A Musician’s Journey with Soundvest

Here at Soundvest, our mission is to pair young classical musicians with high quality instruments that are otherwise inaccessible. We aim to help them thrive early in their careers and provide them with the flexibility they otherwise would not have at this stage in their musical journeys. When partnering with a musician, we work with them to find the instrument and luthier most suited to them. Through this process, we get to observe the amazing journey of these instruments from the luthier to the artist while also learning their personal stories.

One of the most exciting musicians to partner with Soundvest is Ukrainian classical guitarist Yaroslav Kravchuck. Yaroslav grew up in Zhytomyr and started playing guitar at the age of 6. He participated in his first competition at the age of 8 and has earned many awards and accomplishments, including first prize at multiple all-Ukrainian music festivals and competitions.

After completing his bachelor's degree at Lviv Mykola Lysenko Music Academy, Yaroslav moved to Germany to be a Master's student under renowned classical guitarist and professor Frank Bungarten at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.

Yaroslav required an instrument that matches his musical skill, and his current guitar was far from ideal. Through Professor Bungarten, he was referred to Italian luthier Luciano Lovadina. Luciano has been making classical concert guitars for over 40 years at his workshop in Treviso, Italy, and is truly a master of his craft.

While this was a great partnership for Yaroslav and Luciano, there was still the problem of financing. Luciano’s guitars are quite expensive, and Yaroslav is still a student. Through people in our network, Yaroslav was put into contact with Soundvest, and we were able to work quickly with investors to make this partnership a reality. Over the last couple of months, Luciano has been hand-making Yaroslav's guitar in his workshop. Luciano is a master artisan, and watching the process from conception to reality has been a true pleasure.

We were excited to be able to host both Yaroslav and Luciano at our first official event on March 21st in Hamburg. We witnessed the official handoff of the guitar from Luciano to Yaroslav, followed by a Q&A with Luciano and a performance by Yaroslav with his new guitar.