Performer (bayan), teacher.
He was born in 1995 in Luhansk, Ukraine.
Since 2002 he has studied at a music school (bayan class of A. S. Khodanovich). While still a school student he became a laureate and winner of more than twenty city, regional, all‑Ukrainian and international competitions.
He completed grades 8 and 9 of general education school externally and in 2010 entered the Luhansk College of Culture and Arts, graduating with distinction in 2014 (bayan class of L. A. Sharabrin).
A key milestone during his college studies was victory at one of the major international bayan and accordion competitions, Perpetuum mobile (Drohobych, 2012).
At college he continued to compete and perform actively, both as a soloist and in various ensembles, appearing with the children’s philharmonic concert group Rovesnik. The philharmonic’s touring geography covered almost the whole of Ukraine, including Dnipro, Kropyvnytskyi, Donetsk, Drohobych, Kharkiv, Kyiv and other regional centres.
After graduating from college, as the political situation deteriorated, his family decided to move to Russia and continue his education in Moscow. In 2014 Nikita Igorievich successfully passed entrance examinations and entered the Moscow State Institute of Music named after A. G. Schnittke (class of Professor F. R. Lips, People’s Artist of Russia), and in 2015 he continued his studies at the Gnesin Academy. He completed his bachelor’s degree in 2018, graduated with distinction from the master’s programme in 2020 and finished his assistant traineeship in 2022, studying throughout under F. R. Lips.
During this period he became winner and laureate of a number of competitions, including:
- the Nineteenth All‑Russian A. Kusyakov Performers’ Competition (Rostov‑on‑Don, 2015);
- the Fourteenth All‑Russian Bayan and Accordion Competition Vivat, Bayan! (Samara, 2016);
- the Third Open Folk Instrument Performers’ Competition of CIS Member States (Moscow, 2016);
- the Second All‑Russian Music Competition (Moscow, 2017);
- the Coupe Mondiale International Competition (China, 2019);
- the PIF Castelfidardo International Competition (Italy, 2019);
- the Friedrich Lips Cup International Bayan and Accordion Competition (Chelyabinsk, 2020);
- the Seventh International Bayan and Accordion Competition in Moscow (2020);
- the Italia Award International Competition (Italy, 2021).
His university years were fruitful not only for his solo career but also in ensemble work. He performed as part of the duo Fusion with fellow student, now the Gnesin Academy graduate, Ilona Savina (accordion). The duo’s primary artistic focus is exploring new sonorities and instrumental combinations, performing their own transcriptions and original music for bayan and accordion duo. Originating within the framework of the study programme, the duo continues to perform actively, seeking to present bayan and accordion as versatile instruments with a wide range of expressive possibilities and to foster the expansion of original repertoire for this ensemble.
From 2017 to 2022 Nikita Igorievich studied and then worked at the Moscow experimental factory Jupiter, acquiring the knowledge, skills and practical experience needed to teach this speciality within a new the Gnesin Academy course on bayan and accordion repair and assembly for students.
