Solomia Soroka
Professor of Music
Education
- B MUS, Kiev Conservatory, 1993
- M MUS, Kiev Conservatory, 1994
- D MUS, Kiev Conservatory, 1998
- D.M.A, Eastman School of Music University of Rochester, 2002
Contact
- solomias@goshen.edu
- (574) 535-7349
- Music Center 216 (map)
Martinu, String Quintet, Naxos ,1996
Bolcom, Violin Sonatas, Naxos (first recording), 2006
Krommer, Oboe Quartets, Naxos (first recording) 2006
Roslavets, Violin Sonatas, Naxos, 2007
Arthur Hartmann, Miniatures for Violin and Piano, 2010 Toccata Classics Records, London (first recording)
Leone Sinigaglia, Violin/Cello/Chamber music, 2012 Toccata Classics Records, London (first recording)
Myroslav Skoryk, Music for Violin and Piano, 2012 Toccata Classics Records, London (first recording)
Bernhard Sekles, Violin/Cello/Chamber music, 2013 Toccata Classics Records, London (first recording)
Mykola Lysenko, Music for Violin and Piano, 2015 Toccata Classics Records, London (first recording)
Yevhen Stankovych, Music for Violin and Piano, 2017 Toccata Classics Records, London (first recording)
19th Century American Sonatas, Recording to be released by 2022 Toccata Classics Records, London
• Include works by Camille W. Zecker, Rossetter G. Cole, Ernst Toch, W. J. McCoy, Ulrich Cole, Julius Chajes, Arthur Sheppherd, Clara Kathleen Rogers, Verne Reynholds, Albert Stoessel
Mary Simoni, Trio for piano, violin, cello with electronics, Block-M Records (world premier)
Saint-Saens, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, National Television of Ukraine
Skoryk, Concerto No.2, Western Ukrainian Radio, Lviv, Ukraine
Yakymenko, Sonata for Violin and Piano, National Radio of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
Selected works for violin and piano, L’viv Radio, L’viv, Ukraine
Stankovych, Concerto No. 5, National Radio of Ukraine
Violinist Solomia Soroka, born in L’viv, Ukraine, made her solo debut at age 10, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the L’viv Philharmonic Orchestra. Her playing combines the powerful background of the Ukrainian system with a passionate exploration of lesser played music, especially American and Ukrainian.
She has appeared as soloist and as chamber musician at concerts and festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Ukraine, USA, Canada, China, Korea, and Taiwan. She is praised for being “a truly wonderful musician” (The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand), her “technical mastery…ferocity, light and mystic lyricism” (Daily Freeman, New York), and as one who “plays with great warmth and authority” (BBC Music Magazine). She has performed with orchestras in Ukraine, Australia, and the United States.
Ms. Soroka has performed premieres of a number of important contemporary Ukrainian compositions for violin, including works by Borys Lyatoshynsky, Myroslav Skoryk and Yevhen Stankovych.
Since her U.S. debut in 1997, she has performed throughout the United States. Her recitals in Washington DC were part of the Smithsonian Institute performing arts series and she received the following review in the Washington Post:
“Soroka is a superbly equipped violinist, at ease with the technical challenges of Sarasate or of Jeno Hubay’s Czardas No. 2, but even more impressive in the gentler moments…. Her tone is warm and mellow on the low strings, brilliant on the high strings, perfectly controlled and expressively used.”
Solomia Soroka has toured and recorded extensively with her husband, the pianist Arthur Greene. Their Naxos recording of Four Violin Sonatas by William Bolcom was selected as Recording of the Month with the highest ranking for both artistry and sound quality by Classics Today, and received reviews in various distinguished journals: “Another virtuoso piece…confidently delivered by this brilliant duo” (Gramophone)
Their recording of the violin sonatas of Nikolai Roslavets, also for Naxos, has received international attention. “Soroka seemed utterly confident, catching a haunting, languid quality within Roslavets’s elusive harmonic idiom……” (The Strad)
In the past eight years Soroka has been recording for Toccata Records, based in London, where she made six premier recordings, of music by American composer Arthur Hartmann, Ukrainian Myroslav Skoryk, Mykola Lysenko, and Yevhen Stankovych, and Holocaust composers Leone Sinigaglia and Bernhard Sekles.
Ms. Soroka’s current passion is for unknown American music from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th. She has gathered a substantial collection of rare scores of American sonatas from that period by lesser-known American composers, and is in a process of recording and releasing them online. She will tour US universities with lecture-recitals introducing this unknown music to American students, academia and a general audience.
