Igor Zavadsky

Igor Zavadsky - the Honoured Artist of Ukraine, a laureate of international accordionist competitions, the sole owner of the "Golden Lira" award in Ukraine (a special prize awarded to him at the competition in Italy for 100 points out of 100 possible - a unique event in the longstanding history of international competitions); the first Ukrainian accordionist who was included in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Born on January 20, 1966 in the town of Inta in the north of Russia where his father had worked as a miner. Igor is the seventh child in the family. When he was seven, the family moved to the town of Ekibastuz (Kazakhstan). There he enrolled at the music school at the age of eleven. He graduated the music and the secondary school in the city of Zaporizhya where he moved together with his parents in 1978.

• 1982-1986 - studying at the Zaporizhya State Music High School (A.Petrychenko's class). After graduation he obtained a distinction.
• 1986-1991 - studying at the P.I.Chaikovsky Kyiv State Conservatoire (Professor M.Davydov's class). After passing final exams with flying colours he was assigned to work in the town of Boryspil.
• 1991-1994 - working as a choir accompanist, art manager and afterwards as a director of the House of Culture at the state farm "Boryspilsky".
• 1994-1995 - he achieved the greatest success at world music forums: victories at international accordionist competitions and winning the "Gold Medal" (Grand Prix, France) and the "Golden Lira" (Stefano Bizzarri, Italy).
• 1995-1998 - studying at the postgraduate performance department of the P.I.Chaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Professor M.Davydov's class).
• January 20, 1998 - Igor established a new tradition: organizing charity concerts on his birthdays in Kyiv and inviting performers and creative teams from all over Ukraine to participate in them.
• 1998-1999 - working as a teacher and further as an Assistant Professor at the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts.
• December 28, 2000 - the President of Ukraine issued an Order by which he awarded to Igor Zavadsky a title of the "Honoured Artist of Ukraine" for outstanding achievements in professional activity and long conscientious work.
• Since January 14, 2002 - he has been working as a soloist at the Poltava Oblast State Philharmonic Society.
• May 6, 2002 - the Metropolitan Bishop of Kyiv and of all Ukraine the Blessed Volodymyr presented him with the Order of Saint Prince Volodymyr of the III degree for the development of highly spiritual musical art and numerous charity concerts.
• June 25, 2003 - a peculiar mini-competition took place at the international accordionist festival in Chicago between the best accordionist of the United States (Stas Venglevsky - a former USSR citizen currently residing in Chicago and being the president of the American Accordionists' Association) and the best representative of Europe - Igor Zavadsky. The winner had to be determined by the loudness of applause. Each of them had played his repertoire for 20 minutes. Igor was the first to play. It's worth mentioning that Stas Venglevsky is a favourite of the local audience. But our fellow countryman won - the hall rose in applause after his performance and the festival's president Joan Summers offered Igor to return on the scene and play an encore. The American on-line Literary Magazine "Russian Globe" further wrote about our fellow countryman: "The best of the best" (№6, June, 2003).
• July 7, 2005 - during the international folk festival in the town of Kimberley (British Columbia, Canada) he takes part in holding a new Guinness Book world record for the largest accordionists' orchestra in the world - 644 performers from 5 countries had played together potpourri on famous American and Canadian themes 30 minutes long. Igor was a soloist of this orchestra and the only representative of Ukraine. The previous record had been held on June 1, 2000 in the town of Dipenheim, Netherlands, where 566 accordionists had played for 22 minutes in unison.

Igor has been to many countries of the world with his solo concerts. Some of them are: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, the Check Republic, Hungary, Iceland, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, USA, Canada…

Igor Zavadsky has been supporting many young talented performers from all over Ukraine during the last years. Besides consultations, master classes and recitals with students he actively gets the young talents to participate in his concerts. In future he dreams about establishing his own school of accordion and developing the charitable activity further.

information, photo from official site: http://www.zavadsky.net.ua/