Filip Yushchenko

It started at a wedding in Kyiv. Filip was seven when he heard saxophonist Andrey Chmut play Eric Darius’s “Can’t Let Go” with a live band — and that same year he asked his parents to enroll him in music school.

What followed was more than a decade of serious training: music school in Zhytomyr, private study with Serge Makarchev (Netherlands), a jazz saxophone degree with honors from the R. Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music (2018–2022), and a year at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. Along the way came first prizes at dozens of national and international competitions, including New Names of Ukraine, and session work with Ukrainian artists such as TAYANNA and Nino Basilaia.

In 2022, the war in Ukraine brought Filip to Munich; in 2023 he moved to the United States. Since then he has performed in more than 20 states — from the Carolinas to Alaska — including Charlotte International Arts Festival at Bank of America, Ukrainian Week in Washington, DC, and corporate events for Tru Homes and Glow Mission. He has shared the stage with Trap Jazz’s Chris Moten and Devon “Stixx” Taylor, works as a session saxophonist with worship bands across the Charlotte area, and is a Beyond Music grant recipient.

Filip has played 100+ weddings and over 600 live performances. He also writes and releases original music, and teaches students in several states — including competition winners who started from scratch.

Jazz, soul, pop, gospel and originals — performed solo with backing tracks or guitar, as a trio, or with a full band.