Ireneus Zuk

Ukrainian-born Canadian pianist, Ireneus Zuk, has appeared in numerous public, radio and television recitals, with chamber music groups, and as soloist with various orchestras. His concerts have taken him throughout Canada, the USA, Europe and the Far East.

Ireneus Zuk is a graduate of the Conservatoire de Musique de Quebec and McGill University in Montreal, the Royal College of Music in London, and the Juilliard School in New York. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Peabody Conservatory of John Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, where he studied with Leon Fleisher.

Winner of many prizes and scholarships, including awards from the Canada Council and Quebec Government, he also held teaching fellowships at the Juilliard School and Peabody Conservatory. Now he combines his teaching with an active concert career. At the present time, he is Professor and Chair of the Keyboard Area at Queen’s University in Kingston, where he served as Director of the School of Music from 1997-2003.

He also performs regularly in a piano duo with his sister, Luba Zuk. Since 1982, the duo have made frequent tours, particularly in Europe, where they have played concerts in major centers. More recently, they have become frequent visitors in Ukraine where they have appeared in major cities and at seven international music festivals. Many works by Canadian composers have been premiered by the duo. They have also commissioned a significant number of works, some under awards from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council, and their recordings have been included in the RCI Anthology of Canadian Music. The duo has just completed a very successful tour in China.

In Kyiv, Ukraine, Ireneus Zuk served as jury member of the Horowitz Competition for Young Pianists (1995, 2000, 2006) and as Chair of the State Examination Commission (of the Ministry of Culture) at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He has been a juror of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition for the performance of Contemporary Music in Canada, of the Klasinc Competition in Slovenia, Les Rencontres des Jeunes in Belgium, the 1000 Islands International in the USA and annually since 1996 on the jury of the IBLA Grand Prize International Piano Competition in Italy.

Recently, the government of Ukraine honored Ireneus Zuk with the award of a medal and the title “Merited Artist of Ukraine”. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress awarded him the Shevchenko medal in recognition of his promotion of Canadian and Ukrainian-Canadian music.