Healing Strings is a professional duo from Ukraine. Both artists have our master degrees in music and here in Calgary they happily continue their professional music experience. They met here in Calgary in 2023 and started playing around the city, bringing some fresh ideas and sharing Ukrainian culture!
Alex Karatsyuba started playing the guitar at the age of ten. Fifteen years later, after studying music at the National Music Academy of Ukraine and taking lessons and master classes with international performing and recording artists, he began teaching and performing around the world.
He has been creating music for over 25 years, and the positive feedback and encouragement he has received from artists, audiences, and students around the world continue to inspire and shape his work. The opportunity to make music his career has given him a gratifying and fulfilling life.Alex now teaches and shares his passion with students at Music & Play.
Anastasiia Lykhosherstova was born and raised in the distant and beautiful land of Ukraine, in a family of engineers who deeply loved music and home music-making. Her musical journey began in a church choir, where she first felt the divine power of music, its ability to build invisible bridges between souls, and between people and the Almighty.
She studied violin and piano at the College of Music in Kharkiv and earned her master’s degree from the Conservatory of the Kharkiv University of Arts. Anastasiia has worked extensively with the Kharkiv University of Arts Symphony Orchestra, the Youth Academic Symphony Orchestra “Slobozhansky,” and the chamber orchestra “Nova Sinfonietta.” She has also performed contemporary classical music at the Festival of Modern Art “Two Days and Two Nights of New Music” and at Kharkiv Music Fest.
In 2022, Anastasiia began a new chapter of her life on the other side of the world, settling in beautiful Calgary. She has worked with the Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony of the Kootenays, and other local ensembles, and in 2025 began her role as concertmaster of the Calgary Civic Symphony.
Anastasiia also writes her own songs and has released several albums and singles. Since 2019, she has been working as a composer for a video game company. She is also a loving wife and mother.