The Ukrainian-American violinist Oleh Krysa is long esteemed in the former USSR as a distinguished soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A prominent student of David Oistrakh, Krysa won major prizes in such international competitions as the Wieniawski (1962), Tchaikovsky (1966), and Montreal (1969), and was outright winner of the Paganini Competition (1963).

Oleh Krysa began his teaching career as chairman of the Violin Department at the Kiev Conservatory. In 1973 he took the same position at the Gnesins Musical and Pedagogical Institute in Moscow and, two years later, returned to the Moscow Conservatory as Professor of Violin, where he remained until 1988. Currently he is Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music, and was a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University of Arts in 2009. He is also a Honored Professor at Lviv Music Academy (Ukraine) and a Honored Member of the Japanese String Teachers Association.

In March 2016, Oleh Krysa was elected a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. Established in 1996, the Academy’s members are distinguished specialists of professional artistry. As a Foreign Member, Oleh Krysa will give master classes, present concerts and recitals, and create and develop musical projects.

The artistic association “World of Classical Music” founded the Oleh Krysa International Violin Competition to honor Professor Krysa. The first competition was held October 25 to November 3, 2013, in Lviv. From October 20 to 31, the Second Oleh Krysa International Violin Competition will take place in Lviv.

In October and in December of 2015, Oleh Krysa presented the cycle “The Development of Violin Concerto” in four ambitious concerts with the Symphony Orchestra of Lviv Philharmonia. The programs for these concerts consisted of the works Bach: Violin Concerto No. 2; Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5; Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor; Brahms: Violin Concerto; Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1; Schnittke: Violin Concerto No. 3; Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto; Skoryk: Violin Concerto No. 1; Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1; and Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1.

Oleh Krysa played solo recitals in major music centres throughout the world (including Great and Small Halls of Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Hall, Great    Hall of Leningrad Philharmonia, Glinka Hall, Column Hall of Kiev Philharmonia, Warsaw Philharmonia, Concertgebouw, Brahms Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Teatro alla Scala, Semper Oper, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Kennedy Center, Roy Thomson Hall, Place des Arts, Suntory Hall, Minato Mirai Hall, Seoul Art Center, Taiwan’s National Concert Hall etc.) and with leading orchestras and ensembles of Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Kiev, Lviv, Odessa, London, Helsinki, Stockholm, Malmo, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Bonn, Weimar, Stuttgart, Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice, Prague, Brno, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, Plovdiv, Belgrade, Zagreb, Istanbul, Ankara, New York, Washington, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Montreal, Toronto, Cape Town, Yokohama, Canberra and Wellington.

He has also appeared at major festivals in Europe (Moscow Stars, Prague Spring, Warsaw Autumn, Sofia Weeks, Plovdiv Music Festival, Wiener Fest, Lockenhaus International Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein International Music Festival, Internationale Bachaakademie Stuttgart, Edinburgh International Music Festival, Kuhmo International Chamber Music Festival, Korsholm International Music Festival); in North America (Aspen Music Festival, InterHarmony Music Festival, Park City International Chamber Music Festival, Lake Winnipisaukee Music Festival, Peninsula Music Festival); in Japan (Kawaguchi-ko Music Festival, Yubari Music Festival); in Australia (Perth Music Festival, Townsville International Chamber Music Festival); and in New Zealand (Wellington International Music Festival).

Oleh Krysa has collaborated with conductors such as Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Kirill Kondrashin, Dimitri Kitajenko, Alexander Dmitriev, Alexander Lazarev, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Mark Ermler, Yuri Simonov, Lev Markiz, Saulius Sondeckis, Arvid Jansons, Neeme Jaarvi, Eri Klas, Stepan Turchak, Volodymyr Kozhuhar, Volodymyr Sirenko, Roman Kofman, Taras Krysa, Theodore Kuchar, Virko Baley, Igor Simovich, Yerzy Semkow, Sakari Oramo, Kurt Sanderling, and James de Preist.

He has conducted Master Classes in North America (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Oberlin, Bloomington, Long Beach, West Palm Beach, Las Vegas, Toronto, Montreal),; in Europe (Stockholm, Copenhagen, Manchester, Freiburg, Weimar, Hanover, Madrid, Oviedo, Warsaw, Lancut, Bratislava, Moscow, St-Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Kiev, Odessa, Lviv, Tashkent, Almaty); in the Far East (Tokyo, Yokohama, Hamamatsu, Nagano, Seoul, Shanghai); in Australia (Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Townsville); and in New Zealand (Christchurch).

In addition to his thriving solo career, Krysa was a leader of the Kiev Conservatory Quartet (1970-1973), the Leontovych Quartet (1999-2003), and the celebrated Beethoven String Quartet (1977-1987).

Oleh Krysa is also a champion of contemporary music, and has worked closely with Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Krzsyzstof Penderecki, Vyacheslav Artyomov, Sydney Hodkinson, Virko Baley, Myroslav Skoryk, Valentin Silvestrov, Yevhen Stankovych and Larry Sitsky.  He has premiered a number of their works, and many of them have been written for and dedicated to him.

Mr. Krysa has recorded on the Melodiya, BIS, Triton, Olympia, TNC, Amadis, Polskie Nagranie, and Russian Disc labels.

Oleh Krysa has served on the jury panel of the International Tchaikovsky, Wieniawski, Paganini, Kreisler, Lipizer, Oistrakh (Chairman), Joachim, Michael Hill, Prague Spring, Wronski Solo Violin, Brescia Violin, Montreal Violin, Qingdao, Almaty (Chairman), and Sendai Violin Competitions,  and the Osaka Chamber Music Competition.

Krysa was married to pianist Tatiana Tchekina, who was his partner in most of his recitals and recordings before her death in December 2013. The Tatiana and Oleh Krysa Scholarship at the Eastman School of Music has been established to support scholarships for students pursuing a degree in violin performance or piano accompanying.