Jazz Professor Kostiantyn Vilensky Goes the Distance

Kyiv pianist and composer Kostiantyn Vilensky’s concert at the Hall of Columns of the capital’s Philharmonic Society was a real Christmas present to all his admirers and devotees of classical jazz. For the past several seasons this jazz professor (as dubbed by the Western press) had toured Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Holland, and Belgium, as foreign audiences proved more gratifying in every respect, compared to domestic ones. After receiving a classical music education, Kostiantyn Vilensky put his knowledge and talent to good use, polishing his favorite style, jazz. That the combination was extremely fruitful became once again evident during his concert at the National Philharmonic Society. Accompanied by the Philharmonic directed by Mykola Diadiura and assisted by a support group of jazzmen from Italy, Poland, and Ukraine, he was equally good at variations from Joplin, improvisations on Gershwin themes, and well-known blues arrangements, followed by a pleasant surprise, a brilliant slightly ironic interpretation of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, reports The Day’s Yuliya DERHUN.