Biography

Polina Sasko was born in 1993 in the Ukraine into a family of musicians. In 2011 she graduated from the Lysenko Special Music School for Gifted Children in Kiev, where she was taught by I. Barinova and Prof. N. Tolpygo. This was followed by studies at the National Music Academy of Ukraine Peter Tchaikovsky with Prof. T. Roshchyna. She is currently studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with Prof. Milana Chernyavska. 

Polina received further musical impulses in master classes with Milana Chernyavska, Arie Vardi, Klaus Hellwig, Oxana Yablonskaya, Uta Weyand and Yuri Kot. She is also a scholarship holder of the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and regularly takes part in the intensive weeks there. 

Polina has successfully participated in numerous music competitions and received, among other things, the 3rd prize and the diploma of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine for the best work interpretation by a Ukrainian composer at the “8th International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz” in Kiev (Ukraine, 2010), the 1st prize at the “30th Smetana International Piano Competition” in Pilsen (Czech Republic, 2012), the 3rd prize at the international piano competition “Roma” in Rome (Italy, 2013), the 1st prize at the “Danube Music Prize” in Ulm (Germany, 2014), the 2nd prize at the “International piano competition of the city of San Sebastian” (Spain, 2017), the 2nd prize at the international piano competition “Tribute to Jurica Murai and Murai Grand Prix” in Varaždin (Croatia, 2017), the 1st Prize at the international piano competition “Giovani Musicisti” in Treviso (Italy, 2017), the 1st prize at the international piano competition “Stefano Marizza” in Trieste (Italy, 2017) and the 2nd prize at the “Euterpe International Piano Competition” in Corato (Italy, 2018). She also won the 1st prize at the “IX International Piano Competition Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial” (Novi Sad, Serbia, 2018), the 2nd prize at the “ClaMo International Piano Competition” (Murcia, Spain, 2019), and the 1st prize at the “International Piano Competition Premio Mauro Paolo Monopoli” (Barletta, Italy, 2019) and 3rd prize at the “Shigeru Kawai International Piano Competition” (Tokyo, Japan, 2019). 

The young pianist performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician and has performed in various concert halls in Ukraine and Europe. Most recently she was a guest at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Bialystok (Poland) and at the International Danube Festival in Ulm (Germany). As the winner of the selection award at the Graz University of Art, she played Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major, KV 414 with the KUG Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Patrick Lange in the Stefaniensaal in Graz. In 2019 she was invited to the “VP Bank Classic Festival” in Bad Ragaz (Switzerland). 

Her concert repertoire, which ranges from baroque works to modern times, is characterized by an enormous range. She recorded some solo works by Haydn, Beethoven and Rachmaninov for the Ukrainian National Radio. In addition to classical piano literature, she is particularly interested in contemporary music by Gennady Sasko, Oleg Bezborodko, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Hao-Fu Zhang and Mykhaylo Stepanenko. In 2013 she took part in the world premiere of the piano cycle “Retroludies” by Svyatoslav Lunyov. She has appeared several times with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine under the direction of V. Sirenkoin of the Lysenko Concert Hall of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine. Further appearances have taken her to Germany, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Austria, Poland, Serbia and Slovenia. In June 2013 she took part in the international EMCY project “Young Hearts for Music Tour” in Germany and Austria and performed together with young musicians from various European countries. In the same year she took part in the chamber music course with the international concert tour “colluvio” in Austria.