Oleg Ponomarev
Waltons New School of Music Faculty
Classical, Jazz/Swing and Gypsy Violin • Viola
Oleg is a renowned performing musician and multi-instrumentalist, teacher, lecturer and composer. Born in Siberia, he first studied violin and piano with his grandparents, both graduates of the Moscow Conservatory, and later graduated from the Central Music School and Gnesinn College in Moscow. He co-founded and performed extensively with legendary Russian-Gypsy trio Loyko and world music trio Koshka and has collaborated with numerous international artists, including Ravi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin, Lakshminarayana Sumbramaniam, Ally Bain, Gidon Kremer, Gilles Apap, Andre Heller, Bill Lovelady and Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones. He has also written and/or arranged several scores for film and video, including Onegin (featuring Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler), and Tim Burton’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. As a teacher, Oleg has taught classical, jazz/swing and Gypsy violin for over 30 years, and he has given workshops and masterclasses in schools and universities worldwide, including the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast; the University of Aalborg in Copenhagen, Denmark; the University of Gothenburg in Sweden; Temple Sinai in Marblehead, Massachusetts; the Schous Cultural Centre in Trondheim, Norway; and the Russian Cultural Centre in Glasgow, Scotland. He has recorded and produced more than thirty albums under his own name or as a guest artist and is signed to ARC Records UK, Circular Records Scotland and Adastra UK. Currently Oleg is a permanent member of the following groups: Koshka, Yurodny, Hot Club of Dublin, NoCrows and LPG Trio. He has taught with the New School since 2015.
‘Our lives have become more and more structured and rationalised – soulless, in a way. Stress, anxiety, uncertainty and many other negative factors are dominating us more and more. Now more than ever we need to connect with our creative selves in order to bring happiness and joy back into our lives. My main teaching objective and wish for my students – regardless of their age, level or ability – is to give them better access to their creative selves, which in turn will make their lives richer and happier.’
a comprehensive music centre in the heart of Dublin.