Sergey Tkachenko Named Eleventh May Festival Choral Conducting Fellow
CINCINNATI, OH (August 29, 2023)—The Cincinnati May Festival has announced Sergey Tkachenko as the May Festival Choral Conducting Fellow for the 2023-24 season. Tkachenko recently completed his master’s degree program in choral conducting at the Indiana University (IU) Jacobs School of Music, where he served as an associate instructor for the choral music department. He directed the All-Campus Chorus, Conductors Chorus, and was the assistant director of the renowned show choir, the Singing Hoosiers, with whom he toured and appeared as a clinician. In the fall of 2023, Tkachenko will simultaneously begin his doctoral degree program in choral conducting at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and the May Festival Choral Conducting Fellowship program.
“The May Festival Choral Conducting Fellowship attracts the top emerging choral leaders from all across the country, which Sergey is very much a part of,” said Executive Director of the May Festival Steven Sunderman. “The program provides the appointed fellow opportunities to enrich personal and professional development, and it contributes to the legacy of the May Festival, providing the world with the highest standard of musical excellence. We are very excited for our season ahead with Sergey.”
Created in 2013 through the generosity of Ginger Warner, a long-time trustee of the University of Cincinnati and Director Emeritus of the May Festival Board of Directors, the May Festival Choral Conducting Fellowship aims to provide rising conductors with the opportunity to directly assist with the leadership of a high caliber choral music organization. In collaboration with CCM’s graduate choral conducting program, a Fellow is selected from CCM’s Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) class to serve one season as the assistant conductor of the May Festival Chorus. Tkachenko will directly assist Director of Choruses Robert Porco with leading the May Festival Chorus as well as all operations of a major symphonic choral organization, including artistic planning, budgeting and finance, philanthropy, marketing, and community engagement.
“We are happy to welcome Sergey to the May Festival family,” said Director of Choruses Robert Porco. “Sergey brings great experience and talent to our organization, and I look forward to working with Sergey in his new capacity.”
“I am thrilled to start my musical journey in Cincinnati as the May Festival’s next Choral Conducting Fellow,” said Tkachenko. “It’s an honor to join one of the finest choral music organizations in the world. I look forward to making meaningful connections, and sharing compelling stories with our audiences through the performance of beloved masterworks.”
Sergey Tkachenko is the eleventh May Festival Choral Conducting Fellow in the history of the program. Previous fellows now lead various youth, academic, community, church, and professional choral programs, throughout Greater Cincinnati and around the world.
SERGEY TKACHENKO
Sergey Tkachenko is a Ukrainian-American conductor, bass-baritone, and collaborative pianist. He is driven to bring musicians together in the performance of choral-instrumental works and is excited to join the May Festival as the Conducting Fellow for the 2023-24 season.
In 2023, Tkachenko completed his master’s degree in choral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he was an Associate Instructor for the Choral Department. He directed the All-Campus Chorus, Conductors Chorus, and was the assistant director of the renowned show choir, the Singing Hoosiers, with whom he toured and appeared as a clinician. Tkachenko was also the assistant chorus master for two opera productions with IU Opera Theater. In addition to teaching a musicianship and vocal skills course, Tkachenko performed with early music ensembles, premiered new compositions, and played chamber music. To support his studies at IU, he received the Margaret E. Hillis Memorial Scholarship.
Before pursuing graduate studies, Tkachenko was the choral director at Moorestown High School, where he led three choral ensembles, vocal-directed musicals, taught music theory, and accompanied choral concerts. During his tenure, his ensembles earned high marks at the NJ ACDA and NAFME choral festivals. He was an active member of the SJCDA, assisting in preparing festival choruses. In 2019, he accompanied the Elementary Honor Choir Festival, premiering a new commission by Jim Papoulis.
Tkachenko maintains an active performance schedule as a professional choral singer and church musician. He joined the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir in 2016, singing choral masterworks under the direction of Joe Miller and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He also sings with The Union, Cincinnati, with Trevor Kroeger, director. Recently, Tkachenko appeared in the choir for the upcoming Leonard Bernstein biopic, Maestro, with Bradley Cooper. In 2023, he served as assistant music director at the First United Methodist Church in Bloomington.
Tkachenko’s musical leadership includes both orchestral and choral conducting. He was assistant conductor for the Westminster Community Orchestra in Princeton, NJ from 2017-2020. During that time, he studied with Kenneth Kiesler, Donald Schleicher, and Victor Yampolsky in orchestral masterclasses and workshops.
Tkachenko is passionate about programming and performing the music of his Slavic heritage, and he coaches vocalists and ensembles in Russian and Ukrainian diction. Tkachenko earned his undergraduate degree in Music Education from Westminster Choir College in 2014 and will begin his doctorate in choral conducting at CCM in the fall of 2023.