Biography
Dr. Oleksii Hamov
Four degrees across two continents, the great concertos in his hands, and a doctorate that gave the Ukrainian violin sonata its first English-language reading.
Oleksii Hamov was born in Chernivtsi, in western Ukraine, and began the violin at the age of seven — first at Music School No. 2 in his home city, then at the Vorobkevich Music College. He completed his Bachelor of Music Performance at the Moscow State Academy in 2008.
In 2011 he moved to the United States. A Master of Music in Violin Performance and Chamber Music followed at Southeastern Louisiana University in 2012, then an Artist Diploma from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2016, studying in the class of Dr. Miroslav Hristov. In 2022 he completed the Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
He won the concerto competitions at both institutions — performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra, and appearing as a featured soloist in UNLV’s Artemus Ham Concert Hall. Earlier he had taken First Prize as a soloist and Second Prize as a chamber musician at the 21st Century Art International Competition.
Hamov won the concertmaster’s chair of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra by competitive audition — the principal first violinist’s seat in an orchestra that has performed in the Berliner Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie and the Gewandhaus Leipzig, and which has held the patronage of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 2023. With the orchestra he performed for the heads of state of the NATO member countries at the summit in Madrid. In the United States he held a tenured contract with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, serving as assistant principal and assistant concertmaster, and has performed with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra.
As a soloist he has returned to the Chernivtsi Philharmonic across nearly two decades with the Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Khachaturian and Shostakovich concertos, alongside Chausson’s Poème and Dvořák’s Romance. He has appeared at the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt and at festivals in Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Poland, and in 2017 performed with NAONI at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv.
He has served as Director of Orchestral Activities and instructor of applied violin and viola at Colorado State University Pueblo, and as concertmaster of the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra. He has served three consecutive years as conductor and principal adjudicator of the Southern Colorado Honor Orchestra Festival, and in 2025 sat on juries at the International Competition “Musical Bukovyna” and the V All-Ukrainian Festival-Competition named after Fadey Hanitsky. That same year he was selected for the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies at The Juilliard School.
He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians, Pikes Peak Musicians’ Association.
Training
Doctor of Musical Arts
University of Nevada, Las Vegas · 2022
Artist Diploma
University of Tennessee, Knoxville · 2016
Master of Music, Violin Performance & Chamber Music
Southeastern Louisiana University · 2012
Bachelor of Music Performance
Moscow State Academy · 2008
Former positions
Director of Orchestral Activities
Colorado State University Pueblo
Concertmaster
Pueblo Symphony Orchestra
Concertmaster
Kyiv Symphony Orchestra
Assistant Concertmaster
Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra
Bring me to your stage
Concerto dates, guest concertmaster residencies, recitals and masterclasses