Polina Sasko was born into a renowned musical family in Ukraine. She studied piano at the State Lysenko Lyceum for Gifted Children in Kyiv and at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv. In 2015, she moved to the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz to study under Prof. Dr. Milana Chernyavska, where she completed both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees with honors. Since 2022, Polina has been working as a piano lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and regularly gives masterclasses at the Vere Music Academy in Kyiv. She is currently based in Vienna.
Polina Sasko is an internationally sought-after soloist. She has performed at prestigious events such as the VP Bank Classic Festival in Switzerland, the Arsonore Festival in Austria, the Donaufest in Germany, the Olive Classic Festival in Croatia, the Seefeld Music Days in Austria, the Bouquet Kyiv Stage in Ukraine, and the Note d’arte Festival in Italy. In March 2017, she performed Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major KV 414 with the KUG Orchestra and Maestro Patrick Lange at the Musikverein Graz.
Her concert repertoire, which spans works from the Baroque to the Modern era, is characterized by an immense range. She recorded solo works by Haydn, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff for the National Ukrainian Radio. In addition to classical piano literature, she has a particular interest in contemporary music by composers such as Tomoko Sasaki, Gennady Sasko, Oleg Bezborodko, Jean-Frederic Neuburger, Hao-Fu Zhang, and Mykhaylo Stepanenko. In 2013, she participated in the world premiere of the piano cycle "Retroludies" by Svyatoslav Lunyov, which was also dedicated to her artistic Master's thesis at the University of the Music and performing Arts in Graz.
The music of the 20th century holds a special place in her concert repertoire. Works by Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, Prokofiev, Ligeti, Hindemith, Gershwin, Clarke, and L. Boulanger are regularly featured in her programs. A particular highlight of her career was the performance of
Debussy’s 24 Preludes, which is one of the defining moments of her concert life.
Polina is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including 1st prize at the “Premio Mauro Paolo Monopoli” International Piano Competition 2019 (Barletta, Italy), 1st prize at the Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial International Piano Competition 2018 (Novi Sad, Serbia), 3rd prize at the Shigeru Kawai International Piano Competition 2019 (Tokyo, Japan), 1st prize at the International Danube Music Competition 2014 (Ulm, Germany), 2nd prize at the Windsor International Piano Competition 2020 (Windsor, UK), and 2nd prize at the International Piano Competition “ClaMo” 2019 (Murcia, Spain).
In addition to her solo career, Polina is deeply committed to chamber music. She has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Diana Adamyan (Violin), Clara Shen (Violin), Philipp Schupelius (Cello), Anna-Maria Palii (Soprano), and Dmytro Choni (Piano). In recent years, she has formed a duo with double bassist Dominik Wagner, for whom she regularly arranges pieces, including Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”.
During her studies, she attended masterclasses with Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Klaus Hellwig, Arie Vardi, Sofya Gulyak, Grigory Gruzman, and Yuri Kot.