv Conservatory.

Actually, the "Department of General Piano" — this is how this structural unit was originally called — was formed in 1960, gaining autonomy under the leadership of Leonila Semenivna Pestrychenko, a graduate of the Kharkiv Conservatory in the class of Full Professor L.Y. Fannenstiel. After World War II and until now, the teaching staff is mainly filled with students of our higher education institution. There are many pianists who have distinguished themselves in other departments of the Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I.P. Kotlyarevskyi — Special Piano Department, Chamber Ensemble Department, Piano Accompaniment Department, also worked at the General and Specialized Piano Department. Among them are Full Professors and Associate Professors — V.V. Topilin, V.D. Zakharchenko, V.O. Syriatskyi, S.P. Kolobkov, T.B. Verkina, N.I. Rudenko, V.L. Makarov, N.V. Goretska, M.S. Chernyavska, Yu.K. Popov.

The administrative and pedagogical activity of the heads of the Department has always been aimed at raising the professional level of each member of the creative team constantly, improving and finding the latest methods of teaching the piano course. In 1968, the first head of the General Piano Department was succeeded by a student of Full Professor M.S. Khazanovskyi — Yevgenia Pavlivna Leontieva and later she delegated the management to Oleksandra Oleksandrivna Zhuravlyova (1976), a graduate of the same class. The following heads — Associate Professor Larisa Andriivna Kuzyomina (from 1984) and Olena Vasylivna Kononova (from 1988) — studied in the class of V.D. Zakharchenko.

NataliiaYuriivna Zimohliad— PhD in Art Studies, Associate Professor, heads the Department of General and Specialized Piano today.

The members of the department significantly replenished the corpus of PhD in Art Studies of KhNUM, helping to increase the rating of the university. The scientific degree was obtained by O.V. Kononova, N.V. Smolyaga, V.I. Prykhodko, M.V. Bevs, I.E. Denysenko, E.B. Chorna, N.Yu. Zimohliad, M.S. Linnyk, T.O. Syriatska, I.Yu. Sukhlenko, K.V. Podporinova, K.V. Timofeeva, O.V. Pohoda, O.V. Mykhailova; in 2014, Full Professor of the department I.I.Poluboiarynareceived a diploma of Dr. habil. in Pedagogy. At the General and Specialized Piano Department, two candidate theses were prepared (and subsequently defended) by University employees – S.V. Ptashenko and A.O. Melnyk (a scientific supervisor — O.V. Kononova). In 2021, the Department was joined by Dr. habil. in Art Studies, Associate Professor I.H. Dovzhynets, PhD in Art Studies, Senior Lecturer K.Yu. Krasnoshchokand young lecturers — P.A. Kordovska and D.V. Kutluieva, who are preparing to defend theses for the PhD in the 2022-2023 academic year.

Several monographs were created at the department: "Musical Texture and Performer" (V.I. Prykhodko), "Pavlo Kindratovych Lutsenko and his Students" (L.F. Lysenko); "Professional Training of Musically Gifted Students: Theoretical and Methodological Aspect" (I.I. Poluboiaryna), "Etudes of Optimism with Valentyn Borysov" (M.V. Bevz); a creative portrait of a composer – "Olena Borysivna Hnatovska" (V.T. Stogniy); "Volodymyr Pidgornyi. Creative Portraits of Ukrainian Composers", "Musical Culture of Kharkov at the End of the 18th — Beginning of the 20th Centuries", "Maria Oleksandrivna Yeschenko: Concert and Pedagogical Activities", as well as a monographic essay "Evolution of Musical Education in Kharkov" // KhNUM named after I.P. Kotlyarevsky. 1917 — 2017. To the 100th Anniversary of the Foundation: a Small Encyclopedia (O.V. Kononova). Lecturers actively participate in inter-university, all-Ukrainian and foreign conferences (Belarus, Spain, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Romania, Serbia, USA, and Finland). The results of the supervisors' scientific research intensify the students' lessons in the piano class, contributing to their awareness of music education issues, revealing unknown pages of Kharkiv culture.

