Vladyslav Buialskyi

Buialskyi was born on 15 August 1997 in Berdiansk, Ukraine.[1] The son of an accountant and a driver, he became interested in singing at an early age and admired the Soviet singer Muslim Magomayev. When he was 17 years old, he began training at a conservatory.[2] He is an alumnus of the R. Glier Kyiv Institute of Music and the Kyiv Conservatory, where he trained with the baritone Mykola Koval.[3]

His participation in "Kharkiv Assemblies", the International Competition of Musical Art, in Kharkiv in 2018, led to a performance as Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.[1] Buialskyi sang at several competitions in 2019, becoming the inaugural recipient of the Brian Dickie Young Talent Award at Neue Stimmen.[4] He was named a semi-finalist and finalist at the International Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition in Warsaw and the Tenor Viñas Contest in Barcelona, respectively, and received the "Accademia Chigiana" prize at the latter.[5][6] He was also a semi-finalist at the 2021 Operalia competition and a finalist at the 2021 Éva Marton International Singing Competition.[1][5]

In 2020, Buialskyi joined the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as a participant in its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He made his debut with the Met on 28 February 2022, playing a Flemish deputy in Verdi's Don Carlos.[2][7] Before the start of the opera, Buialskyi and the other singers performed the State Anthem of Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[2] His performance, standing center stage with his hand over his heart and as the only singer without carrying a score, was praised by music critics and later broadcast by Ukrainian media outlets.[2][8] On 14 March 2022, Buialskyi sang the anthem as a soloist with the Met Orchestra and chorus to open the 90-minute benefit concert "A Concert for Ukraine".[7][9] The New York Times described him as "a symbol of his country’s struggles".[2]

In 2022, he also played the Captain in the Met's production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.[2] Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times wrote that despite the brevity of the role, Buialskyi's performance was "as indelible as any artist on the Met's roster".[10] Rick Perdian of the New York Classical Review also praised his performance, writing that he "sang with verve and danced with style".[11]

• A Concert for Ukraine on YouTube