Galina
was born in the Ukraine and comes from a family of musicians. She
began studying the guitar and made her first public appearance on
state television at the age of eight, four years later she was performing
guitar concertos with the Kharkov Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
From 1985 to 1991 she studied at the Moscow Gnesiny Music College
while also employed as principal guitarist with the Kharkov State
Philharmonia from 1986 until 1997.
Galina has won prizes at international music competitions in Poland,
Italy, Hungary, Spain, the United Kingdom, and has performed over
2,000 concerts across West and Eastern Europe. In 1996 the British
Ambassador and High Commissioner to Kenya invited her to Africa for
a concert tour and television appearances.
Her recitals have included very technically demanding works, such
as the arrangement by Japanese virtuoso guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita
of The Bogatyr Gate of Kiev (from Pictures at an Exhibition
by Mussorgsky), considered "impossible for guitar" (Ganiezc
Pomorsky) alongside her own arrangements of works like Rachmaninov's
Prelude in G minor. Her repertoire has ranged from 'orthodox'
classical guitar (Sor, Villa-Lobos, Bach ...) through arrangements
of classical instrumental, orchestral works and opera (Liszt, Paganini,
Dvorak, de Falla, Rossini), the modern guitar (Walton, Rodrigo, Dyens),
to flamenco (Escudero, Sabicas, Pena) and arrangements of South American
and East European folk music (Cardoso, Ramirez, Shevchenko). Her interpretation
of pieces by the famous guitarist composer Stepan Rak inspired his
praise before a huge audience at the 1987 Esztergom International
Guitar Festival ... "finally I have found a musician who can
perform my music!"
She has also starred in three music films produced by Ukrainian State
Television; Portrait with Guitar (1987), Strings and Sails
(1991), Spirit of Spain (1997). Her first CD The Legend
received funding from the Gendai Guitar Foundation of Japan and was
released in 1996 (under her maiden name Galina Vernigora). It featured
on US FM radio in the network programme edition of Great Women
Guitarists produced by 'Classical Guitar Alive!' in 1997 and later
with Maltese National Radio on the programme Cantabile.
Galina Vale now lives in England and continues with her career as
a concert performer.
