Jakow Pavlenko (*2003 in Berlin) began violin lessons at the age of five with Olga Babenko at the Berlin Music School. From 2013 to 2022, he was trained by Prof. Ina Kertscher at the Institute for the Early Promotion of Musically Gifted Children at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. Since 2022, he has been studying in the violin class of Prof. Antje Weithaas at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin.
Jakow Pavlenko has received numerous awards at the "Jugend musiziert" competition. In 2016, he was old enough to participate in the national round for the first time and was immediately awarded a 1st prize in the category "Violin Solo" with the highest possible score, along with a special prize from the German Foundation for Musical Life (Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben). That same year, he received 3rd prize and the Young Talent Award at the German final of the 22nd Lions Music Prize.
In February 2017, he was honored as the youngest winner of the 25th competition of the German Musical Instrument Fund and was presented as the highest-rated new applicant during the winners' concert broadcast on Deutschlandfunk. Since then, the foundation has provided him with a loan instrument, currently a violin by Giuseppe Ornati, Milan 1924, from the collection of the Federal Republic of Germany. In May 2017, he opened the foundation’s gala concert at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, followed by further performances such as the summer concert on Sylt, the Coronation Banquet in Aachen, the award ceremony of the Charlemagne Prize to Emmanuel Macron, and the anniversary concert at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. In addition, he is supported through the foundation’s sponsorship program with a monthly scholarship from the "Friends of Young Musicians Bremen e.V."
In May 2021, he won 2nd prize as the youngest participant, along with several special prizes, at the second "Odessa International Violin Competition." In October 2021, he also won 2nd prize and two special prizes at the international "Viktor Tretyakov Violin Competition" in Krasnoyarsk.
Starting in October 2022, he received the Germany Scholarship, sponsored by the Rotary Club Kurfürstendamm. In 2023, he founded the "Quartett Mitte." Since 2024, Jakow has been a scholarship holder of the Cusanuswerk. In February of this year, he received the award for the best interpretation of the commissioned piece at the second edition of the "Stuttgart International Violin Competition." In 2025, he won a scholarship from the German Music Council at the German Music Competition.
Jakow has already performed with renowned orchestras such as the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, the Odessa Symphony Orchestra, the Krasnoyarsk Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburger Camerata, among many others, under the baton of distinguished conductors such as Christoph-Mathias Mueller, Hobart Earl, Colin Metters, Pavel Baleff, Vladimir Lande, and Daniel Austrich.
He has taken part in masterclasses with world-renowned professors and soloists, including Viktor Tretyakov, Saschko Gawriloff, Ana Chumachenco, Julia Fischer, Ingolf Turban, and Kirill Troussov.
He has appeared at prestigious festivals such as the Ludwigsburg Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Hitzacker Music Week, Euregio Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, and the "Open Air Festival Idéal at the Potager du Roi" in Paris. In April 2024, he successfully made his solo tour debut in Japan, with concerts in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and other cities.