Solomia Soroka is currently a violin professor at Goshen College, Indiana, and is an artistic director of the Sherer Violin/Piano Competition for young musicians. Ms. Soroka has served on the faculty of chamber music at the Kiev Conservatory, and has taught at the Music Fest Perugia in Italy, the Castleman Quartet Program, Pilsen Summer Academy, and Schlern Music Festival. She is active giving masterclasses in her native Ukraine, USA, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel, Czech Republic, and Italy.
She studied with Hersh Heifetz, Bohodar Kotorovych, Liudmyla Zvirko and Charles Castleman. Website information:www.solomiasoroka.com
-Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Towsnville, Australia
-International Chamber Music Festival, Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, New Zealand
-Hualin International Music Festival, Hualien, Taiwan
-“Kyiv Music Fest” International Contemporary Music Festival Kyiv, Ukraine
-“Kontrasty” International Contemporary Music Festival Lviv, Ukraine
-“Virtuosi” International Music Festival, Lviv, Ukraine
-Charleston Music Fest, Charleston, SC
-Festival of Ukrainian Culture, Munich, Germany
-International Music Academy in Pilsen, Pilsen, Czech Republic
-Modern New Music Festival, Boulder, Colorado
-“Music at Grazdha”, Hunter, NY
-“Americke Jaro”,Czech Republic
-Schlern International Festival, Italy
-Ukrainian Institute of New York performing series, New York
-Ukrainian Art Institute performing series Chicago, IL
-ONCE, a 50th Anniversary Celebration of Ann Arbor’s ONCE festival
-Michigan Chamber Players
-Vivace Music Festival Wilmington, NC
-Eastman School of Music
-Chengdu Conservatory
-Shanghai Conservatory
-Tainan National University of the Arts
-National Hualien Senior High School, Hualien, Taiwan
-Incheon Arts High School, Incheon, South Korea
-Music For One Foundation, Seoul, South Korea
-Kaywon Art Middle School, Seongnam, South Korea
-Lviv Krushelnytska State Music Lyceum, Lviv, Ukraine
-Lysenko State Music School, Kyiv, Ukraine
-Jerusalem Academy, Israel
-National Music Academy of Ukraine
-University Of Maine
-Bowling Green State University
MUS 274/374: Applied Violin
MUS 260: Chamber Music
MUS 303/304: Advanced Music Theory
The idea of this course is not only to teach students about chromatic harmony in Western music, but to better understand the complexity and the beauty of this music, to explore the process of creation of this music, and to analyze composers’ way of thinking about harmony and form during different stylistic periods. The students will listen to a lot of music and will compose some themselves. Since I was lucky to have studied theory in both United States and Ukraine, in this course I combined the best traditions of teaching the subject of both countries, by adding a number of definitions and exercises from one of the most famous theory books in former Soviet Union.
MUS 204: Survey of Music Literature
This course will strive to accustom students with classical music and to lay a foundation for study of upper level music history. The course focuses on the six main periods in the history of music, and introduces the most important composers and their works. Students will study different musical styles and compare them to styles of visual arts, architecture and literature. We will listen to a lot of music and learn to distinguish different stylistic characteristics.
2021
Vivace International Music Festival • Faculty, chamber music
2018-19
Music Fest Perugia • Faculty
2009-13
Charles Castleman Quartet Program • Faculty
2012-16
Schlern International Festival, Italy • Faculty
2008, 2009, 2011
International Music Academy in Pilsen, Czech Republic • Faculty
The Washington Post, Joseph McLellan
• “Soroka is a superbly equipped violinist, at ease with tech- nical challenges […],but even more expressive in the gentler moments […].Her tone is warm and mellow on the low strings, brilliant on the high strings, perfectly controlled and expres- sively used.”
The Strad
• “Here Solomia Soroka seems utterly confident, catching a haunting, languid quality within Roslavets’s elusive harmon- ic idiom…Sorokacespecially shines near the close of sonata movements, where her lyricism pays dividends as Roslavets frequently relaxes the turbulence prevailing elsewhere.”
Gramophone
• “A superb duo exploiting Bolcom’s fondness for the fiddle.” “Another virtuoso piece…is confidently delivered by this bril- liant duo.”
BBC Music Magazine
• “Soroka with American pianist Arthur Greene, plays with great warmth and authority, allowing music rather more time to breathe.”
American Record Guide
• “Soroka manages this difficult music admirably. Her pitch is right on target, and she maintains a smooth sound through Roslavets’s linear obstacle course”.
