Teaching

"Her piano instruction is of a rare command and perception of a kind arising from her training as a composer. Emphasis is placed on an 'orchestral' understanding of the score leading to an appreciation of all 'voices in the piano texture. She urges the student to look upon a piece as depicting an appropriate story, action or message as an aid to an effective communication of the music to an audience. Looking at a piece with Halyna that is already familiar or even over familiar leads the piano student into such new depths of enlightenment that one feels that a completely new piece is being studied!" Christopher Richards, student.

Halyna Ovcharenko is an experienced teacher whose teaching career started over thirty years ago in the Kyiv M.V. Lysenko Music School, a famous boarding school for selected young talents, where she received a scholarship to begin her studies in 1975. In 1993, 2002 she became a Docent of the Music Faculty at the Sumy Pedagogical Makarenko University, where she taught composition and piano, lectured in music theory and history of music. Below you will find an album of my award- winning pupils and some examples of my students’ compositions performed by professional musicians.

Halyna has founded several ensembles dedicated to exploring, gathering and performing traditional Ukrainian music. She has toured with her ensembles in Ukraine and abroad, often spending the summer months travelling around the villages of Ukraine and collection folklore material (recording traditional music, dance, rituals and customs); keeping alive the tradition and national artistic treasures. While teaching in Kyiv M.V. Lysenko Music School, Halyna taught and performed with the "Symonove Zelo" ensemble, in different regions of Ukraine; enabling young students and audience to discover the folkloric culture, history and art through music. In Sumy, the performances of Halyna's ensembles were broadcast on regional radio and television and with her ensemble "Malva" she toured abroad as well as in Ukraine. For further reading please see the Reviews section.

After her move to the UK, Halyna continues teaching piano, music theory and composition. She is passionate about nurturing young talent and has donated a trophy to the Bristol and Weston Super Mare music festivals for winners in the young composers category. Two leading publishers, Oxford University Press and Spartan Press have published her series of piano duet books, featuring her own compositions and duet arrangements of famous Russian classics.

Below you will find an album of my award- winning pupils and some examples of my students’ compositions performed by professional musicians.