Polina Tarasenko was born in 2001 in Kherson, Ukraine.

Between 2018–2022 she studied at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with  Jonas Bylund, after her bachelor she continued her studies at the Hochschule Bern with Ian Bousfield where she graduated with a Master Degree in July 2024. Since August 2025, she is Principal Trombone of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig.

Polina holds scholarships from various foundations; since the beginning of her studies in Germany she has won several prizes at many international trombone competitions in Italy, France, Germany and the USA. She is a prize winner of the International Aeolus Wind Competition 2023 and has received three special prizes at the International ARD Competition in 2022.

While still a student, she played as a soloist with the NDR Radio Philharmonie Hannover, the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, the Baden-Badener Philharmonie, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and was “debut artist in residence” at the Nikolaisaal Potsdam. She performed at concert halls like the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and the Elbphilharmonie. Since the season 2022/2023, invitations have led her to the Symphony Orchestra Münster, the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Sinfonieorchester, the Erfurt Philharmonic Orchestra and several times to the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie.  In 2025, she went on an extensive tour in Germany with the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra and returned to the Philharmonie Luxemburg for a music theatre project for children, as a trombone player as well as an actress. She is also more and more in demand abroad, performing in Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and Great Britain. In July 2025, she was invited to the International Trombone Festival in Canada.

Recently, she started to pass on her manyfold experiences to young students, for example during a  masterclass at the Numskill Brass Festival in Caudete, Spain; in Trossingen, she was a jury member at the Positively Brass Festival.

Polina began to play music at the age of five, first on a drum kit, then on the saxophone, trumpet and trombone in the children’s jazz group “Dixieland” in the Kherson Palace of Children’s and Youth Creativity. As part of “Dixieland”, she regularly performed at concerts and festivals, not only in Ukraine but also abroad.

In 2011, Polina started to be taught via Skype by the trombonist Alexandr Nyankin who at that time lived in Taiwan. At the Moscow Rotary Competition in 2013, she received two prizes and was invited to study at the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music in the main specialty trombone and electives saxophone, trumpet, composition, piano and organ. She was honored as the best student of the school in 2015 and graduated there in 2018 with highest honors.

Not to be altered without permission.