Olga Voichenko

Olga Voichenko is a well-known Ukrainian jazz singer and teacher

Olga was born in Donetsk region and grew up in a family with rich vocal traditions. Her musical development was greatly influenced by her grandfather, who sang in church, and her elder brother, who was a pianist and vocalist. From the age of 11 Olga studied piano at a music school and began to sing in public with different groups.

Before introducing to jazz music Olga had been successfully singing pop music, had become a finalist of the prestigious all-union vocal competition "Jurmala - Yalta-90".

In 1988 Olga became a student of the jazz vocal department at the musical college of arts in Rostov-on-Don (Russia) where she began exploring jazz mastery.

In 1990 she joined Valery Kolesnikov's ensemble and performed a lot in Ukraine and Russia, improving the individual style and discovering new ways of self-expression.

In 1993 Olga entered the jazz music department at the Prokofiev State Music Academy in Donetsk Having graduated in 1998 she became the first certificated jazz singer in Ukraine and started to teach jazz vocal at the same department.

Throughout these years Olga continued her performing activities with her husband, guitarist Sergey Kapelyushok. 1994 -1995 they lived and worked in Poland, giving performances at various clubs and concert platforms of Warsaw . This resulted in an album "Tenderly" recorded at the "Dynasty" studio ( Kiev ) in 1999.

After returning from Poland Olga continued her study at the Music Academy . She organized club concerts, jam sessions with I.Butman (t-sax), V.Budarin (trombone), V.Kolesnikov (trumpet), T.Strong (vocal) and others.

In 1998 Olga worked at the Donetsk Philharmonic Society.

In 2000 Olga was invited to teach singing at the vocal department at the Kiev National University of Culture and Arts.

In 2001 Olga was invited to "Asakusa Jazz Contest" ( Tokyo, Japan) where she won the grand-prix in vocal nomination. In the same year she participated in the project "Duke Ellington in Krakow Style" performing in Kiev with a Polish-Ukrainian big band.

In 2002 she successfully performed at the "UENO JAZZ INN" jazz festival in Tokyo with a Japanese sextet.

In 2004 invited by the well-known French saxophonist Sylvain Beuf, Olga took part in the international project "Paris-Kiev Express" with the vocal group "Octovoice". The project toured lots of Ukrainian cities ( Kiev , Lvov , Kharkov , Donetsk , Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa ) and proved to be a great success.

In october 2006 Olga signed contract with recording company "Сomp Music/EMI" in Ukraine, which issued her new album "Magic Dreams" in december 2006.

In 2007 Olga successfully performed at the prestige international festival "JAZZ JAMBOREE" (Warsaw,Poland).

Olga has toured such countries: Poland, England, Japan, Ukraine, Russia, Finland, Germany, France, Austria. At various times Olga has performed and recorded with such musicians as:drummer George Kawaguchi (Japan), saxophonist Sylvain Beuf (France), organist Emmanuel Bex (France), drummer Louis Moutin (France), Arkady Schilkloper - horn (Russia-Germany), vocal group "Octovoice" (France), Rustem Bari - percussions (Crimea, Ukraine), trumpeter Valery Kolesnikov (Donetsk, Ukraine), pianists Viacheslav and Timur Polianskie (Kiev, Ukraine), guitarist Sergey Kapeliushok (Kiev, Ukraine), saxophonist Jean Charles Richard (France), pianist and flutist Vladimir Zinkovsky (Ukraine-USA), etc.

information, photo from official website: http://www.voichenko.kiev.ua/