Oleg Semenukha

About

Oleg Semenukha was born in Ukraine in 1974. He studied art carving and, from 1995 to 2002, sculpture at the Academy of Arts in Lviv. He learned the foundations of violin making in Ukraine, where he built his first violin.

He first came to the Czech Republic in 1996, and from 2004 spent five years at a firm making string instruments – violins, violas, cellos, double basses and viols. In 2009 he opened his own workshop in Kladno, where he builds new violins, violas and cellos in the tradition of the old Cremonese school, and also carries out repairs and restoration.

He has taken part in many international violin making competitions in Italy, Germany, France, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. His greatest successes include 10th place for a viola in Cremona (2012) and 3rd place for the tone of a violin at the Prague competition (2025). His instruments are played by students and professional musicians, among them Professor Jan Řezníček, FOK concertmaster Tomáš Duda and violist Olena Doubová.