Galina Vale

Galina Vale (Vernigora) is a Ukrainian born British guitarist coming from a family of musicians. A child prodigy, she began studying the guitar and made her first public appearance on Ukrainian state television at the age of eight.

At twelve years old she was performing major guitar concertos with the Kharkov Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and frequently appearing in radio and television music programmes.

From the age of 15 she was employed as a principal guitarist with the Kharkov State Philharmonia beginning a busy performing schedule, touring and frequently performing up to 20 concerts a month.

During this period she became influenced by Japanese virtuoso guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita, Spanish flamenco guitarist Sabicas and Russian artist Sergei Orekhov. She developed a dramatic guitar technique owing more to contemporary flamenco and earlier styles rather than current fashions of classical guitar playing.

Her individualistic solo performances combine a charismatic stage presence and dynamic powerful playing style with an unusually wide ranging and technically demanding repertoire; including classical music, flamenco, arrangements of Latin American and East European folk music. 

Her recitals include very technically demanding works, such as the arrangement by Kazuhito Yamashita of  "The Bogatyr Gate of Kiev" (from "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky), considered "impossible

for guitar" (Goniezc Pomorsky) and Liszt's "HungarianRhapsody no.2" alongside her own arrangements of works like Rachmaninov's "Prelude no.5 in G-minor" and "Hungarian Dance no.5" by Brahms.

Galina graduated from  Moscow State Gnesins Music College and later undertook a professional performance course at Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, UK) as a Rotary International Scholar.

Gendai Guitar Foundation of Japan under Masaru Kohno sponsored her first CD "The Legend". This recording was heard on US FM radio for the first time in the network program edition of "Great Women Guitarists" produced by "Classical Guitar Alive" and later on Maltese National Radio with the programme Cantabile.

Galina has won prizes at international guitar and music  competitions in  Poland, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom, and  has performed over  2000  concerts  across west and eastern Europe, USA, central America, Africa and Asia .

Since moving to the U.K. she has performed at major festivals incl. Eurowirral International Guitar Festivals, Ripon Music Festival, "Hola Mundo" (Bridgewater Hall) and  other major venues incl. Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room, Kensington Roof Gardens, Cambridge University and Leighton House . Galina also worked with the Instituto Cervantes in Manchester and London under Director Salvador Estebanez Eraso performing  Spanish guitar music as part of the promotion of Spanish language and culture at the Open University, British Council and other venues. 

Her recordings have featured on the BBC World Service and Ana Livia Radio  (Rep. of Ireland). She has also appeared on TV in Ukraine, Russia, Spain, Kenya, Turkey and Republic of Kosovo.

During 2011-2016 , Galina performed concerts in Belgium, France, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Thailand, South Korea, Albania, Kosovo, Ukraine, Mexico and the USA. 

Galina has starred in 3 music films produced by Ukrainian State Television:

"Portrait with guitar"

"Strings and Sails"   

"Spirit of Spain"

and produced 5 CD albums:

"The Legend"

"Hungarian Rhapsody"

"The Great Gates of Kiev"

"Guitar Magic"

"Cruzando la Frontera"

Galina lives in England and continues her career as concert musician. Never afraid of controversy she has become a unique personality of the international guitar world: very few female guitarists have even attempted both classical and flamenco genres, while her most recent recordings also include electric guitar and exploring the crossing of musical boundaries and genres.