A versatile musician and educator, Ekaterina Skliar is renowned for her mastery of the mandolin and domra and her commitment to elevating these instruments on today's classical music landscape. Her vast repertoire includes transcriptions of classical music, original works for domra and mandolin, contemporary, and jazz music. A Winner of the Astral Artists’s 2019 National Auditions, Ms. Skliar also received Silver Medals from the Global Music Awards in 2019 and 2020 for her domra and mandolin recordings. Her other achievements include top prizes at international and national competitions, including 2018 Kaleidoscope Instrumental and Vocal Competition, where she was chosen from more than 2,000 international applicants to perform with the conductorless, collective Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra in Los Angeles.

 

An avid chamber musician and arranger, Ms. Skliar explores new and unusual collaborations. She has performed chamber recitals with flute, cello, and voice, as well as guitar, piano, andharpsichord, bringing works by Russian, Ukrainian, and European composers to American audiences. As a member of her duo with domrist Alexey Alexandrov, she was a nominee for Russia’s “MIRA” World Music Award and winner of the “Best Instrumental Project” in the International Music Festival “Ustuu-Huree”, where they duo performed their arrangements of Siberian folk songs in jazz and fusion styles. In 2022, the Alexandrov-Skliar Duo was invited to perform at the 47th International Festival Plectro de La Rioja in Spain, where their eclectic program gained wide success.

 

Beyond her performances, Ms. Skliar is a passionate educator, sharing her expertise at prestigious educational courses and events and promoting classical performance on plucked instruments. She has served on the faculty of 2020-2021 Classical Mandolin Society of America Conventions and 2022 Balalaika & Domra Association of America Convention among others. In 2023, Ms. Skliar was invited to join the faculty of the innovative Course in Mandolin Excellence in the framework of the University of Rhode Island Guitar Festival led by international mandolin soloist Jacob Reuven.Ms. Skliar began her music education in her home city of Abakan, Republic of Khakassia, Russia, with Vera Lashkina, a Merited Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation and a highly acclaimed domra teacher. At the age of 11, she debuted with the Russian Folk Instrument Orchestra of the Buryatia Republic (Russia). At 15, she moved to study at the Novosibirsk Specialized Music School, one of Russia’s two most prestigious schools for music protégés. She earned a Bachelor’s degree with Honors in Music Performance from the M. Glinka Novosibirsk State Conservatory under the tutelage of Professor Andrey Kugaevsky.