Michael Kovalchuk was born in Ukraine into a family of musicians. He studied viola at the Haute École de Musique in Lausanne in the class of Alexander Gordon and participated in numerous masterclasses given by Michael Kugel, Garth Knox and Julia Dinnerstein. Michael performs regularly on the French speaking part of Switzerland as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra player. He won the 1st Prize with distinction at the Swiss Youth Competition in 2015, and was awarded a scholarship from the Vontobel Foundation from 2014 to 2016. In 2017, he was principal viola of the Miami Music Festival Orchestra. Currently, he plays with the Sinfonietta de Lausanne. Passionate about pedagogy, he is a teacher at the Epalinges Music School.