The lecturers of the department constantly pay attention to concert performance, both solo and ensemble, involving their students in this activity. They perform in the halls of Kharkiv I.P.Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts and other universities of the city, the Regional Philharmonic, libraries named after V.G. Korolenko and K.K. Stanislavskyi, children's music school, participate in concerts of the Jewish Cultural Center, Society of Polish Culture, etc. The names of musicians are included in the programs of festivals, in particular — "Pavlo Lutsenko and Modernity", "Kyiv-Musik-Fest", "Musical Parallels", "Kharkiv Contemporary 2016", "French Spring", "Days of Greek Culture in Kharkiv" and others. The concert of the Department as part of the International Music Festival "Kharkiv Assemblies" has already become a tradition. Along with the musical heritage of the classics, the repertoire of lecturers and students is regularly enriched with the opuses of modern composers and artists of Kharkov — V. Borysov, I. Kovach, I. Polsky, M. Karminsky, V. Bibik, O. Hnatovska, V. Ptushkin, L. Shukaylo.

Members of the Department are regularly invited to the jury of various competitions and festivals, namely: "Kharkiv — the City of Good Hopes", Regional competitions of piano ensembles within the Delphi Games of Slobozhanshchyna "Hope. Youth. Talent.", "Karl Cherny. Not only Sketches", All-Ukrainian — "Landysh"; Open competitions — Polish and Ukrainian music named after K. Szymanovsky, "Maestro", "Fortissimo", "Rondo"; Children's Festival-Competition "Winter Patterns" (Genychesk), International Competitions — Piano Training of the Ural Conservatory named after M.P. Mussorgsky (Ekaterinburg), Greek song named after T. Katsi (Mariupol) and "Greek Rhapsody" (Serres, Greece).

The year 2015 was marked by a significant event in the development of the department: within the Open Competition of young musicians-performers and composers "Kharkiv Assemblies", the nomination "General and Specialized Piano" was founded, the initiator and organizer of which was the Full Professor of the Department I.I. Poluboiaryna. The competition attracts the attention of applicants from Kharkiv, graduates of music colleges from other cities of Ukraine, and students of the University.

A bright cohort of laureates has already formed — the students of General and Specialized Piano Department, future graduate musicologists, composers, vocalists, orchestra players, whose piano performances are a centrepiece of the university's concert life. Among them: A. Dmitrieva, L. Sukhova, O. Rubanova, K. Palachova, M. Kozyryatskyi, A. Smolyakova, Yu. Konoplytska, O. Lysychka, A. Mikryukova, D. Kozik, V. Lyubchenko, L. Nalivai , A. Mamona, M. Trebushkova, N. Mukomol.

 In the rich creative life of the Department, a special place is occupied by events called class evenings and collective open concerts of students, in which the work of the entire teaching staff is represented. In particular, the class concerts of Full Professor of the Department, Honored Art Worker of Ukraine M.V. Bevz, are distinguished by variety of programs. Some students of the Department performed with independent solo or chamber programs. Among them there are S. Kalinin, D. Bocharov, O. Lysychka, A. Mikryukova, V. Lyubchenko. The first opuses of student composers — O. Shchetynskyi, O. Gugel, D. Maly, V. Ibryamova, A. Dmitrieva, K. Palachova, M. Kozyryatskyi were represented at public concerts. D. Bocharov, a scholarship holder of the Wagner Society and a participant of the festival concert in Bayreuth, performed in the hall of the Kharkiv Philharmonic with a program that combined music of classical composers, modern masters and his own works.

Therefore, the General and Specialized Piano Department opens significant prospects for professional growth to future specialists, helping student composers to attract the attention of the public to their own work, promoting the discovery of the pianistic talent of musicologists, expanding the performance skills of conductors, involving student vocalists in accompanists activities, and teaching orchestra players the art of playing in ensembles on various instruments. All this expands the creative horizons of the students of the University, gives them an opportunity to learn more about high art and find their place in the musical culture of modern Ukraine.

• Zimohliad Nataliia – Head of the Department, PhD in Art Studies, Associate Professor
• Bevz Maryna – PhD in Art Studies, Full Professor, Honored Art Worker of Ukraine
• Poluboiaryna Irina – Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Full Professor
• Dovzhynets Inna – Doctor in Art Studies, Associate Professor
• Denysenko Iryna – PhD in Art Studies, Associate Professor
• Pohoda Olena – PhD in Art Studies, Associate Professor
• Syriatska Tetiana – PhD in Art Studies, Associate Professor
• Mykhailova Olga – PhD in Art Studies, Associate Professor
• Krasnoshchok Kateryna – PhD in Art Studies, Senior Lecturer
• Pershyna Oleksandra – Senior Lecturer
• Kordovska Polina – PhD in Art Studies, Lecturer
• Kutluieva Daria – Lecturer