Viktoriia Vitrenko

— an acclaimed Ukrainian soprano, conductor and curator. Her musical precision and expressive personality particularly enable her to interpret works of contemporary music.

---

“Fantastische Dirigentin”
— FRÄNKISCHE NACHRICHTEN

---

“Tolle Stimme, starke Performance”
— Südwest Presse

---

“Brillante et sensible soprano Viktoriia Vitrenko”
— CRESCENDO

---

“Temperamentvolle Dirigentin Viktoriia Vitrenko”
— STUTTGARTER ZEITUNG

---

“[...] il soprano Viktoriia Vitrenko la figura in primo piano: l’intonazione precisa e accurata [...] e ` solo un prerequisito, un dato di partenza sul quale la Vitrenko costruisce un’interpretazione caratterizzata da una ricchezza di toni espressivi e da una capacità di recitazione veramente ammirevoli.”
— MUSICA

---

“Persuasive performance”
— GRAMOPHONE

---

Viktoriia's career has brought her to stages across Germany, Great Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Macedonia, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine and Russia. Her debut album "Scenes" (2019, AUDITE) with chamber music by György Kurtág won the Supersonic Pizzicato Award and was nominated for the German Record Critics Award (PdSK-2019) and International Contemporary Music Awards 2020 (ICMA 2020). In 2020/21 she was artist-in-residence at the "Cité internationale des arts" in Paris. In 2023/24 she is artist-in-residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Moreover, Vitrenko is a fellow of the German Music Council's Contemporary Music Funding Project “InSzene Vokal” and a winner of the prestigious Michiko Hirayama Prize of the Scelsi Foundation in Italy in 2023.

As a choral conductor, she started her career with the female vocal ensemble "Making Waves". Numerous awards in Ukraine and invitations to international festivals soon followed. The European breakthrough came in 2012, when she won the 1st prize and the diploma for the "Best Soloist" in the "Singing World" in St. Petersburg (2012, Russia), the 1st prize and the diploma for the “Best Performance” at the "Ohrid Choral Festival" (Macedonia) as well as the 3rd prize and the Audience prize at the "Florilège vocal de Tours" (France), among others. From 2015 she was awarded a fellowship of the DIRIGENTENFORUM during which she participated at the workshops with the Berlin Philharmonic Choir, the Gächinger Kantorei, the Choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the NDR Radio Choir, the Chamber Choir Saar and the Berliner Radio Choir, among others. Moreover, she took over as choral conductor for the production of "Alice in Wonderland" at the Staatstheater Stuttgart/Junge Oper and a world premiere with the Deutsche Kammerchor for the Donaueschinger Musiktage. 

As an ensemble and orchestra conductor she has led the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra, the Concerto Tübingen, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Divertimento Ensemble, the Ensemble MusikFabrik, the Haydn Orchestra, the Münchner Symphoniker and the Landesjugendensemble Neue Musik Baden-Württemberg, among others. She studied conducting with Viktor Petrychenko, Denis Rouger and Richard Wien.

As a singer, performer and improviser she has performed at the National Opera of Ukraine, at the Opera Forward Festival, at the Opéra national de Lorraine (FR) as part of NOX and the Staatstheater Stuttgart/Junge Oper, among others. Numerous performances have taken her to renowned European festivals for contemporary music including Eclat Festival, NOW! Festival, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, November Music, Transart Festival, R-E-M Festival, EM-Visia, Vox Electronica, Sommer in Stuttgart, Contrasts Festival and on the concert stages of the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam and the Dortmund Konzerthaus, among others. She has also sung with renowned vocal ensembles for contemporary music such as Silbersee (Netherlands) and Klangforum Heidelberg (Germany). In 2022/2023 Vitrenko held a teaching position at the Studio for Contemporary Music at the HMDK Stuttgart and regularly gives lectures and master classes on the interpretation of contemporary vocal music. She studied singing with Yasuko Kozaki, Angelika Luz, Georg Nigl and Sibylla Rubens.

Cultural and social exchange plays a central role for Viktoriia Vitrenko. She sees herself as a mediator for Ukrainian culture and an active promoter of contemporary music. Collaborating with artists outside of the field of music is an integral part of her creative work. To facilitate this process, she launched several projects and ensembles, including INTERAKT (*2017)—a cross-art initiative focusing on socio-political and technological issues. To her latest creations belong an inclusive music theatre & dance performance “Vox ex nihilo” as well as a staged solo concert “Limbo”.