Polina Tarasenko

INTRODUCTION

Polina Tarasenko is a highly promising young trombone player known for her atmospheric performances and exceptional musicality.

RECENT AND FUTURE HIGHLIGHTS

In the 2023/2024 season, Polina returned to the Philharmonie Luxembourg and made her debut with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Symphony Orchestra Münster, the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Erfurt Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Sanderling, and with the Filharmonia Sudecka in Poland.

In 2024/2025, she will return to the Philharmonie Luxembourg and make her debut in the United Kingdom and at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. In January 2025, she will embark on an extensive tour with the Symphony Orchestra Göttingen and Nicholas Milton, followed by a June tour in Northern Germany with the Schleswig-Holstein Symphony Orchestra.

BIOGRAPHY

Polina Tarasenko was born in 2001 in Kherson, Ukraine.

From 2019 – 2022 she studied at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Professor Jonas Bylund and then between 2022 – 2024 at the Hochschule der Künste Bern with Professor Ian Bousfield where she graduated with highest honors in July 2024. She is currently a member of the Mendelssohn Academy at the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig.

Polina has received scholarships from multiple foundations and, since starting her studies in Germany, has won numerous prizes at international trombone competitions across Italy, France, Germany, and the USA. She is a prize winner of the Aeolus International Wind Competition 2023 and has received three special prizes at the International ARD Competition in 2022.

In the season 2020/21, she played with the NDR Radio Philharmonie Hannover and was „debut artist in residence“ at the Nikolaisaal Potsdam. Invitations in 2022/2023 have led her to Barcelona, to the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Philharmonie Luxemburg, the Tonhalle Zürich, and to orchestras such as the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt (Oder) and the Baden-Badener Philharmonie.

Polina Tarasenko is also a devoted chamber musician. In July 2023, she was invited to the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at Schloss Bothmer and the Gezeitenkonzerte in Ostfriesland. In 2021, together with her fellow students from Hannover, she founded the Anima Trombone Quartet. In September 2024, the quartet won first prize at the International Littin Competition for Trombone Quartets in Frankfurt/Main.

Polina Tarasenko began her musical journey at the age of five, initially learning the drums, then moving on to the saxophone, trumpet, and trombone in the children’s jazz ensemble “Dixieland” at the Kherson Palace of Children’s and Youth Creativity. With “Dixieland,” she performed regularly at concerts and festivals, both in Ukraine and internationally.

In 2011, Polina started to be taught via Skype by the trombonist Alexandr Nyankin who at that time lived in Taiwan. At the Moscow Rotary Competition in 2013, she received two prizes and was invited to study at the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music in the main specialty trombone and electives saxophone, trumpet, composition, piano, and organ. She was honored as the best student of the school in 2015 and graduated there in 2018 with the highest honors.