Ukki Sachedina is an Indian-American conductor based between Berlin and Los Angeles. As guest conductor, he has had the privilege of working with orchestras across Europe and the United States. Ukki has served as Assistant Conductor for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Jaime Martín. He is currently mentored by Maxim Eshkenazy, Jorma Panula, and Markus Stenz. He has also studied with Paavo Järvi.
As guest conductor, he has worked with orchestras including the Rousse Philharmonic, Burgas State Opera, Vratsa Symphony, Pazardzhik Symphony, South Coast Symphony, Vidin Sinfonietta and others. He has also conducted the Karlovy Vary Symphony, South Denmark Symphony, Santa Monica Symphony, and Järvi Academy Symphony. Notable events from the past seasons include a concert tour in the Season 22-23 across Bulgaria, conducting the complete symphonic cycle of Brahms.
As assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Ukki participated in the season’s closing concert in May 2023, featuring sitarist Anoushka Shankar (sitar – a traditional Indian string instrumentHe has also been assistant conductor of the Santa Monica Symphony and the Vicente Chamber Orchestra.
Ukki has participated in numerous international festivals including Pärnu Music Festival, studying with Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Kristjan Järvi, and Leonid Grin; and Fiskars Summer Festival, studying with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Dalia Stasevska, and James Gaffigan. He also was chosen by Maestro Panula to participate in his masterclasses including the Nordic Masterclass with South Denmark Symphony Orchestra and the Turku masterclasses with Turku Philharmonic.
He is currently studying at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin. He previously completed his studies in orchestral conducting at the Colburn School with Maxim Eshkenazy. There he made his debut as a conductor at age 16 with a performance of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring with a chamber orchestra he founded. For the years 2022 and 2023, he was a 2x winner of the South Coast Symphony’s McBeth Foundation Award “Young Stars of the Future”.
Ukki has been a guest on Bulgarian National Radio and Television. He has been featured on the NPR Broadcast “From the Top” and New York City’s WXQR’s Young Artist Showcase and New York Concert Review.
Dara Karagyozova was born in 2006. She took her first violin lesson at the age of six and has been following her musical path ever since, guided by the inspiring violin pedagogue Blagorodna Taneva, in whose class she studies at the National School of Music "Lyubomir Pipkov" in Sofia, where she will graduate in 2025.
For 12 years, Dara has actively participated in the musical life of the school and beyond, achieving success in numerous national and international competitions. Among her significant awards are prizes from: Maria Herrero International Competition (Granada, Spain, 2024), XXXII International Competition "Music and the Earth" (2024), National Competition "Road to Glory" (2020, 2023), Viva Violin (2023), International Youth Music Competition (Atlanta, USA, 2022, online), Astana Grand Festival (Kazakhstan, 2022), Future Stars Italy (2021), as well as the competitions in Niš, Tryavna, etc.
In addition to her solo performances, Dara shows great interest in participating in masterclasses. Over the years, she has had the opportunity to work with and learn from internationally acclaimed violinists and pedagogues such as Prof. Svetlin Roussev, Prof. Midori Goto, Boris Garlitsky, Dora Schwarzberg, Moni Simeonov, Sergey Malov, Anton Sorokov, Zornitsa Ilarionova, Dimitar Burov, and others.
She believes that every stage appearance is an opportunity for true, sincere communication with the audience through music. She strives to turn every performance into a deeply emotional experience – both for herself and for the listeners. Over the years, Dara has performed both as a soloist and as an active participant in chamber ensembles. Her repertoire includes works from the Baroque to contemporary music.
She has performed concerts throughout the country, constantly seeking to develop her musical voice, technically and artistically, with the ambition to pursue a professional career in music and establish herself as an artist with character and a distinctive sound.
J. Sibelius – Symphony No. 1
N. Rimsky-Korsakov – Fantasy "The Golden Cockerel"
C. Debussy – Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
A. Vivaldi – The Four Seasons – "Summer"