Andrii Sacheva – ukrainian musician, violinist, composer and producer. Born into a musical family. He began learning to play the violin at the age of 4. His first teacher was his grandfather, Ivan Stelmashuk, who despite being self-taught, managed to inspire in his grandson a great appreciation for music. Andrii’s taste in music developed in different way. In his family home there was an abundance of vinyls containing recordings of classical music. Paganini’s Caprices interpreted by Oistrakh, music of Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky were among the family favourites; as well as recordings by Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. All of these artists were a part of Andrii`s childhood and helped form his musical taste. One vinyl though in particular attracted his attention, containing music radically different from that which was to be found in the oeuvre of the earlier mentioned artists – this music was created by The Beatles. From this point on rock music became a fixture in Andrii`s life. After years of attending music school, and studying at the Rivne State Humanistic University and the Katowice Music Academy, it was obvious that classical music would be a part of his repertoire along with jazz and rock music. Thanks to the influence of his younger brother he discovered techno and electronic music.

The breadth of Andrii`s horizons found its way into the path his musical career took in its initial stages and flourished fully when he began composing music with a greater sense of awareness. Many producers and critics speak highly about Andrii`s ability to blend styles and genres to the point where such labels become meaningless and all that remains is the music. This he achieves through combining elements that at first may seem incongruous, but in the end create interesting and surprising contrasts that work extraordinarily well in his compositions and recordings. While playing in the Rivne Philharmonic chamber orchestra Andrii led his own band, called “Chess”. Together they experimented with improvised music and world music. In 2010 the band recorded its debut album entitled “Mini Mini”. About the same time he began to experiment with club music and collaborated with many DJ’s. His project “Violin DJ” was well received by audiences both in Ukraine and Poland and resulted in the release of several pieces with the cooperation of producers such as Cuefx (Poland), Sub Sonic (Bulgaria), Montana (Russia). In 2013 Andrii Sacheva along with the Finnish producer Jelessi recorded the album “Salacious Jelecious” for the label Bear Beat Records (Italy). The single “Street Views” received attention both on the airwaves and in the music press.

The Polish story. In 2011 Andrii Sacheva was the recipient of the “Gaude Polonia” scholarship, offered by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. During the course of the scholarship he was able to study jazz improvisation under the tutelage of professor Henryk Gembalski and managed to continue these studies after the completion of the scholarship after enrolling in the Academy of Music in Katowice. During the course of the scholarship Andrii completed a project for solo violin entitled “Grafika”, inspired by minimalism and the concepts explored by Mark Feldman in his album “Music for Violin Alone”. In Krakow he met composer Anastasia Arkhangorodska. They formed a duet called “Elvio DUO”, dedicated to playing electroacoustic music with electronic sound manipulation conducted in real time. This love for electronic and experimental music resulted also in collaborations with the famous Ukrainian composer Alla Zagaykevych; performing in her projects which graced the stages at GogolFest, EM-Visia, Electroacoustica (Ukraine).

In the years 2011-2014 Andrii co-led the “French Connection Jazz Quartet”  along with his friend Aleksander Korsun, Kiev based drummer. The remaining members of the quartet were the famous Ukrainian double bass player Mark Tokar and piano player Stanislaw Chumakov. The quartet played original compositions penned by Andrii, which were collected into a compositional cycle entitled “Dancing Kids”. The quartet played at various festivals and clubs in Ukraine. Among the more notable performances of the group one can count: Koktebel Jazz Festival, “Gramy Dla Jarka Smietany” (charity concert for Jarek Smietana), “Theme with variations”- Oleksij Kogan’s Masterclass, “44” (legendary, now defunct jazz club in Kyiv), “Gostynnyj Fest”, and numerous shows at the club Jazz’va.