It was our orchestra where Serhii Lykhomanenko gained his first experience as a conductor in 2012. To come to the conductor’s stand for the first time with the 9^th symphony of Anton Bruckner was risky and bold, which is generally typical of the young conductor’s nature. The orchestra, however, had not yet performed the works of this classic as well. The main distinguishing feature of Mr. Lykhomanenko is the ability to instantly make contact with the team: on the one hand, to conduct in cooperation with the ensemble, and on the other, to show the will and character in leading the orchestra.

The Academic Symphony Orchestra "Slobozhanskiy" is the first professional youth orchestra in Ukraine. In 1994, at the European Music Festival in Copenhagen (Denmark), the team was recognized as the best Youth Orchestra of Europe.

We are proud of the fact that this young and talented conductor appeared on stage with our orchestra. The concert at Kiev City Hall in 2012, under the leadership of maestro Lykhomanenko with the music pieces of Bruckner and Beethoven was photographed in the memory of the public, our group and the young conductor. On behalf of the entire group and myself, I would give good word to Serhii Lykhomanenko as a neat craftsman, mindful leader and a brilliant musician.

I know Serhii Lykhomanenko since 2006 as a successful businessman and manager. However, classical music has always fascinated him more than business.

I had a chance to have influence over the future conductor - I was his first teacher of organ artistic performance. Although Mr. Lykhomanenko lacked the basic musical education, he quickly mastered the performance technique of this very difficult instrument. Our collaboration resulted in a solo concert of Serhii Lykhomanenko in 2008 on the main chamber venue of the country - the National House of Organ and Chamber Music of Ukraine.

The way to conductor's stand was perfectly logical and evolutionary continuation of musical career of the young musician. Logical, because the organ, in fact, is a prototype of the orchestra, and evolutionary, because Lykhomanenko constantly strives for knowledge of new timbres and their realization in a variety of musical canvases.

Though the world may have lost a talented organist, I am sure that it has gained even more talented conductor. On my numerous tours around the world, I will certainly recommend Mr. Lykhomanenko because the international recognition of this conductor is inevitable.

I am very happy to recommend Serhii Lykhomanenko as a brilliant conductor as well as a brilliant manager of Kiev Grand Classic Orchestra. It's wonderful that Serhii decided to be a touring conductor, as the world must necessarily hear the performance of Eastern European music under his leadership. At a joint concert in Kiev in 2014, we had presented a number of my works, five of which were world premieres.

I would like to emphasize the ability of Serhii Lykhomanenko to cooperate with a composer since the premiere music piece must necessarily be understood not only by a composer, but also by the orchestra led by a conductor.

I am pleased to recommend cooperation with Serhii Lykhomanenko and will be glad to help him in his creative work.

We had long cherished the idea to organize a festive divine service with a symphony orchestra in our church, but we managed to realize it only with Serhiy Lykhomanenko and Kiev Grand Classic Orchestra. The repertoire of our musicians include mostly modern foreign music. The main problem was the orchestration of works and the creation of an ensemble between a symphony orchestra and our in-house rock musicians. Serhiy Lykhomanenko coped with this problem brilliantly.

It is a very important experience for us. We try to make our divine service soulful and aesthetically perfect. Parishioners of more than four thousand people and TV viewers of the "Revival" channel thanked Serhiy Lykhomanenko and me for this initiative. I am sure that in the future, we will develop this direction and our church service to the glory of the Lord will be more vivid. Parishioners and I will pray that the talent of Serhiy grow steadily and bring joy to people in all corners of the Earth.

Young and energetic conductor Serhiy Lykhomanenko started his cooperation with us in 2013 and immediately established himself as an extraordinary musician and leader-innovator.

In the words of our orchestral players, Mr. Lykhomanenko has his own style of conducting. The work with the lead of Lykhomanenko is understandable, convenient and easy, which is essential for a touring conductor. Lykhomanenko quickly and accurately manages to create the necessary atmosphere in the orchestra, to convey the idea and the emotional component of the music piece. Especially it is possible when performing Ukrainian and Russian classical music. It is evident that the conductor has deeply and earnestly mastered this particular formation of the finest music pieces. Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Lysenko, Leontovich, Lyatoshinsky - here is the list of Lykhomanenko`s favorite composers, with whom he has an incredibly strong spiritual bond.

The young conductor`s addiction to music of the Viennese classics gave rise to his desire to perform all the symphonies of Beethoven, Bruckner and Mahler with our group, which causes genuine interest and even challenges our group to some extent.

Whatever the musical tastes of Serhiy Lykhomanenko, we should note the most important fact: Lykhomanenko is a conductor-interpreter, but not a conductor-imitator. I am proud to give good word to Serhiy Lykhomanenko, who can worthily represent our country abroad, and I wish him success on his way.

Over the 13 years of its existence, "Unity" Jazz Festival became one of the most popular international jazz festivals in Ukraine. The festival brought together musicians from more than 25 countries. Cooperation with the young conductor began there in the season of 2014 and was far-reaching and promising.

Serhiy is very proactive, responsible conductor and leader. During the two days, together with the orchestra he created an hour-long program from the ground up. The logical continuation of our cooperation with Serhiy Lykhomanenko will be the performance of "Rhapsody in Blue" by Gershwin at the festival in 2015. We recommend Serhiy Lykhomanenko as a talented, multifaceted conductor, a great musician and a master of his craft.

The friendship of a conductor and a composer is the key to a successful performance.

As a pianist, I often discussed the problems of interpretation of my clavier works for a symphonic orchestra with Serhiy Lykhomanenko. In many ways, I deferred to his opinion.

Serhiy and I share the love for organ music. I would be very happy if he conducts my piano concertos and symphonies. As a token of our friendship, I have dedicated one of my music pieces for string orchestra to Serhiy Lykhomanenko.