It's the University's multidisciplinary nature that Ivakhiv says sets it apart in the competitive world of music and helps her send not just accomplished but also well-rounded musicians out into the world after graduation
Professor of violin and viola Solomiya Ivakhiv, graduate student Yi Charice Tang, undergraduate violin student Antonio Avilés Figueroa '27 (SFA), and Interim Provost Pamir Alpay at the von der Mehden Recital Hall on May 13, 2026. (Photo by Garrett Udhe/Defining Studios)
If you ask the accomplished Ukrainian-born concert violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv if she's worried about the impact of artificial intelligence on her work as an artist and performer, she'll answer frankly.
"You can't replace humans," she says.
For Ivakhiv - who has performed solo and chamber music in venues around the globe and who says that, for her, music is as essential as breathing - there's no string of code that can replicate the interaction between an artist and their audience.
"When you ask me why I am a musician, it's because it's a way for me to express my emotions," Ivakhiv explains, "and I feed off the emotion that I feel from a person who is listening to me play. When the audience responds to my feelings, to my interpretation of the masterworks or of new pieces, I feed off that energy.
"You can't substitute that. You can't replace that experience."
That experience is just a part of what Ivakhiv exposes her students to as a professor of violin and viola with the Department of Music at the UConn School of Fine Arts.
Her students, she explains, are performers, but also academics and scholars, composers and creatives, communicators and entrepreneurs. And they're citizens of the world and members of communities as well - roles she tries to remind them of while they're engaged in the demands of their studies.
While UConn might be better known for research and athletics than the arts, it's the University's multidisciplinary nature that Ivakhiv says sets it apart in the competitive world of music and helps her send not just accomplished but also well-rounded musicians out into the world after graduation.
"There is more to life than music, and this is what I encourage my students to experience: to take classes outside of their discipline and to engage with other fields," Ivakhiv says. "It is neither necessary nor desirable to be only a violinist, only a performer, or only a teacher. A meaningful artistic life requires many dimensions and layers.
"This is one of the strengths of the University of Connecticut. Students have the opportunity to explore different departments and be exposed to a wide range of disciplines beyond music, which enriches both their personal growth and their artistic development."
Ivakhiv and two of her current students - graduate teaching assistant and doctor of musical arts student Yi Charice Tang and undergraduate violin student Antonio Avilés Figueroa '27 (SFA) - recently joined Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Pamir Alpay at the von der Mehden Recital Hall at UConn Storrs for a conversation about music, education, and their own successes as performers, entrepreneurs, and educators.
