The Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest and largest Ukrainian orchestras. In the 2022/2023 musical season, it celebrated its 120th anniversary. The first concert of the orchestra took place on September 27, 1902.

Every year, the orchestra performs more than 100 concerts at the Lviv National Philharmonic, featuring works by Ukrainian and foreign composers. The orchestra also participates in various social initiatives. It is a regular participant of international festivals and successfully tours in many countries of the world, including Poland, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, China, etc.

In January-March 2023, the orchestra conducted a large-scale tour of America, during which it visited 20 states and performed 40 concerts – in particular, it sold out at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York. On Europe Day – May 9, 2023, the team successfully performed at the Stockholm Konserthuset (Sweden), and in December presented a program of world and Ukrainian classics at the Berlin Philharmonic (Germany).

Important pages in the orchestra’s history are collaborations with famous conductors, including Fuat Mansurov, Natan Rachlin, Lev Braginsky, Enrique de Mori, Everest Lee, Georges Octors, Nicolae Popescu, Bruno d’Astoli, Napoleo Cies, Michuosi Insue, Carmen Moral, Akis Baltis, Thomas Zanderling, Kurt Mazur, Saulius Sondeckis, Simon Kamartin, Misha Katz, Hans Jaskulsky, Roman Revakovich, Vincent Kozlovsky, Hudni Emilson, Ludwig Vikki, and others. The orchestra also played with Ukrainian conductors – Stefan Turchak, Mykola Pokrovsky, Fedir Hlushchenko, Igor Blazhkov, Roman Kofman, Ivan Gamkalo, Volodymyr Kozhuhar, Volodymyr Sirenko, Mykola Dyadyura, Viktor Ploskina, Hobart Earl, Yuriy Yanko, Viktoriya Zhadko, Yuriy Bervetskyi.

The main conductor of the symphony orchestra now is Theodore Kuchar.

Over the past few seasons, the orchestra has made a number of important recordings for major international labels, including Naxos and Brilliant Classics.

Concert activities of Jiří Bárta, one of the foremost cellists of his generation, have taken him to most of European countries, North & South America, Australia, Japan and Korea as well as Africa and Middle East. He has appeared at festivals such as Edinburgh, Kuhmo, Lugano, Newport, Prague Spring Festival, Schubert Festival Salzburg, Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival. As a concerto soloist or in recital he has performed in venues such as Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Buenos Aires Teatro Colon, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Dublin Concert Hall, Edinburgh Queen Elisabeth Hall, L’Auditorio in Barcelona, Los Angeles Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, London Wigmore Hall, Royce Hall at UCLA, Prague Rudolfinum, Tokyo Suntory and Casals Halls, Paris Theatre Chatelet, Paris Auditorium de Louvre, Salzburg Mozarteum, Soul Arts Center, Washington National Gallery with instrumentalists such as Quatuor Ebene, Ilya Gringolts, Chloe Hanslip, Martin Kasík, Piers Lane, Konstantin Lifschitz, Hamish Milne, Vadim Repin, Dmitri Sitkovetski, Josef Suk or Antoine Tamestit, with orchestras such as Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Symphony, Prague Philharmonia, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic London, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Glasgow, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and, finaly, with conductors such as Jiří Bělohlávek, Charles Dutoit, Jakub Hrůša, Gianandrea Noseda, Libor Pešek, Gennadi Rozhdestvenski and Maxim Shostakovich.

As a recording artist on a Supraphon label Jiří Bárta has released Dvorak Celloconcerto with Czech Philharmonic/Jiří Bělohlávek, live recording of performance commemorating Dvorak‘s 100 year’s anniversary televised throughout Europe by Arte Channel. Both CDs with Kodaly Cello works and Martinu/Foerster/Novak concertos respectively have been awarded Gramophon Editor’s Choice. His other Supraphon recordings include Bach Cello Suites and Shostakovich concertos, two discs for Hyperion include sonatas by Moscheles, Hummel and Rubinstein Sonatas. He has collaborated with mezzosoprano Magdalena Kozena on her Deutsche Grammophon Lieder project awarded by Gramophone Award.

As an enthusiastic chamber musician Jiri has co-founded Kutna Hora Chamber Music Festival, festival aimed at both worlds of contemporary and classical music which gained instant recogition as one of the top classical festivals in the Czech Republic.

Jiří Bárta studied in Prague with Josef Chuchro, in Cologne with Boris Pergamenschikow and in Los Angeles with Eleonore Schoenfeld. After winning number of national competitions he has been awarded the Europäische Förderpreis für Musik in Dresden and the Rostropovich-Hammer Award in Los Angeles. Jiří was featured in Czech TV documentary „Můj pokus o mistrovský opus (Bárta versus Bach Cello Suites)“ which won Prix CIRCOM of 2015 in Irland.

Jiří Bárta currently plays violoncello built by Dietmar Rexhausen in 2012.

The Ukrainian violinist Oksana Hretchyn was born in Lviv in 1987 and has clearly established herself as one of that country’s most accomplished violinists. Equally accomplished as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral artist, she is a graduate of the Lviv National Academy of Music and has served as the concertmaster of the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, most recently during that orchestra’s United States Tour in 2023 while also serving as the concertmaster of the Ukrainian Festival Orchestra and first violinist of the orchestra of the Lviv National Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

Since 2005, she has actively concertized throughout Europe both as soloist with orchestra and in recital. During the 2023-24 season she will appear as soloist with orchestras in Australia, Costa Rica, Poland, Turkey and the United States of America, in concertos and major solo works for solo violin and orchestra by composers including Brahms, John Corigliano, Mozart, Pleyel, Stamitz and Josef Suk.

Highlights of the 2024-25 season will include appearances as the violin soloist with the Czech cellist Jiři Barta in the Double Concerto by Johannes Brahms during the UK Tour by the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, in cities including London and Birmingham.

In her free time, Oksana is a very devoted artist whose paintings have sold at exhibitions including England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and the USA.