A CONCERT by Orchestra North East, which takes place in the elegant setting of Newcastle Cathedral this month, welcomes a young pianist from the Ukraine.

Teenage soloist Khrystyna Mykhailichenko will be familiar to audiences as, in June last year, she gave a performance with the orchestra of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto. Born in 2005 in Simferopol, Crimea, Khrystyna started to play the piano at a very early age, first performing in public at the age of five.

After winning a national competition, she gave her première solo performance with a full orchestra in Sevastopol, at the age of eight. She was studying in Kiev when Russia invaded the Ukraine in February 2022 and this led to her relocation to the UK, where she, her mother and younger sister settled in Corbridge.

She gave recitals there in the spring of 2023 in aid of the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Her talent led to the award of a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, starting in September 2023. Khrystyna has performed with exceptional virtuosity throughout the world in prestigious concert halls and music festivals and has been the soloist with symphony orchestras worldwide on more than 40 occasions.

The guest conductor for the evening, Alexander Rebetge, will be conducting the orchestra for the first time. Originally a chorister in the Munich Boys Choir, his musical studies took him to the University of the Arts in Berlin where he studied the organ and conducting.

In his native Germany, he has conducted the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker and the Freiburger Barock Orchester. Further study brought him to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, from which base he has conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Alongside his studies, in 2022 he was appointed director of music at St Ann’s Church in Manchester.

The concert on Saturday, September 21, at 7pm, features César Franck's Symphony in D Minor, a piece noted for its melodies and rich orchestration, and Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto no.1.

For more information, see www.orchestranortheast.org.uk. For tickets, which cost £16, £14 concessions and £8 for students (accompanied 16 year olds and under, £1), see www.ticketsource.co.uk/orchestra-north-east or purchase on the door.