Fanfare Magazine
• “Soroka, in particular, deploys all the expressive devices with which the period’s own violinists might have illuminated the stage for such a program…”
Music Web International
• “Toccata have revealed Skoryk in the best possible light us- ing two fantastic performers – a husband and wife team. Do be sure to check out any discs they’ve produced together.”
Classic FM Magazine
• “Soroka’s deep, rich tone and the malleable piano of her hus- band fully endorse this American romantic.”
Classics Today
• “The husband and wife team of violinist Solomia Soroka and pianist Arthur Greene simply eat up this music like starving artists getting their first substantial grub in ages.”
Fanfare Magazine
• “Lysenko wrote the Fantasy on Two Ukranian Themes for either violin or flute with piano. Solomia and her husband, pianist Arthur Greene, endow its opening theme with fresh, ruddy charm and play exuberantly throughout. The Ro- mance, arranged by the composer, heats up quickly, with the violin breaking into impassioned octaves throughout its duration; in Soroka’s fevered performance they prove highly effective.[…]”
Venice Gondolier (Venice, Florida)
• “There are times in life when you know you in the presence of genius. That was the feeling at the Church of the Naza- rene during recent Venice Symphony concert. The violinist, Solomia Soroka, played “Concerto #5 in A minor” by Henri Vieuxtemps with the orchestra. The audience seemed hyp- notized by the musician who performed the difficult piece of music with intensity and beauty. I was so in awe, I had to remind myself to breathe.”
Octet Extravaganza, 2021-22
• Goshen College Soroka’s chamber group to perform in various venues and concerts throughout the 2021-22 academic year. The repertoire includes the Mendelssohn, Octet, the Jessie Montgomery Strum, the Shostakovich, Two Pieces for String Octet, the Gliere, String Octet, op.5.
Complete Biber’s Mystery Sonatas, 2013, 2021
• Goshen College Soroka’s violin studio performed a complete cycle of early Baroque composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber for scordatura violin with powerpoint of copper engravings
American Recital, 2020
• Goshen College Soroka’s violin studio presented works by American composers, including African-American composers, women composers, and LGBT+ composers
April Fool’s Recital, 2015
• Goshen College Soroka’s violin studio performed extravagant virtuoso violin works, including the Tartini Devil’s Trills, the Paganini Variations on G-string, the Mozart Mirror Duet, the Vieuxtrmps Variations on Yankee Doodle Theme, and others
The Four Seasons, 2014
• Goshen College Soroka’s violin studio performed the Vivaldi Four Seasons and the Piazzolla Cuatro Estaciones Portenas with Goshen College Chamber Orchestra
Liszt Society Conference, 2021
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
• Performance of Bartok Second Rhapsody and Skoryk Carpathian
Rhapsody. Pre-concert lecture about the use of Hutsulian major and minor modes in above works.
Music by Women Festival, 2018
Columbus, MS
• Lecture-recital on music by Amy Beach, Chen YI, and Stefania Turkewich.
Included an American premier of the Turkewich Violin Sonata
MTNA National Conference, 2013, Presenter
• Presentation entitled “What A Pianist Needs To Know To Coach String
Players Successfully”
MTNA National Competition, 2013
• Judge National String Finals
International Conference dedicated to the 60th anniversary of Lviv Krushelnytska State Music Lyceum, 2010
• Presentation of article on the Music Educational System in the US
2020-Present
Sherer Violin & Piano Competition for Young Musicians, Goshen, College, Goshen, IN, Founder and Artistic Director.
Run annual youth competition for students grades 8-12. The competition takes place at The Music Center of Goshen College. The winners perform with Livonia Symphony and the Maple City Orchestra
2021-Present
Musical Evenings at the Ukrainian Museum, Detroit, MI Artistic Director
Founder of the multi-cultural music series of recitals and lecture-recitals to represent the diverse community of the Metropolitan Area of Detroit. The series is held at the Ukrainian Archives and Museum in Hamtramck, MI
2017-Present
Rieth Recital Series, Goshen College, Goshen, IN Committee Member
Select and invite guest artists for a chamber music series performances in the Rieth Recital Hall at Goshen College
2021
MMTA String SAT Committee, Founding Member
Creating new MMTA string SAT testing program to be implemented in 2022
2019-Present
International Music Olympiad, Kyiv, Ukraine, Committee member and jury member
Initiator of international participation in the Music Olympiad, and head of American team
2008-2016
MTNA Junior Competition, coordinator of East-Central division