Ukrainian conductor Kyrylo Karabyts received the Order of Great Britain

Kyrylo Karabyts/instagram

Ukrainian conductor Kyryll Karabyts was awarded an honorary order from the King of Great Britain (Honorary OBE) on March 21 for the promotion of Ukrainian music.

He received an award from His Majesty “for services to music industry and popularization of symphonic works from Ukraine and Eastern Europe”. This is reported by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Opera Wire.

Ukrainian Kyrylo Karabyts is from Kyiv. Since 2009, he has been the principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the south-west of England. In October of this year, Kirill's 15-year tenure in this position will end, and he will become the artistic director of the “Voices from the East” project.

During the 15 years that Karabyts led the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, he performed more than 60 works from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In particular, his series “Voices from the East” includes works from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Macedonia, Poland, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.

I am deeply grateful for this prestigious award for the journey I have been privileged to share with the musicians and listeners of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra over the past 15 years – I am deeply proud of what we have achieved together, said Karabyts.

World Press notes that Karabyts has a clear mission – to share the symphonic treasures of his native Ukraine. In particular, thanks to him, the works of Boris Lyatoshynskyi, Mykola Lysenko, Valentin Sylvestrov, Myroslav Skoryk and other Ukrainian authors were heard in Britain.

Dougie Scarfe, general director of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, also spoke about the award.

We are delighted that Cyril's impact on the UK musical landscape has been recognized with an Honorary Order of the British Empire. He is a musical detective unlike any other. It was a real adventure for us to explore this music, said Scarff.

Let us remind you that Kyrylo Karabyts is the son of the composer Ivan Karabyts, who in 2009 headed one of the main symphony orchestras of Great Britain. He worked with other famous orchestras of the world, including the Vienna, Chicago, French National, Sydney Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, BBC Orchestra, etc.

At the same time, during the full-scale war, Karabytsy, like the conductor Oksana Lyniv, was criticized for his performance works of Russian composers Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.