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Winner of the 2022 Honens International Piano Competition, 23-year-old Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko has taken the piano world by storm. Furthermore, he has been awarded prizes at more than 20 other competitions throughout the world; recent successes include first prize at the Kissinger KlavierOlymp in 2024, and first prize at the New York International Competition and second prize at the Hilton Head International competition in 2022. He is a Claseek Ambassador for the 2024/2025 season.   

Embodying the values of the Honens International Piano Competition which rewards “The Complete Artist”, Illia Ovcharenko has already been praised for his technical mastery, perseverance against adversity, and a unique intellectual and emotional understanding of musical text. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Orchestre National d’Île de France, the Orchestra of La Monnaie, the Toronto Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, and the Jerusalem and Haifa Symphony Orchestras, in recital at venues and Festivals including Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Sendesaal in Hannover, Robert-Schumann-Saal in Düsseldorf, Salle Bourgie and Domaine Forget, as well as Bravo!Vail, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Dresden International Festival. 

Highlights of the 2024-25 season include debuts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Israel Philharmonic, I Pomerrigi Musicali, Edmonton Symphony and San Antonio Philharmonic, while recitals include the Konzerthaus Berlin, the ‘Folle Journee’ Warsaw, the Kissinger Olymp, Dubai Opera, Salle Cortot, Music Toronto and Shenandoah University. The season also sees the release of two recital albums, on the ‘Dicauvers’ and Steinway labels.  

Born in Ukraine, in a non-musical family to a computer engineer mother and an athlete and coach father, Illia Ovcharenko discovered the unattended upright piano sitting in a corner of his house at a tender age. At the age of six, he was taken to a performance of Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto; after the concert, Illia told his mother he wanted to be a pianist when he grew up, and began his formal musical tuition. Success rapidly followed, and he made his concert debut at the National Philharmonic Hall of Ukraine at the age of 12 before moving to Kiev to attend the Kyiv Lysenko Sate Music Lyceum for gifted children. He then went on to study in Israel with Arie Vardi at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv, and is currently pursuing a masters degree at the Hannover Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien.