Volodia MYKYTKA comes from a family of Ukrainian musicians, and was born in Lviv. He studied at the local music school, then at the Conservatory and later at the Warsaw Music Academy. He continued his studies at the Hanover University of Music. During his student years he won first prizes in numerous international competitions, including Weimar, Florence, Hanover, Osaka and Melbourne.

As a soloist and founding member of the Karol Szymanowski String Quartet, he has performed in more than 40 countries in prestigious concert halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, and many other major concert halls in Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. He has participated in the renowned Rheingau Musikfestival, the BBC Proms, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and the Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus. He is the artistic director of the ‘Szymanowski Quartet and Friends Festival’, founded in Lviv in 2008.

He has been honoured by the Polish government for his services to Polish culture and has received the Szymanowski Prize. He has performed with such distinguished chamber music partners as Oleg Maisenberg, Rudolf Buchbinder, Vladimir Krainev, Boris Andrianov, Agata Szymczewska and Lily and Mischa Maisky. He has also collaborated with the Lviv Chamber Orchestra and the Sopot Chamber Orchestra of Poland. He teaches viola and chamber music at the Cologne/Aachen University of Music and Performing Arts and gives master classes in Europe, America and Asia. He is featured on CDs released by Decca, Hyperion, Hänssler Classic and CAvimusic. He can be heard on numerous radio recordings as part of the ‘New Generation Artists Scheme’ for the BBC and on radio stations in Germany, France and Austria.

Volodia Mykytka plays a viola made by Hans Schicker (Freiburg) in 1983.