Oleg Ponomarev, renowned Violinist, Composer and dear friend, needs spinal surgery to treat a debilitating injury that threatens his career
Oleg Ponomarev- A Gypsy-Jazz Genius in Need
Oleg is a performing musician and multi-instrumentalist, teacher, lecturer and composer. The term genius is all too often misused, but to call Oleg a musical genius is far from an exaggeration. He co-founded and performed extensively with legendary Russian-Gypsy trio Loyko and world music trio Koshka and has collaborated with numerous international artists, including Ravi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin, Lakshminarayana Sumbramaniam, Ally Bain, Andre Heller and Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones to name but a few. He has also written or arranged several scores for film and video, including Onegin (featuring Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler), and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Tim Burton.
As a frequent performer and collaborator with the Russian Cultural Centre Scotland, Oleg has over the past 2o+ years performed hundreds of shows and helped us deliver numerous charitable arts and musical education projects to thousands of underprivileged children of Scotland.
In recent years Oleg's physical health has deteriorated due to a prolapsed disc in his lower back, a combination of wear and tear and a series of road traffic accidents over the years. The disc has almost completely disintegrated, leaving him debilitated and in near constant, excruciating pain.
This, combined with the lockdowns due to Covid, means that Oleg's prime sources of income (performing, touring, teaching) have all but evaporated.
Help Needed to Fund Career-Saving Treatment
All of us at Russian Cultural Centre Scotland are now reaching out to help Oleg in his hour of need and who needs critical financial support to cover:
1. Diagnostics and a surgical intervention to treat the back injury. Oleg is based in Dublin, and since he does not have insurance, would have to pay the full fees himself (estimated at 9000GBP) because his condition, while debilitating and career-threatening is not considered by the Irish health service to be life-threatening and so the procedure is deemed elective.
2. Funding to pay his rent, utilities going into and post-surgery as he will be unable to work.
Coronavirus: A devastating blow to the Arts
The Coronavirus pandemic has been a nightmare for us all. But those hit particularly hard are people who have dedicated their lives to the arts, like Oleg, who faces an uncertain future as a performer both due to the pandemic and his physical health. Having this surgery would transform his life, and set him up to resume his performing career once the pandemic is over.
Anyone who has heard Oleg play (or any of his compositions) can attest to the brilliance of the man and we hope that you would consider supporting Oleg on his journey to recovery. For those who are unfamiliar with Oleg's musical genius, please check out the Youtube link below. It would be a tragedy if his creativity and artistry were silenced due to a financial barrier to resolve a treatable injury.
This project successfully funded on 20th February 2021