Ever since I can remember…

…nothing has made me feel more alive, and more grateful, than listening to music. It seems to bring out the beauty in everything around — even in life’s most trying moments. Although I certainly came to appreciate and even rely on this capacity in the more difficult periods of my life — moving to the United States at a young age, my father’s death soon after, a cancer diagnosis in my teenage years — I cherish that music never establishes boundaries between light and dark, joy and sorrow. It simply is, and is exquisite.

Whether I am performing as a pianist, creating new formats in which to experience live performance, or writing about music, my goal is always the same: to restore music from the formality of the concert hall or the triviality of background noise to its most direct and personal form, and to share its immediacy with as many people as possible.

BIOGRAPHY

As a pianist, Dasha (Darya) Koltunyuk, has enjoyed performing both as a soloist and a chamber musician throughout the United States, Spain, France, Germany, Holland, and the United Kingdom, while claiming top prizes at national and international competitions. She studies privately with Professor Miyoko Lotto in New York City, after previously attending Manhattan School of Music’s Precollege Division, and the Royal College of Music in London. Having completed a summa cum laude degree in Comparative Literature at Princeton University, focusing on the intersection between music and literature, Dasha continues to extend her love of music beyond performance. This includes launching the Opportunity Music Project’s chamber music summer camp for low-income NYC children as a winner of the Davis Project for Peace, and establishing the Breathe in Music: Live Music Meditation series and Healing with Music series at Princeton University Concerts as its Outreach Manager. She continues to be part of the inspiring team at Princeton University Concerts, living in Princeton, NJ with her soulmate husband, pianist/composer Gregg Kallor, and their tomato plant, Tobias.

Photos by Andrew Wilkinson, January 2018.