About
An award-winning classical violinist based in Berlin, Oleh Kurochkin is Principal Violinist of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and a frequent guest concertmaster with leading European orchestras. Praised by Rheinische Zeitung for delivering the “highest musical delight” and hailed by Kyiv Daily as a “true virtuoso,” he is widely regarded as one of the most distinguished Ukrainian musicians of his generation.
As a soloist, Oleh has appeared throughout Europe and the United States, performing in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and beyond. His concerts have taken him to such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Royal Albert Hall in London, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall, among many others. Equally at home leading from the first desk, he has served as concertmaster with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Berlin Chamber Orchestra, Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, Sofia Philharmonic, Filharmonia Franz Schubert Catalunya, and the Zermatt Festival Orchestra. His performances have been featured at major festivals including the BBC Proms, Grafenegg, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein, Zermatt, Baden-Baden Osterfestspiele and the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence.
Following his graduation from the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Oleh has remained closely connected to that legendary ensemble, appearing with the orchestra in over a hundred performances and participating in numerous recordings. He has collaborated with many of today’s leading conductors — among them Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Jurowski, Antonello Manacorda, Andris Nelsons, Herbert Blomstedt, John Williams, and Gustavo Dudamel.
As a chamber musician Oleh regularly shares the stage with such artists as Renaud Capuçon, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Claudio Bohorquez, Valery Sokolov, Martin Stadtfeld, Dmytro Udovychenko and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
A passionate advocate for Ukrainian music, Oleh devotes a significant part of his artistry to the works of composers from his homeland, with a particular focus on late-20th-century and contemporary repertoire. He has collaborated with national icons such as Valentyn Silvestrov, Yevhen Stankovych and Myroslav Skoryk, and in 2024 gave the German premiere of Viktor Kosenko’s Violin Concerto with the Bochumer Symphoniker under Tung-Chieh Chuang. His dedication to this repertoire stems from his belief that Ukrainian music deserves a permanent place on the international stage.
Oleh is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, including the Eugen Coca, Ignatius Jan Paderewski and Eugene Ysaye Competitions. He has been supported by scholarships and grants from the President of Ukraine, the DAAD, Villa Musica, the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, the Lions Club and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. In 2022 he was honoured with the annual Musik:Landschaft Westfalen Festival Award.
Born in Yevpatoria (Crimea, Ukraine) into a family of musicians, Oleh began violin studies at the age of five and soon distinguished himself by winning the Grand Prix of the National Youth Violin Competition. He made his solo debut with orchestra at the National Philharmonie of Ukraine in Kyiv at age eleven. He continued his education at the Kyiv Mykola Lysenko Boarding School under Prof. Yaroslava Rivnyak, later studying at the National Music Academy of Ukraine, the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf with Prof. Ida Bieler, and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen with Prof. Boris Garlitsky, where he completed his Master’s and the Konzertexamen programme. Further artistic guidance came from the Kronberg Academy and masterclasses with Pavel Vernikov, Lothar Strauss, Noah Benedix-Balgley and Christophe Horak.
From 2018 to 2021 Oleh performed on the historic Pietro Guarneri “Ex-Franz Schubert” (1701, Mantua), generously loaned by the Rhineland-Palatinate Cultural Foundation. He currently plays an Italian violin by Antonio Gragnani (1790, Livorno), on loan from an anonymous donor.