Herman Makarenko
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Herman Makarenko (b. 29 June 1961) is a Ukrainian conductor, the Conductor and Music Director of the Kyiv-classic Orchestra.
Makarenko was born in Lviv into a family of music theater actors. His father was an opera soloist (tenor) and his mother was a ballet solo-actress.
He finished the Kyiv secondary specialized music school named after M. Lysenko in 1980 with honors. In 1986 he graduated with honors from the Tchaikovsky Kyiv State Conservatory with a degree in piano. Four year later, Makarenko completed a full course of studies at the same conservatory at the conductor's department. After that he took an assistant position at the National Music Academy of Ukraine and kept it until 1998. In 1999, Makarenko completed a post-graduate course at the Academy. He completed his doctoral studies there in 2005.
Makarenko was the prize winner in all-Ukrainian (republican) contests in 1980 and 1984. He was also the winner in international contests in Switzerland and Canada in 1998.
He has worked as a conductor at the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine since 1987. While working at the Kyiv Opera, he also served posts as the Music Director of the Little Opera of Grand New York in New York, U.S.A. from 1997-1998, a guest conductor of the National Opera Theatre of Croatia in Osiek, Croatia, from 1998-2001, etc. Since 2004, he has been the Conductor and Music Director of the Kyiv Classic Orchestra, which has performed with great success at the most prestigious concert halls in Europe, in particular, the Saint Madeleine church in Paris, the Berdjikh Smetana Hall in Prague, the Royal Gaul Club in Brussels, the Great UNESCO Hall in Paris, etc.
He is the author and Music Director of such annual projects at the National Opera of Ukraine as the New Year's Strauss Concert, the Concert of Premiers, the Declaration of Love, and the Magic of Beauty, which are widely known not only in Ukraine but also overseas.
Makarenko combines his active conductor's activities with the theoretical comprehension of the philosophic and aesthetic nature of music art and the phenomenon of complicated and many-sided creative work of an opera and symphony orchestra conductor. As a result of this activity, Makarenko defended his Ph.D. dissertation at the Department of Philosophy of the Kyiv Shevchenko National University in 2000 and his doctoral dissertation at the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (NMAU) in 2006. NMAU Professor Herman Makarenko has written several scientific books including the "Music and Philosophy: Schopenhauer, Wagner, and Nietzsche", "The Conductor's Creative Work: the Dimensions of Aesthetics and Art History", a manual for university students entitled The Irrational Aesthetics of the 19th Century: the Musical Point”, and more than 50 scientific and methodological articles.
The Order of Merit Honored artist of Ukraine. Makarenko has released 10 music CDs, which he recorded together with the Symphony Orchestra of the National Opera of Ukraine and the Kyiv Classic Orchestra. Among the latest works of Maestro are the Nutcracker ballet release and a suite from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet.
Makarenko was conferred the Order of Merit by President Viktor Yuschenko of Ukraine on 28 November 2006 for his "significant personal contribution to the socio-economic and cultural development of Ukraine, significant achievements in his professional activities, many years of dedicated work, and on the occasion of the anniversary of the confirmation of the Act of Independance of Ukraine in an all-Ukrainian referendum on 1 December 1991."
