Karolina Protsenko is a 15 year old performing violinist, who was born in October 2008 in Ukraine to a musical family. Her parents play guitar and piano. The Family moved to the United States in 2015 when Karolina was 6. She started violin lessons the same year and is classically trained.
Karolina began busking in Summer 2017 in Santa Monica, California. She created her first YouTube channel in December 2016 and now has three YouTube channels and is on Facebook and Instagram. In less than 4 years her fan base has grown into more than 10 million followers, in over 50 countries. Her videos on YouTube and other media sites have been viewed well over 1 billion times and she has been featured on the Ellen show. Violinist and dancer Lindsey Stirling acknowledged her talent and encouraged her to continue her work, and then both made a television presentation together.
She had her debut album of violin covers My Dream released in July 2018. This would be followed by four more CDs, the most recent recorded in collaboration with Italian saxophonist Daniele Vitale. Her parents manage her social media accounts. She has two amazing younger brothers named Leo and Nicholas. Her parent’s names are Nikolay and Ella Protsenko. One of her YouTube channel’s most popular violin covers is of the single “Despacito,” originally by Luis Fonsi.
She has also created YouTube content with fellow Ukrainian Barvina who provides some excellent vocal accompaniment. More recently she has played alongside fellow violinist Ray Chen. She has even duetted with her mother and often finds herself playing in the street with her fans. In November 2023, she performed as soloist the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Opus.64, accompanied by the Orchestra Nova of Los Angeles. In March 2024 she was invited to participate in the promotion of the season of the musical Footloose in Burbank, including a presentation at the opening night gala accompanied by a group of teenage dancers.
Protsenko and her family frequently publish interpretations of Christian music, played in churches. Likewise, the Protsenko family has been in favour of the Ukrainian cause in the Russian-Ukraine War, and has organized, supported and acted in peace events and interpreted the Ukrainian National Anthem for violin, piano, guitar and percussion.
