Virko Baley, conductor, composer and pianist, is the first American to be awarded the coveted Taras Shevchenko Prize in music (1996). He began his musical training in Germany, continuing it in the United States at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music (now California Institute of the Arts).
Mr. Baley is currently principal guest conductor and artistic advisor of the Kyiv Camerata and principal guest conductor of the Kyiv Music Pest, the international music festival in Kyiv, Ukraine. Other guest conducting appearances have included the St. Petersburg and Moscow Philharmonic Orchestras, Kyiv Opera Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmonica de la UNAM of Mexico City, the Winnipeg and Delaware Symphonies, Lexington Philharmonic, Cleveland Chamber Orchestra and the Washington Square Music Festival. He was also founder and Music Director of the Las Vegas Chamber Players and Nevada Symphony Orchestra.
A highly respected composer, Mr. Baley has received grants and commissions from numerous organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Project 1000 and the Winnipeg Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, Nevada Symphony and Continuum, and from individual artists. In 1989 Mr. Baley co-pro- duced and composed the music for the film Swan Lake: The Zone, which won two top awards at Cannes, the first Ukrainian film ever to receive such a prize.
Mykola Dyadyura was born on August 5,1961 in Kyiv. He received his professional musical education at Kyiv Gliere State College and the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Conducting under prominent conductor -Roman Kofman). He studied at Tanglewood Music Center (USA) under the guidance of Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein.
Mr. Dyadura received International recognition in 1987 and 1988 when he became a laureate of the Ferencik International Conductors Competition in Budapest and the "Min-On" International Conductors Competition in Tokyo (4th prize and Special Prize of the Association of Japanese conductors ).
He began his conducting career as Principal Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Omsk, the Syberian Philarmonic. From 1991 to 1996 he was the Principal Conductor' of Seoul Symphony Orchestra (South Korea).
Today Mykola Dyadyura occupies the post of Principal Conductor of the National Philarmonia of Ukraine and conductor of National Opera of Ukraine.
