Olena Kilchyk

Dip. Mus., M.Mus. 

Strings Faculty;
Early Childhood Faculty (Early Childhood Strings);
Branch Strings Faculty

olenak@telus.net

Olena Kilchyk was born in Odessa, Ukraine. She began studying the cello at age ten entering the Odessa State Music School and graduating with distinction. She competed in two Regional Concerto Competitions, winning Second prize in 1988 and First prize in 1989. Her main cello teachers have been Ganna Ostapchuk at the Odessa State Music Cillege and Valery Kazakov and Georgii Fursin at the Odessa State Conservatory. She was principal cellist and soloist of the Academia Odessa Chamber Orchestra, an artist of the Odessa State Philharmonic Orchestra, Virtuosos of Odessa Chamber Orchestra and the Odessa Opera Theatre Orchestra.

In 1998 she immigrated to Canada and pursued graduate study at the University of Calgary. In 2000 she won the Department of Music Concerto Competition. Olena has performed at the Banff Summer Festival, Resound Festival, Enbridge festival under the Sky, Mountain View Connection, and at the Orford Summer Festival where she studied with such renowned cellists as Shauna Rolston, George Niekrug, and Aldo Parisot.

In 2001 she was one of the semifinalists of the Canadian Concerto Competition in Edmonton.

Currently, Olena works with the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra, The Okanagan Symphony, and Prince George Orchestra, and is on the faculty at the North Conservatory of Music as well as branch instructor with the Mount Royal University Conservatory.

She is one of the founders of the Denali Duo and a new Albertan chamber music series Sempre la Musica. She as also a cellist for Bel Canto String Quartet.

As a concert soloist and chamber musician, she has appeared in Canada and Europe. Many of her performances have been recorded and broadcast by CBC and other radio and television networks.