Marko Topchii, born in Kyiv (Ukraine) to a musical family, began his guitar studies with Volodymyr Homenyuk at the age of 4 and graduated the Kharkiv Conservatory with Volodymyr Dotsenko at 21, continuing with an extensive three-year postgraduate programme at the Kyiv Music Academy with Yuri Aleksik.

In 2018 he joined the postgraduate performance program at the San Francisco Conservatory, in 2023 - a master soloist at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Geneve – with Judicaёl Perroy.

Marko had won more than 100 awards worldwide in international classical guitar competitions (no age limit, financial award). Among them - 55 first prizes. He had appeared with solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Yamaha Ginza Hall (Tokyo), Halle Cortot (Paris) and others.

As part of his GFA winner's tour, Marko performed 50 concerts in the US, Canada and Mexico, including his second performance at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. Often performing with orchestras, his repertoire covers most of the known works for guitar and orchestra by Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ponce, Brouwer, Abril, Giuliani, Bacarisse and his own arrangement of Bach BWV 1052 d-moll.

Marko is an Artist of the Augustine strings and plays guitars made by Julian Dammann.

Marko has recorded 5 CD’s:

• Fleur de Son Classics - JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition, (2016, Buffalo, NY)

• Contrastes Records (2016, Seville, Spain) - Gredos San Diego Competition, Madrid

• Naxos - Laureate Series - Michele Pittaluga competition (2018, Alessandria, Italy)

• Contrastes Records - inner of the Francisco Tàrrega competition (2022, Benicàssim, Spain)

• Naxos - Laureate Series - GFA 2023 Winner

  Awards:

  2024:

  1st prize – Tino Andersen Guitar Competition, Bergen (Norway)

  2023:

  1st prize – 50th annual edition of the Guitar Foundation of America ICAC (New York, USA)

  1st prize – Angelo Gilardino Guitar Competition, Lagonegro (Italy)

  1st prize – Oslo Guitar Competition (Oslo, Norway)

  1st prize – Concurso Guitarra Lagoa – Ze Gregorio (Lagoa, Portugal)

  2022:

  1st prize – Luxembourg International Guitar Competition

  2nd prize – Certamen Guitarras Alhambra (Valencia, Spain)

  2nd prize – Guitar Foundation of America (Indianapolis, IN)

  2nd prize – Baltimore International Guitar Competition (Baltimore, MD)

  2021:

  1st prize - LIV International Guitar Competition “Francisco Tarrega” (Benicàssim, Spain)

  1st prize – Altamira International Guitar Competition (Hong Kong)

  1st prize – Iserlohn International Guitar Competition (Iserlohn, Germany)

  2020:

  1st prize – Koblenz International Guitar Competition (Koblenz, Germany)

  1st prize – Dutch Guitar Foundation International Guitar Concerto Competition (Groningen, Netherlands)

  1st prize – International Classical Guitar Competition Andrés Segovia (La Herradura, Spain)

  2nd prize – Florida Guitar Foundation's International Classical Guitar Competition (Miami, USA)
  

  2019:
  1st prize –International Guitar Competition "Paris Guitar Foundation" (Paris, France)

  1st prize – Qingdao International Guitar Art Festival and Competition (Quingdao, China)

  2nd prize International Guitar Competition "Francisco Tarrega" (Benicàssim, Spain)

  2nd prize International Guitar Festival and Competition in Bearn (Bearn, France)

  2nd prize International Classical Guitar Competition Andrés Segovia (La Herradura, Spain)

  2018:
  1st prize – Miami International Festival (MIGF) and Competition (Miami, USA)
  1st prize - 3rd Viseu International Guitar Competition (Viseu, Portugal)
  1st prize - 1st International Guitar Competition "Alberto Ponce" (Paris, France)

  2017:
  1st prize – 50th International Guitar Competition “Michele Pittaluga” (Alessandria, Italy)

  1st prize – 2nd Budapest International Guitar Competition ( Budapest, Hungary) 1st prize – 1st Valle dei Laghi International Guitar Competition (Valle, Italy)

  1st prize – 2nd International Guitar Competition “Alvaro Mantovani” (Follonica, Italy) 1st prize – 3rd International Zagreb Guitar Competition (Zagreb, Croatia)

  2016:
  1st prize – 7th Singapore International Guitar Competition (Singapore)
  1st prize – 23rd International Guitar Competition "Andrés Segovia" (Linares, Spain)
  1st prize, Special prize – 16th Jan Edmund Jurkowski Memorial Guitar Competition (Tychy, Poland)
  1st prize – 41st Incontri Chitarristici di Gargnano International Guitar Competition (Gargnano, Italy)
  1st prize – 4th Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition (Adelaide, Australia)
  1st prize – 3rd International Guitar Competition Maurizio Biasini (San Francisco, CA, USA)
  1st prize – 12th International Competition “Young Virtuosos” (Sofia, Bulgaria)
  1st prize – 10th Anniversary Montenegro International Guitar Competition (Podgorica, Montenegro)

  
  2015:
  1st prize, audience prize - 4th Concours de Guitare en Pays Tarnais (Albi, France)
  1st prize - 5th Concurso Internacional de Guitarra Clasica Gredos San Diego (Madrid, Spain)
  1st prize - Daejeon International Guitar Festival Competition (Daejeon, South Korea)

  
  2014:
  1st prize, audience prize, musicians prize - VI JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition (Buffalo, NY, USA)
  1st prize, audience prize - Taiwan International Guitar Festival & Competition 2014 (Taipei, Taiwan)
  1st prize - III Changsha International Guitar Competition (Changsha, China)
  1st prize - VII International Guitar Competition “Ruggero Chiesa - Città di Camogli” (Camogli, Italy)
  1st prize - I Jakarta International Guitar Competition (Jakarta, Indonesia)

  
  2013:
  1st prize - XII Annual Texas Guitar Competition and Festival (Dallas, TX, USA)
  1st prize - VI International Guitar Competition “Culiacán 2013” (Culiacán, Mexico)
  1st prize - I International Guitar Competition Victor Pellegrini (Lausanne, Switzerland)
  1st prize, Karla Minen prize - XLII International Guitar Competition “Fernando Sor” (Rome, Italy)
  1st prize - V International Guitar Competition Claxica 2013 (Castel D’Aiano e Montese, Italy)
  1st prize - LVI Tokyo International Guitar Competition (Tokyo, Japan)

  
  2012:
  1st prize - IV International Guitar Competition “Ferdinando Carulli” (Rome, Italy)
  2011:

  1st prize - XII Guitar Art Competition (Belgrade, Serbia)
  1st prize - XII Le Concours International de Guitare “Ville d’Antony” (Antony, France)
  1st prize - VI International Ligita Guitar Competition (Eschen, Liechtenstein)
  1st prize - XIII International Guitar Competition of Sernancelhe (Sernancelhe, Portugal)
  1st prize - III International Robert J. Vidal Guitar Competition (Barbezieux, France)

  2010:

  1st prize - XVIII Mottola Guitar Competition (Mottola, Italy)

  2009:

  1st prize, audience prize, Enrico Mercatali prize - VI European Classical Guitar Competition “Città di Gorizia” (Gorizia, Italy)
  1st prize, audience prize, junior jury prize - III International Guitar Competition Heinsberg (Heinsberg, Germany) 1st prize - II International Guitar Competition “GuitAs” (Kiev, Ukraine)

  2008:
  1st prize - III International Guitar Competition “Dniprovski suzir’ya” (Ukrainka, Ukraine)

  2007:
  1st prize, the youngest performer prize - I International Competition "National Philharmonic of Ukraine" (Kiev, Ukraine)