A B O U T
Ukrainian-born flutist Olha Stukalova is currently finishing her Artist in Residence program at the world-acclaimed Barenboim-Said Akademie, where she is mentored by Emmanuel Pahud, the Principal Flute of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Claudia Stein, the Principal Flute of Berlin State Opera. At the same time, she is serving as a Substitute Flutist at Tonkünstler-Orchestra based in Vienna, Austria, chief conductor Yutaka Sado. At the age of 22, Olha was appointed as the principal flutist of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, a position to which the GMD of the orchestra, Luigi Gaggero, invited her after a successful one-time cooperation. She worked in this role until August 2023. Together, they have performed at renowned festivals such as the Grafenegg Festival and The Canary Islands Music Festival. In February 2024 the orchestra invited her to perform as a soloist for Mozart's D-Dur Concerto for Flute in Warsaw Philharmonic.
Olha began taking flute lessons with Anna Kuzmenko in 2007, at the age of seven, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Years after, she completed her intermediate studies at the R. Gliere Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music. Since 2019, she is receiving flute and piccolo guidance from Leonid Grudin, Solo Piccolo of the Berlin State Opera, whose tutelage has honed her skills and perfected her craft. Olha has as well spent a year at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in Austria, being a student in the class of Univ. Prof. Matthieu Gauci-Ancelin.
In addition to her roles as an orchestra musician and Artist in Residence at the Akademie, Olha is quite active in chamber music. She is a co-founder of the Mondestrunken Ensemble, established in 2019 in Kyiv, which promotes authors symphonic music arrangements. In May 2023, she has also had an honor to share a stage with Emmanuel Pahud in a renowned Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, performing W.F.C. Bach’s Duet no. 4 in F-Dur.
Olha has received masterclasses from distinguished flutists, including Andrea Lieberknecht, Jelka Weber, Andras Adorjan, Sebastian Jacot, Matvey Demin, Egor Egorkin, Seiya Ueno, Yubeen Kim, Denis Bouriakov, Mariya Semotiuk-Schlaffke, and Barbara ÅšwiÄ…tek-Å»elazna. Among the orchestras that she has performed with are: Tonkünstler-Orchester, Karajan Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO Berlin), Philharmonisches Kammerorchester Berlin, Munich-Ukrainian Symphony Orchestra, Hauptstadt Symphonie Orchester, Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, etc. Working with conductors Wayne Marshall OBE, Vitali Alekseenok, Oscar Jockel, Michael Balke, Raphael Haeger, Gordon Hamilton, Thomas Hennig and others.
The Yamaha Music Gulf FZE Scholarship Program has supported Olha for 2017-2018, as well as Creative Scholarships from the Kyiv City Administration in 2016 and 2018. With the generous help from Michael Blatow Foundation, she had an opportunity to study at the private music school Internationale Music Akademie Anton Rubinstein in Berlin for the years of 2022-2024, when feeling to Germany from war in her home country.