Victor Mishalow

Victor Yuriiovych Mishalow (born 4 April 1960) is an Australian-born Canadian bandurist, educator, composer, conductor, and musicologist.

Biography

Victor Mishalow was born on 4 April 1960, in Sydney, Australia, Mishalow began studying the bandura in 1970 initially with Peter Deriashnyj, playing in the Hnat Khotkevych Ukrainian Bandurist Ensemble and from 1974 with Hryhory Bazhul in Sydney. He was the first person in Australia to do their practical HSC music performance exam at Carlingford High School on the bandura.

In 1978 he received grants and scholarships from the Australia Council for the Arts and the NSW Premier's Department to undertake advanced studies in bandura in North America where he studied under Peter Honcharenko, Peter Kytasty, Hryhory Kytasty, Vasyl Yemetz and Leonid Haydamaka.

In 1979 he received a scholarship to attend the Kyiv Conservatory where he studied bandura under Professor Serhiy Bashtan, conducting under Professor Mykola Shchohol, and voice under Professor Maryna Yehorychev.

While in Kyiv he also attended evening classes at Kyiv University and privately studied traditional kobzar artistry under Heorhy Tkachenko.

Returning to Australia, Mishalow established various bandura trios and ensembles, and organising seminars in Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. He graduated from Sydney University in 1984 with a double major in Musicology and Ethno-musicology, continuing post-graduate studies at the Sydney College of Advanced Education (1986) (Dip.Ed.) in music education, and then the Kyiv Conservatory (1988) (M.Mus.). In February 2009 he successfully defended his Candidate of Science (PhD-equivalent) dissertation on the "Cultural and artistic aspects of the genesis and development of performance on the Kharkiv bandura" at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. His opponents were Dr Igor Matsiyevsky from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and Dr Mykola Davydov from the Kyiv Conservatory.